Korea lets a resident pay money abroad without documentary evidence where the transaction needs no report and the annual cumulative amount is within one hundred thousand US dollars. Since 1 January 2026 the regulation counts that figure across every foreign exchange institution. Foreign nationals living in Korea are excluded from it.
Korea does not decide who may send you money, but it does decide who may send it without documents, and it keeps no list of approved purposes. What it sets is an amount that may leave in a year with no document attached, and it requires evidence once that amount is passed. The figure is one hundred thousand US dollars. Who may use it, and the way it is counted, both changed at the start of 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Article 4-3 of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations lets a resident pay abroad without documentary evidence where the transaction needs no report and the annual cumulative amount is within one hundred thousand US dollars.
- The same paragraph excludes a foreign-national resident, so a person living in Korea on a visa cannot use the allowance at all.
- Since 1 January 2026 the regulation states that the figure is the sum of amounts paid through foreign exchange business institutions. That sentence is absent from the text in force on 4 July 2023.
- The requirement to nominate a single transaction bank now attaches to emigration expenses rather than to ordinary remittance.
- Above the annual allowance, a payment of up to five thousand US dollars per transaction still needs no documents.
One hundred thousand dollars a year, with nothing attached
The rule sits in article 4-3 of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations, the ministerial notice made under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. Its first paragraph sets aside the ordinary requirement in article 4-2. It then allows a resident to make a payment without submitting documentary evidence in the listed cases. The first case is a transaction that needs no report under the Regulations, where the annual cumulative amount is within one hundred thousand US dollars.
Read the opening words carefully, because they exclude a large group. The paragraph says a resident, and then says in brackets that a foreign-national resident is not one for this purpose. So a Korean national in Seoul may use the allowance, and a person living in Seoul on a visa may not. If the person sending you money is in the second group, they are back on the general rule in article 4-2, which asks for documents evidencing the ground for the payment and its amount.
Two more things follow from the wording. The allowance belongs to whoever is paying, not to you, so it is not divided between children or split by destination country. And it is annual and cumulative, so one large transfer and a monthly arrangement use it up at the same rate.
What "needs no report" means
The allowance is conditional on the transaction needing no report, and that condition points somewhere else in the Regulations. Article 7-2 lists the capital transactions that need no report at all. Two of its items decide how much of your family's money the allowance really covers.
Item 8 exempts a capital transaction by a resident, again excluding a foreign-national resident, where each payment is within one hundred thousand US dollars and the annual cumulative does not exceed the figure in article 4-3. Article 4-3 then says the reverse in a bracket: its own annual figure includes payments made under item 8. The two provisions point at each other, and the effect is that ordinary payments and unreported capital transactions draw on one pot rather than two.
Item 9 keeps a door open once that pot is empty. Above the annual cumulative, a capital-transaction payment of up to five thousand US dollars per transaction still needs no report.
The figure moved in 2023, and the counting moved in 2026
The consolidation of the Regulations in force from 11 April 2022 carries fifty thousand US dollars in the same subparagraph. The consolidation in force from 4 July 2023 carries one hundred thousand in its place. Those two texts are what date the change, rather than a press report about it.
The way the figure is counted is a separate and later change, and it is the one worth knowing about. The notice promulgated on 29 December 2025, in force from 1 January 2026, added a sentence to the same subparagraph: the one hundred thousand US dollars in the main text is the sum of the amounts paid through foreign exchange business institutions. That sentence does not appear in the text in force on 4 July 2023, and it does appear in the notice of 29 December 2025 and in the consolidation in force today.
The designated bank moved, and where it survives
Korean foreign exchange practice was built for years around nominating one bank for a purpose and using it. Article 4-2 still provides that where a transaction bank has been designated under the Regulations, payments must go through that bank, including exchange for carrying currency out.
What changed is where the requirement attaches. In the text in force from 4 July 2023, the third paragraph of article 4-3 required a person making a payment under the first subparagraph, the ordinary undocumented remittance, to designate a foreign exchange bank. In the version in force from 1 January 2026 the same paragraph points at the ninth subparagraph instead, which is emigration expenses. Ordinary remittance is out. Emigration money is in.
At least one more designation survives elsewhere. Article 4-4 keeps it for a non-resident overseas Korean sending out Korean property, who pays through a designated transaction bank and within the scope of a confirmation issued by the head of the competent tax office.
Above the allowance, and the certificate that is not the ordinary case
The general rule is article 4-2, first paragraph: whoever makes the payment must give the head of the foreign exchange bank documents evidencing the ground for it and the amount. That is where the sender lands once the annual allowance is used up. Article 4-3 then keeps two doors open.
| Situation | What the sender produces |
|---|---|
| Within the annual allowance | Nothing |
| Above it, up to five thousand US dollars per transaction | Nothing |
| Above it, larger, on a transaction needing no report, where the bank can confirm its content and amount from documents | Nothing to submit; the bank does the confirming |
| Above it, otherwise | Evidence of the ground for and the amount of the payment |
A confirmation of source of funds issued by the head of the competent tax office is a real Korean document, and it is often described as the thing needed once the annual allowance is passed. The Regulations do not say that. The two places that name it are the two that bear on this corridor, and neither is the ordinary case. The first is the ninth subparagraph of article 4-3, where a person recognised as an emigrant pays emigration expenses within the scope of such a confirmation. The second is article 4-4, for the overseas Korean above, who uses either a confirmation of real-estate sale proceeds or a confirmation of source of funds.
Neither describes a parent in Korea sending living expenses to a student in Melbourne. For that payment the questions are the ordinary ones: is it inside the annual allowance, is it inside the five thousand dollar route, and can the bank see what it is for.
Keep one other rule separate from all of this. The Korea Customs Service requires a declaration to the head of the competent customs office for carrying means of payment worth more than ten thousand US dollars out of the country. That covers cash and instruments in a bag at an airport. It is not the threshold for a bank transfer, and the two figures should not be added together.
What the won converts to on arrival is on the corridor rate page. Two further questions sit outside this guide. Whether Korean gift tax attaches to money sent to a family member overseas turns on where the property sits and who the parties are, not on the foreign exchange rules. And how Australia treats the money once it reaches you is a matter of Australian law. Both are questions for a registered tax agent rather than for the bank counter, and neither is answered here.
Where to look next
- Receiving money from South Korea - the live rate page for this corridor, which is where a fixed won amount is converted.
- How international transfers work - what happens to the payment once it has left the Korean bank.
- Understanding transfer fees - the cost of moving the money, which none of the above affects.
- How to find an accountant - checking a tax agent is registered, which matters where a gift crosses a border.
- AUD to KRW - the convert page for this pair, and the market that opened in 2024.
Sources
- Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations, current consolidated text, notice 2026-88, in force 6 July 2026, Korea Ministry of Government Legislation - article 4-2 on the documents a payer submits and on payment through a designated bank, article 4-3 first paragraph with its exclusion of a foreign-national resident and its subparagraphs 1, 2 and 9, article 4-4 first paragraph subparagraph 8, and article 7-2 items 8 and 9 on capital transactions needing no report.
- Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations, notice 2025-57, promulgated 29 December 2025, in force 1 January 2026 - the added sentence counting the one hundred thousand US dollars across foreign exchange institutions, and the redirection of the designation requirement from the first subparagraph to the ninth.
- Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations, notice 2023-26, in force 4 July 2023 - one hundred thousand US dollars in the first subparagraph, the designation requirement still attached to it, and the absence of the counting sentence.
- Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations, notice 2022-11, in force 11 April 2022 - fifty thousand US dollars in the same subparagraph, which is what dates the change.
- Declaring foreign currency on entry and departure, Korea Customs Service - the declaration to the head of the competent customs office for carrying means of payment worth more than ten thousand US dollars out of the country.
General information about Korea's foreign exchange rules as they reach money sent to a person in Australia. Not financial advice, not tax advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
How much can a person in Korea send abroad without producing documents?
Article 4-3 of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations lets a resident make payments without submitting documentary evidence where the transaction needs no report under the Regulations and the annual cumulative amount is within one hundred thousand US dollars. The same paragraph excludes a foreign-national resident from that allowance.
Does the allowance apply if the sender is not a Korean national?
Not if they live in Korea. Article 4-3 applies to residents, and its first paragraph excludes a foreign-national resident in the same breath as it names them. Someone on a visa in Seoul is outside the undocumented route and back on the general rule in article 4-2, which asks for documents. A foreign national who does not live in Korea is not a resident either, so the allowance does not reach them for a different reason.
What changed on 1 January 2026?
The regulation gained a sentence saying the one hundred thousand US dollars is the sum of amounts paid through foreign exchange business institutions. That sentence is absent from the text in force on 4 July 2023 and present in the notice promulgated on 29 December 2025. The same notice moved the designated-bank requirement onto emigration expenses.
What has to be produced above the annual allowance?
Article 4-2 requires a person making a payment to submit to the head of the foreign exchange bank documents evidencing the ground for, and the amount of, the payment. Two routes stay open above the annual figure: a payment of up to five thousand US dollars per transaction, and a payment whose content and amount the bank can confirm from documents.
Does the sender need a certificate from the Korean tax office?
Not for an ordinary family remittance. The Regulations call for a confirmation of source of funds issued by the head of the competent tax office in the two situations that bear on this corridor: emigration expenses under article 4-3, and a non-resident overseas Korean sending out Korean property under article 4-4.