Check Whether Delivery and Lecture Side-Job Income Must Be Reported for Tax Without a Business Registration

How is side-job income classified?

Applying the National Tax Service's income categories to side jobs gives the following.

Income from work done without fixed facilities or employees, like delivery drivers and academy instructors, is often classified as business income. Depending on the contract form, though, it can be wage income or other income. First check the income category written on the payment statement you received.

When does the income type differ for the same work?

The contract method and recurrence are the fork in the road. If you work under an employment relationship with a company, it is treated as wages, and if you take on work independently, it is often treated as personal-service business income. Money from giving a talk once is other income, but if you are regularly assigned the same lecture, it can come closer to business income. If you cannot tell, first look at the income category on the payment statement from whoever paid you.

What are the filing deadline and the penalties?

The comprehensive income tax filing deadline for income attributed to 2025 was June 1, 2026. If you do not file and pay within the deadline, penalties for failure to file and for late payment can be added. For income earned in 2026, check next year's National Tax Service notice for the filing period.

If 3.3% has already been withheld from the income, a refund may come out depending on the filing result. Whether you get a refund and how much depends on other income and how expenses apply, so you cannot say before you file.

What if you have several kinds of income subject to filing?

If you have business income, wage income, pension income, and other income, you combine them and file. For private pensions, if the annual total exceeds 15 million won, you can choose to combine it in your filing or take the 15% separate taxation. Which is better depends on your own situation, so check with the National Tax Service filing assistance service.

What should you prepare when you start a side job?

As soon as income comes in, collect your deposit records and payment statements by income type. Whether the platform or company paid you after withholding 3.3%, whether the work was one-time or repeated, and whether the contract describes an employment relationship all serve as clues to the income category. For income that is hard to classify, such as rewards from an app or platform or sales income from eBooks and images, do not decide on your own, and it is safer to check first with Hometax guidance or the National Tax Service call center at 126.

Even after the filing period has passed, keeping your income records by year makes it easier to match them against Hometax's filing assistance service at your next filing.

Where can you ask questions?

You can check your own income type and how to file through the National Tax Service call center at 126 and Hometax. Tax law can be revised, so after the check date of 2026-10-08, look again at the National Tax Service's latest guidance.