Dividend withholding tax for non-residents
Korea withholds tax on dividends paid to non-resident investors. Without a tax treaty the rate is 20% national tax plus a local income tax of one tenth of that, 22% in total. Where a tax treaty applies and the paperwork has been filed through your custodian, a lower treaty rate is used for the national tax, and the 10% local surtax is generally added on top — so a 15% treaty rate typically becomes 16.5%. The country presets in the calculator use these common portfolio rates as a starting point, but treaties differ in detail and your broker's statement is the final word. You can overwrite the rate with any number.
T+2 settlement and the last day to buy
Trades on the Korea Exchange settle two business days after execution. To be on the shareholder register on a record date you must therefore buy at least two business days before it. The calculator counts business days using the Korea Exchange holiday calendar, so weekends and Korean public holidays are skipped. The day after the last buy day is the ex-dividend (or ex-rights) date, when the price is adjusted. Many Korean companies now announce the dividend amount before the record date, so you can check the expected payment first.
The ±30% price limit and tick sizes
A KOSPI or KOSDAQ stock may not trade more than 30% above or below the previous day's closing price in a single regular session. The exact limit price is rounded to a valid tick: the minimum price step depends on the price level, from 1 won for stocks under 2,000 won up to 1,000 won for stocks at 500,000 won or more. The calculator applies the current tick table so you can see the highest and lowest price an order can be placed at today. Newly listed stocks on their first day follow a different range (60% to 400% of the offer price), which this calculator does not cover.
Why this matters for international investors
Dividend income, entitlement dates and price limits are the three areas where Korean rules most often differ from what investors abroad are used to. Getting them wrong can mean buying a day too late for a dividend, expecting a gross dividend that arrives net of tax, or placing an order at a price the exchange rejects. The figures here are estimates for planning; confirm them with your broker.
Information only — not investment advice. Headlines and filing titles are machine-translated from Korean; each links to the original Korean source. Updated: