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"foreign" food

HighTreason
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Joined: January 12th, 2008 5:41 pm

"foreign" food

Postby HighTreason » June 30th, 2008 6:13 am

I have had this question for some time, so I thought I'd see if anyone here has some insight.

So, Korea has this extra tax on "foreign" food, right? However, I can't figure out how they tell foreign food from non-foreign food. How do they know what to tax and what not to tax? For instance, Curry is clearly not Korean, yet 가래덮밥 is immune to the foreign food tax. As far as I can tell, 돈까스 is not only from Japan, but is a Japanese interpretation of a German dish, which in a way kind of makes it doubly foreign, yet still immune to the foreign food tax.

Beyond that, how much would one have to change a dish to make it into a foreign dish? What if you made some 김치찌개 but put in some unusual ingredients like crocodile meat or something... then would it be Korean or foreign? How does one tell? Are there Korean food inspectors that go in and taste all the food to make sure it tastes Korean enough or what? I'm very confused by this law. :-)

manyakumi
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Postby manyakumi » June 30th, 2008 8:10 am

As you mentioned, how can we distinguish 'foreign food' from 'korean food'?
I've never heard about the extra tax on foreign food.
It sounds so weird to me.

but some luxury restaurants charge the extra money for their services.

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austinfd
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Postby austinfd » June 30th, 2008 9:32 am

Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about....

Of course there is an import tax on foreign-made goods. But something tells me you mean something different. Can you give us some examples?
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HighTreason
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Joined: January 12th, 2008 5:41 pm

Postby HighTreason » June 30th, 2008 10:48 am

Ok, I'm having trouble finding any sources at the moment. I have been told about this tax from many numerous Korean friends and have just believed them that this was the case. The expensive cost of "non-korean" food seems to reinforce this, but I have not looked into it much beyond it having been repeated to me by various different people. Some people have pointed to a line on the bill as being this extra tax, but I don't remember in what restaurants this took place. I'm not sure, but I believe the line was labeled "VAT" or something like that.

Maybe I am mistaken, but they must have been talking about something that actually exists... unless this is just some sort of crazy urban legend that is floating around Korea.

manyakumi
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Postby manyakumi » June 30th, 2008 8:48 pm

VAT is a tax that is added to the price of goods or services.

Value Added Tax

This tax is not only for foreign foods but also for every products.
and as much as i know, every country has this tax rule.

In korea,
All consumers must pay 10% of the products for VAT.

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