Reviewing Korean court stamp refunds after a case ends
This Korea-specific calculator uses Korean civil litigation rules verified in 2026.
Court stamps are paid when filing complaints, appeals and certain other pleadings.
Withdrawal, settlement or mediation does not necessarily return every won paid.
The worksheet checks the event and amount rules in Article 14 of the Civil Litigation Stamp Act and organizes the dates and records needed for a refund review.
After a long dispute, it is easy to focus on a settlement payment and overlook court fees.
A family member helping an older claimant, a retired lender or a party finishing an appeal can reconcile the receipt with the termination record.
A qualifying event can still produce no monetary refund when the original fee is small.
There is also a separate three-year period measured from the effective refund event.
The decision this worksheet supports
Identify the event at the relevant court level, estimate the unreceived stamp amount and decide which deadline and documents to verify with the court.
The result is neither a court refund decision nor a promise of a bank payment.
It reviews civil litigation stamps separately from other case costs.
Use receipts and effective termination records
Paid stamps and prior receipts
Enter the actual stamp amount for this court level in whole KRW, rather than the claim value or settlement amount.
Exclude service deposits, appraisal charges and lawyer fees.
Record refunds already received for the same event separately.
A blank paid amount means unknown and is different from a documented zero.
Court level and pleading
Select first instance, appeal or Supreme Court appeal, then the complaint, counterclaim, amendment, intervention or retrial pleading.
Ending an appeal does not automatically refund the combined first-instance and appeal fees.
Check each stage separately.
Partial termination needs apportionment before an amount can be calculated.
Effective refund event date
The date a withdrawal was submitted, an agreement signed or an order issued is not automatically the effective refund date.
Verify withdrawal effectiveness or decision finality with the court and enter that date.
A settlement recommendation that is not yet final remains pending.
Checked evidence versus assumptions
Select checked evidence only after reconciling the amount, event, effective date, statutory timing and prior refunds.
A check date before the event or after the reference date is not accepted as a completed review.
For a settlement still being considered, use an assumed scenario and do not treat it as an accrued claim.
The KRW 100,000 and KRW 200,000 boundaries
Article 14(1) generally uses half of the stamps attached to the relevant pleading.
If that half is below KRW 100,000, it instead uses the paid amount less KRW 100,000.
The following three bands explain the practical effect.
Paid amount up to KRW 100,000
Refund: zero
Subtracting KRW 100,000 leaves no positive balance.
The calculator floors the refund at zero.
A qualifying event does not necessarily create a cash refund.
Above KRW 100,000, below KRW 200,000
P − KRW 100,000
A payment of KRW 150,000 gives a KRW 50,000 candidate.
Expecting half, or KRW 75,000, would overstate it.
Paid amount of KRW 200,000 or more
floor(P ÷ 2)
KRW 200,000 gives KRW 100,000; KRW 455,000 gives KRW 227,500.
Fractions of one won are floored as an estimate.
The court-confirmed amount takes precedence.
Remaining refund and retained stamps
The unreceived formula candidate equals the original formula refund minus money already received for this event, with a zero floor.
Stamps retained after refund equal paid stamps minus the original formula refund; prior receipts are not deducted a second time.
If prior receipts exceed the calculation, check for another court level, service-fee returns or overpayment returns.
The difference does not establish a repayment debt.
Different events have different legal conditions
- Rejection order: Article 14(1)(1) requires finality of the relevant order rejecting the pleading.
- First-instance or appeal withdrawal: Article 14(1)(2) requires withdrawal before close of argument at that stage, including deemed withdrawal.
- Supreme Court withdrawal: Article 14(1)(3) requires withdrawal before the grounds-submission period has elapsed.
- Waiver or acknowledgment: Article 14(1)(4) covers first instance or appeal without copying the withdrawal timing restriction.
- Judicial settlement or mediation: Article 14(1)(5) requires effectiveness at first instance or appeal, rather than a private agreement alone.
- Settlement recommendation or decision in lieu of mediation: Check finality and equivalent judicial-settlement effect.
- Supreme Court dismissals: Distinguish Special Act Article 4 summary dismissal under paragraph (6) from Civil Procedure Act Article 429 dismissal under paragraph (7).
- Missing appeal grounds: Article 14(1)(6-2) refers to dismissal under the main text of Article 402-3(1), with a filing-date transition check.
Amending Act No. 20003 applies the appeal-grounds framework to cases whose appeal or interlocutory-appeal pleading is first submitted on or after March 1, 2025.
Check the first filing date, actual decision ground and court level.
The word dismissal alone is insufficient.
A loss on the merits or an out-of-court agreement does not automatically satisfy an enumerated Article 14 event.
The three-year filing period uses calendar years
Exclude the event day and count by the calendar
Article 14(2) provides three years from the refund event.
Civil Act Articles 157 and 160 exclude the initial day and count calendar years from the following day, rather than adding a fixed 1,095 days.
The ordinary endpoint is the day before the corresponding start date in the last year.
Where the corresponding day is absent, the month-end rule applies.
The default assumes the event occurs during the day.
The Civil Act Article 157 proviso includes the initial day when the period starts at midnight; select that exception only after checking it with the court.
A verified midnight start on 2023-10-20 gives an unadjusted expiry of 2026-10-19, one day earlier than the ordinary next-day-start expiry of 2026-10-20.
For a decision becoming final, verify both the finality date and the counting convention.
Leap-day and holiday example
For an event on 2024-02-28, counting begins on 2024-02-29 and the unadjusted expiry is 2027-02-28.
An event on 2024-02-29 also gives an unadjusted expiry of 2027-02-28.
Because that is a Sunday, weekend-only adjustment gives 2027-03-01.
Entering the 2027-03-01 public holiday moves the reference deadline to 2027-03-02.
Verify the actual official calendar and applicable later law before relying on a final legal deadline.
Civil Act Article 161 moves an endpoint falling on a Saturday or public holiday to the next day.
The calculator repeatedly skips weekends and entered holidays, but supplies no automatic public-holiday calendar.
Check substitute and temporary holidays around the expiry before relying on the countdown.
A displayed reference date in the past does not establish loss of the claim while the calendar remains unconfirmed.
Contact the court early to verify receipt and processing rather than targeting the last day.
Step-by-step use
- Separate the receipt: Find stamps for this court level and use the actual amount after any electronic-filing reduction.
- Select the event: Reconcile withdrawal timing, order finality, settlement effectiveness or the specific Supreme Court dismissal ground.
- Record dates and evidence: Distinguish the effective event, evidence-check and reference dates; use assumed status for proposed settlements.
- Review the deadline: Enter official holidays between the basic and adjusted expiry and confirm the final filing date with the court.
- Reconcile prior payments: Check automatic account processing, then save the remaining candidate and document checklist.
Numeric fields preserve editing text and commit a calculation value when focus leaves the field.
Keep unknown amounts blank and evidence unconfirmed until records are available.
Replacing missing information with zero or a checked status creates an appearance of certainty without supporting records.
Worked amounts and a remaining-refund example
These hypothetical amounts assume a qualifying event.
An actual claim candidate also depends on evidence, the filing period and prior receipts.
Paid stamps, original formula refund, prior receipts and remaining candidates under a qualifying-event assumption, all in KRW| Paid stamps | Formula refund | Received | Remaining |
|---|
| 100,000 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 150,000 | 50,000 | 0 | 50,000 |
| 199,999 | 99,999 | 0 | 99,999 |
| 200,000 | 100,000 | 0 | 100,000 |
| 455,000 | 227,500 | 0 | 227,500 |
| 455,000 | 227,500 | 27,500 | 200,000 |
The fictional example button
Assume KRW 455,000 paid and KRW 27,500 already received for the same event.
The original refund is KRW 227,500, leaving a KRW 200,000 formula candidate.
Retained stamps are KRW 227,500, excluding lawyer fees, service deposits and other litigation expenses.
The example event is 2026-10-20 and its reference date is 2026-10-22, with assumed evidence.
The basic expiry is 2029-10-20 and the weekend-adjusted reference is 2029-10-22.
Public holidays remain unconfirmed, so this is not a guaranteed filing deadline.
Practical situations
A claimant reviewing settlement terms
Review the stamp refund effect separately when considering withdrawal or judicial settlement.
Do not automatically add it to the settlement price or assume it is paid by the other party.
Legal effectiveness, the agreement on other litigation expenses and prior refunds determine the actual cash difference.
A family member organizing an older party’s records
First identify whether a bank credit returned stamps or a service deposit, and whether it relates to another stage.
A joint-payment total is not an individual entitlement allocation.
Prepare the joint claim or representative designation and refund-account records before asking the court about processing.
A party after a Supreme Court dismissal
Separate summary dismissal, failure to submit grounds and other merits decisions.
Enter the stamps actually paid at the Supreme Court level without multiplying them by two again.
Compare the displayed provision with the judgment and ask the court to verify the event date and refund handling.
Limits before treating an amount as a claim
Amounts remain withheld when necessary facts are missing
- Partial termination needs claim-value apportionment under Rule 33(3) before using the refund formula.
- Joint payments are reviewed as a total; individual shares and representative authority are not decided.
- Overpayment returns follow Rule 32; unused service deposits and criminal or family costs are outside scope.
- Whole-won flooring is an estimate; court-confirmed rounding, payment handling and actual amounts prevail.
Supported effective event dates run from 2015-07-01 through 2026-12-31.
The earlier Act was checked for the same existing refund formula and events.
The missing-appeal-grounds event has its separate 2025-03-01 transition check.
A reference date in 2027 or later is treated as a scenario under the verified 2026 rules, not a promise that later law remains unchanged.
No party name or case number is required.
Keep the saved report’s evidence and assumptions distinct.
Frequently asked questions
Does withdrawing always return half of the stamps?
First-instance and appeal withdrawals must precede the close of argument at that stage; paid stamps up to KRW 100,000 produce zero, and amounts above KRW 100,000 but below KRW 200,000 return the paid amount less KRW 100,000 rather than half.
Must a judicial settlement also precede close of argument?
Article 14(1)(5) covers a judicial settlement or mediation at first instance or appeal without copying the withdrawal timing condition, but actual judicial effectiveness and the relevant court level still need checking.
Should I apply another electronic-filing discount?
Enter the actual receipt amount after any electronic-filing reduction, without applying a second 10% discount or multiplying an already-paid appeal or Supreme Court fee again.
Does the three-year period begin when I receive a judgment?
The effective refund event varies by reason, so use the court-verified event date rather than assuming an issuance or receipt date, then review next-day counting, calendar years and holiday adjustments.
Can a Supreme Court summary dismissal qualify?
Article 14(1)(6) covers dismissal under Article 4 of the Special Act on Supreme Court Procedure, so check that specific ground and the actual stamps paid at that level rather than treating every dismissal identically.
What about failing to submit appeal grounds?
Dismissal under the main text of Civil Procedure Act Article 402-3(1) is addressed by Article 14(1)(6-2), subject to the transitional rule for appeal pleadings first filed on or after March 1, 2025.
Must I request a refund again if I recorded a refund account?
The proviso to Rule 33(1) can treat an account recorded on the payment form as a refund request, so first check court processing and bank receipts and avoid requesting the same payment twice.
Can I include service fees or a partial-claim refund?
Service-fee balances and overpayment returns are separate; partial termination requires claim-value apportionment under Rule 33(3), while joint payments require the Rule 34 joint or representative-claim procedure.
Official evidence and verification date
The National Law Information OPEN API was called directly to verify current status and articles on 2026-10-22.
The Stamp Act, MST258671, was promulgated on 2024-01-16 and became effective on 2025-03-01.
The Stamp Rules, MST254623, were promulgated on 2023-08-31 and became effective on 2023-10-19.
The Civil Procedure Act, MST290113, was promulgated on 2026-09-29 and became effective on 2026-10-02; Articles 402-3 and 429 were checked.
The earlier Stamp Act, MST165498, became effective on 2015-07-01; the Act No. 20003 transition was verified through MST258669.
Special Act Article 4 was checked in MST97050, effective 2009-11-02.
Civil Act Articles 157, 160 and 161 were checked in MST284415, effective 2026-03-17.
Changes to events, monetary thresholds, the filing period or court processing require a fresh check of both amount and deadline.
Save the review and verify court processing
Reconcile receipts, termination records and prior payments, then save the TXT review or print it for a court inquiry.
If a refund account was recorded, first check automatic handling under the proviso to Rule 33(1) and actual bank credits.
The anonymous ICS item reminds you to check a reference date; it does not certify a legal deadline.
Completing the checklist also does not establish that a court filing was made or accepted.
Verify actual submission and processing separately.