Korea's year-end tax settlement portal gathers your receipts, but it does not gather all of them. Glasses are not there. Nor are hearing aids, nor school uniforms. And the reason is written into the statute.
1. The Decree says "excluded". The proviso to art. 216-3(1)3 removes items 4 and 5 of art. 118-5(1) from the data feed.
2. Item 4 is glasses, item 5 hearing aids. Neighbouring items, yet only one carries a cap of 500,000 won per person.
3. For education the list of reporting bodies is short — kindergartens, schools, daycare centres, vocational training. No uniform shops, no cram schools.
4. Only medical expenses have a floor. 3 percent of gross pay — below it, the receipts are worth 0 won.
Enter your gross pay and what the feed already shows, and it says what those receipts are actually worth.
It counts only what the statute itself says is excluded. Article 216-3(1)3 of the Enforcement Decree of the Income Tax Act removes from the data feed "medical expenses under items 4 and 5 of article 118-5(1)" — item 4 is corrective glasses and lenses, item 5 hearing aids. The same paragraph's item 4 lists the bodies that report education spending as kindergartens, schools, daycare centres and vocational training facilities, so uniform shops, cram schools and sports facilities are not on the list. The amounts are 500,000 won per person a year for glasses (art. 118-5(1)4, and that person is free of the age and income tests), no cap for hearing aids (item 5 of the same paragraph), and 500,000 won per secondary student for a uniform (art. 118-6(1)4); both credits run at 15 percent (Act art. 59-4(2) and (3)). Only medical expenses carry the 3 percent floor; education does not. Medical bills are treated here as a single bucket (15 percent, 7m won cap) — the four-way split for yourself, those over 65, people with disabilities and the seriously ill sits in the medical expense calculator. Postpartum care (2m won per birth), school field trips (300,000 per student), pre-school cram schools, donations and rent are not included. An estimate.
The reason is in the statute
Article 216-3(1) of the Enforcement Decree lists what the feed collects. Its third subparagraph ends like this.
Art. 216-3(1)3 medical expenses under art. 59-4(2) of the Act and art. 122-3 of the Restriction of Special Taxation Act; provided that medical expenses under items 4 and 5 of art. 118-5(1) shall be excluded.
Article 118-5(1) has seven items, and item 4 is corrective glasses and contact lenses, item 5 hearing aids. The other five arrive. It is not an oversight by the tax office; the Decree took them out.
| No. | Decree art. 118-5(1) | Cap | Feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hospital and clinic bills | — | arrives |
| 2 | medicines, herbal medicine included | — | arrives |
| 3 | assistive devices and prescribed medical equipment | — | arrives |
| 4 | corrective glasses and contact lenses | 500,000 won | excluded |
| 5 | hearing aids | — | excluded |
| 6 | long-term care co-payment | — | arrives |
| 7 | postpartum care centre | 2m won | arrives |
| A dash means the statute writes no cap. Only item 4 says "up to 500,000 won per person a year", and the very next item says nothing of the sort. Item 7, postpartum care, reads "per birth" rather than per year: 2m won. | |||
For education, the list of bodies is short
Item 4 of the same paragraph names the bodies that report education spending: kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, daycare centres, and vocational training facilities. Four. Uniform shops, cram schools and sports facilities are not on it. So uniforms and pre-school cram school fees need a receipt you collect yourself.
The same 500,000 won can be worth 0 won
The medical credit counts only what exceeds 3 percent of gross pay. On 50m won that floor is 1.5m won. Someone with no other medical bills who collects 500,000 won of glasses receipts is still under the floor, so they get 0 won. The same person with 2m won of bills already gets 75,000 won from the identical receipt.
Education has no such floor. So 500,000 won of uniform is always 75,000 won, whatever else you spent.
Whether to chase the glasses receipt depends first on whether your medical bills clear the floor. The uniform receipt is worth collecting either way.
Which of them carry a cap
Glasses read "up to 500,000 won a year per basic deduction dependant (free of the age and income restrictions)". Those bracketed words matter — the glasses of a family member who earns count too.
Hearing aids carry no cap. Neither do assistive devices for people with disabilities or prescribed medical equipment (item 3). Item 5 sits right after item 4, and its sentence is different.
Uniforms are for middle and high school students only, at 500,000 won per student a year (art. 118-6(1)4). Field trips run to 300,000 won per student (item 6). Together that is 800,000 won, comfortably inside the 3m won per-student education cap.
Questions that remain
What about cram school for a primary pupil?
It does not count. Several items of art. 118-6(1) qualify cram schools and sports facilities with "only in the case of a child before entering primary school". Once they start school, those fees drop out.
And graduate school?
For yourself yes, for a dependant no. The proviso to art. 59-4(3)1 excludes education expenses paid to a graduate school, or paid by a descendant using a student loan. Your own education expenses (item 2) carry no cap at all.
Is the cap different for university?
Yes. The same subparagraph splits it: 9m won per university student a year, and 3m won per pre-school child or primary, middle or high school student.
What about cosmetic surgery?
Article 118-5(2) states that costs for cosmetic or plastic surgery, and medicines bought for general health improvement, are not included. Even if an amount appears in the feed, that part has to come out.
What does this calculator leave out?
It treats medical bills as a single bucket — the four-way split for yourself, those over 65, people with disabilities and the seriously ill, which consumes the floor in order, sits in the medical expense calculator. Postpartum care, field trips, pre-school cram schools, donations and rent are also left out.
Sources
Income Tax Act [in force 1 January 2026] [Act 21221] — art. 59-4(2) (medical expense credit) and (3) (education credit, 15 percent, 9m won per university student, 3m won per school-age child).
Enforcement Decree of the Income Tax Act [in force 1 July 2026] [Decree 36343] — art. 118-5 (the seven medical items, 500,000 won for glasses, 2m won for postpartum care, cosmetic surgery excluded), art. 118-6 (500,000 won for uniforms, 300,000 won for field trips, cram schools only before primary school), art. 216-3(1) (what the feed collects, and its proviso).
The heart of this piece is one proviso — "provided that medical expenses under items 4 and 5 of art. 118-5(1) shall be excluded". That is why glasses and hearing aids are missing from the feed.
The script was checked against the model across 3,888 combinations, in Korean and in English — 3 gross pay values x 4 existing medical totals x 3 glasses values x 3 headcounts x 2 hearing aid values x 3 uniform values x 3 student counts x 2 existing education totals, with no mismatch. Rates and the floor are computed as integer percentages.
Where to check
Add the figure here into the medical and education fields of the year-end settlement calculator to see how far the final tax moves. For the four-way medical split there is the medical expense calculator, and for who counts as a dependant, the dependant deduction guide.
