Foreigners who receive plastic surgery and aesthetic treatment in South Korea will receive a value added tax refund starting next month, the health ministry said Wednesday. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Foreigners who receive plastic surgery and aesthetic treatment in South Korea will receive a value added tax refund starting next month, the health ministry said Wednesday.
The tax rebate will be given at special booths installed in the country’s international airports when foreign patients submit a certificate issued by authorized medical institutions or dermatology clinics, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Cosmetic operations and aesthetic services including liposuction, nasal surgery and eyelid surgery undertaken between April 1 this year and March 31, 2017 are subject to the tax refund, the ministry added.
The tax program is aimed at boosting South Korea’s medical tourism sector in a bid to meet growing overseas demand and help the country emerge as a new hub of global medical tourism.
According to data, some 155,000 foreigners visited Seoul in 2014 for medical purposes, mostly from China, the U.S., Russia and Japan.’
(Yonhap)
