Foreign companies often approach Korea as a market that can be tested with minimal presence through short‑term business visitors, technical specialists, or regional managers rotating in and out. From a Korean tax perspective, however, employee mobility can quietly transform a “no‑presence” strategy into a taxable permanent establishment (PE).
Under Korean domestic tax law, the concept comparable to a PE is referred to as a “domestic place of business”. Article 94 of the Korean Corporate Income Tax Law provides that a foreign corporation is deemed to have a domestic place of business when it conducts all or part of its business through a fixed place in the Republic of Korea. The scope of such presence is further elaborated in Article 132 of the Enforcement Decree of the Corporate Income Tax Law.
