# Bluestones BPO

> Accounting, payroll and operations outsourcing for foreign companies in South Korea.

Bluestones BPO is an accounting, payroll and business-process outsourcing firm based in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It serves foreign-invested companies operating in South Korea — subsidiaries, branches and liaison offices of overseas parents — handling statutory bookkeeping, monthly payroll and the four major insurances, VAT and corporate income tax filing, company registration, bank signatory and cash controls, and head-office reporting.

Contact: info@bluestonesbpo.co.kr · +82-2-515-4534
Address: Construction Building #711, Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06050, South Korea
Languages: English, Korean
Site languages: English (/) and Korean (/ko/).

## Services

- [Accounting & Bookkeeping Outsourcing in Korea](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/services/accounting-bookkeeping/): Statutory books kept in Korean for the tax office, and a management pack in your group's format and language for the people who make decisions. One team does both, so the two never disagree.
- [Payroll Outsourcing & HR Support in Korea](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/services/payroll-outsourcing/): Monthly payroll, the four major insurances, withholding and year-end settlement — calculated in Korea, reported in English, and reconciled into your accounts rather than sitting in a separate system.
- [Korean Tax & VAT Compliance for Foreign Companies](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/services/tax-vat-compliance/): The Korean filing calendar, handled end to end: VAT returns, the corporate income tax return, withholding on payments to your parent, and the transfer pricing file that supports them.
- [Company Registration & Market Entry in Korea](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/services/company-registration/): Subsidiary, branch or liaison office — the choice determines your tax position, your ability to hire, and how hard it is to send money home. We help you choose deliberately, then build it.
- [Operation Support & Financial Controls in Korea](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/services/operation-support/): Bank signatory, cash administration, reconciliation and vendor control — the segregation of duties a three-person Korean office cannot build on its own, provided from outside it.

## Accounting & Reporting
Bookkeeping, K-IFRS conversion, month-end close and the reports your head office actually needs.

- [Does Your Korean Subsidiary Need an External Audit? It Is a Two-of-Four Test](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/accounting/korea-external-audit-threshold/): Most foreign parents discover their Korean subsidiary crossed the external audit threshold in the year after it happened, when the auditor should already have been appointed. The test turns on four numbers measured at the previous year end, and two of them are enough. (updated 2026-08-22)

## Payroll & HR
Monthly payroll, the four major insurances, severance pay, year-end settlement and employment rules.

- [Chuseok Falls Over a Saturday This Year — and Korean Law Gives Nothing Back](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/korea-public-holidays-2026-payroll/): Four of Korea's 2026 public holidays land on a Saturday. Two of them buy a Monday back and two vanish, and the difference is written into a presidential decree that most foreign-owned payrolls have never read. (updated 2026-08-29)
- [Korea's Spousal Leave Rules Change on 18 September — What Payroll Has to Do Before Then](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/korea-spousal-leave-changes/): Three changes to Korean parental leave take effect on 18 September 2026, and a fourth already did on 20 August. Each one moves a date your payroll calendar depends on, and one of them creates a leave entitlement that did not exist before. (updated 2026-08-29)
- [Which Foreign Employees Can Skip Korean National Pension — and the Form That Proves It](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/korea-pension-exemption-foreign-employees/): A foreign employee in Korea is compulsorily insured on the same terms as a Korean national. There are three ways out of that, only one of them is available to a typical assignee, and none of them applies itself. (updated 2026-08-26)
- [Unused Annual Leave in Korea: The Cash You Still Owe After It Expires](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/korea-unused-annual-leave-allowance/): Leave that expires unused in Korea usually turns into a cash liability. There is one lawful way to stop that, it has four steps, and a 2020 Supreme Court decision made the last step the one that decides the case. (updated 2026-08-24)
- [Korea's 52-Hour Week: How Overtime Is Counted, and Why Payroll Uses a Different Number](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/korea-52-hour-week-overtime/): Korea's working-hour cap and Korea's overtime premium are measured two different ways from the same timesheet. Getting the second one wrong is the more serious offence. (updated 2026-08-21)
- [What Korea's Four Major Insurances Cost an Employer in 2026](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/four-major-insurances-korea-2026/): Korea's social insurance rates changed on 1 January 2026, and one of them moved for the first time in 28 years. Here is what each of the four costs an employer and an employee this year, where the ceilings bite, and what a foreign-invested company should be checking on its own payroll. (updated 2026-08-15)
- [Korea's Minimum Wage Rises to 10,700 Won in 2027: What Employers Must Do Before 1 January](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/korea-minimum-wage-2027/): The Ministry of Employment and Labor gazetted the 2027 minimum wage on 5 August 2026: 10,700 won an hour, 2,236,300 won a month. Here is what it costs a foreign-owned employer, which pay elements count toward the floor, and the obligation that falls due before the year ends. (updated 2026-08-14)
- [Do You Owe Severance If an Employee Resigns in Korea?](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/payroll/severance-pay-korea/): Korean severance pay is a legal entitlement, not a discretionary payment, and it applies when someone quits. Here is exactly who qualifies, how the calculation works, and what it costs you to get wrong. (updated 2026-08-14)

## Tax & VAT
VAT cycles, corporate income tax, withholding on cross-border payments and transfer pricing documentation.

- [Entertainment Expenses in Korea: The KRW 30,000 Card Rule, and the Ceiling Above It](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/tax/korea-business-promotion-expense-limit/): Korean corporate tax tests client entertainment twice: first on how it was paid, then on how much of it there was. A foreign-owned subsidiary usually fails the first test on receipts and the second on a ceiling it assumed was three times higher. (updated 2026-08-28)
- [Paying Your Foreign Parent from Korea: 22% by Default, and a New Filing From 2026](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/tax/korea-withholding-tax-foreign-parent/): A Korean subsidiary paying a dividend, interest or a royalty to its parent withholds 22% unless the parent's treaty documents are in the payer's hands before the payment. From 1 January 2026 holding them is no longer enough — the payer has to file them with the tax office too. (updated 2026-08-24)
- [Korean VAT for a Foreign-Owned Company: Four Filings a Year, and What Kills Input VAT](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/tax/korea-vat-filing-foreign-company/): A Korean corporation files VAT four times a year, not twice, and the next deadline is 26 October 2026. The rate is the easy part — what costs foreign-owned companies money is input VAT that was never recoverable and zero-rating on parent-company invoices that does not hold. (updated 2026-08-18)
- [Korea's Corporate Tax Interim Payment Is Due 31 August — and the Rate Went Up](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/tax/korea-corporate-tax-interim-payment/): Every Korean company with a December year-end owes an interim corporate tax payment by 31 August 2026. This is the first interim payment computed at the restored 10/20/22/25% rates, and the choice between the two calculation methods is worth real money this year. (updated 2026-08-16)
- [Korea Plans to Raise the Foreign-Worker Flat Tax to 21%](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/tax/korea-foreign-worker-flat-tax/): The Ministry of Economy and Finance proposed on 3 August 2026 to raise the optional flat income tax rate for foreign employees from 19% to 21%, while extending the entry window from end-2026 to end-2029. Here is what changes, what does not, and what a foreign-invested employer should be modelling now. (updated 2026-08-15)

## Entity Setup
Branch, liaison office or subsidiary — FDI registration, capital injection and getting the company actually operating.

- [Korea's KRW 100 Million FDI Threshold: What Foreign-Invested Company Status Actually Buys](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/entity/korea-fdi-threshold-foreign-invested-company/): Foreign-invested company status turns on two numbers — KRW 100 million per investor and 10 percent of the voting shares. Meeting them is easy. Knowing what the status is still worth after the 2019 and 2025 incentive changes is the part that decides how you structure the entry. (updated 2026-08-21)

## Compliance & Risk
Statutory deadlines, audits, foreign exchange rules, internal controls and the penalties for missing them.

- [The Korean Filing Calendar: One Deadline Vanished, and One Lands in 2027](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/compliance/korea-tax-filing-calendar/): A December year-end Korean subsidiary files something in ten months out of twelve. Here is the whole calendar in one place, including the one annual filing that no longer exists and the one that becomes monthly in 2027. (updated 2026-08-30)
- [Unpaid Wages Become a Five-Year Offence in Korea on 8 October](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/compliance/korea-wage-arrears-criminal-penalty/): Korea is not raising the numbers in the wage-arrears penalty. It is moving the offence into a heavier article of the Labor Standards Act, and the list of provisions that travel with it includes the overtime premium. (updated 2026-08-28)
- [Rules of Employment in Korea: The Filing That Starts at Your Tenth Hire](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/blog/compliance/korea-rules-of-employment/): Korean law makes written rules of employment mandatory at ten employees, and requires a fresh filing every time you change them. Most foreign-owned entities cross the threshold without noticing, and most of those that do file are relying on a doctrine the Supreme Court abolished in 2023. (updated 2026-08-28)

## About

- [About Bluestones BPO](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/about/)
- [Contact Bluestones BPO](https://www.bluestonesbpo.co.kr/contact/)
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## Sourcing

Figures published on this site are checked against the issuing authority — the National Tax Service, the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the National Pension Service, the National Health Insurance Service, the Korea Immigration Service or the statute itself — and each article states the date its figures were current. Where a rate or threshold changes annually, the article names the year it applies to. Please cite the article URL and its stated period.