income deductions for the self-employed

A cartoon of a self-employed (chayôngôpcha) in the Kyunghyang article: keeper of an eating place is representative of one. Seems that I've missed the difference in income deductions for taxation between wage earners and self-employed, which is pointed out in a recent Kyunghyang Sinmun article about deductions available for independent businesskeepers. The basis for the preferential treatment of wage earners is age-old issue of the transparency of wage earners' income ("glass wallet") compared to the self-employed, who cannot deduce insurances, medical expenses, schooling expenses (?), housing, marriage, funerals, removals, use of credit card ... What the self-employed are able to deduce is the national pension (kungmin yôn'gûm) payment, and donations to social welfare organizations of the national or regional governments and religious organizations. Also pension savings (yôn'gûm chôch'uk) are deductable. And moreover, the more the sales are done using documentation, the more deductions can be made, and same goes with keeping books (changbu). But I guess the small businesskeepers know how much of their sales is worth putting in books and how much is better left unrecorded - I've never known Koreans as happy taxpayers. Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: self-employment ∙ money