I owe how much now?
I received the postcard with my property taxes for this year last week. I paid them for the first time last year after we bought our manshon. Unfortunately I lost the postcard from last year, but the payments seem to be the same as this year.
According to this website, property tax is 1.4% of the assessed value, and is revised every three years. And in this site we can see there is also a ‘city planning tax’ of 0.3%, but I am not sure if it applies in our case.
We bought the manshon for 9 million yen. I believe the market price is between 12 and 13 million yen (we bought from a friend who gave us an excellent price).
Our property tax this year is 77,700 yen. This implies that the assessed value of the manshon is around 5.5 million yen, less than half the market price. Property taxes are paid in installments through the year as in the postcard above. For us this comes to just over 6,000 yen a month. It seems more than fair.
There are horror stories of mistakes being made in property taxes, but it seems not to be the case for us.
I’ll be very interested to see if they change as they are reconsidered every three years.
How about you? Have your property taxes changed over time? Do you think they are accurate?
“Property taxes are paid in installments through the year as in the postcard above. For us this comes to just over 6,000 yen a month. It seems more than fair.”
We’ve always paid up (全) when it comes–never thought of it on a monthly basis. I think the last one was ¥56k and change; not much.
Fair? Remember that someone else is tapping you on the shoulder for 住民税. (Tho generally, I think that’s a better way of local funding than using property taxes.)
Property taxes are nothing compared to ‘manshion’ fees. Those might be less than ¥20k if you’re somehow really lucky (or a small place), but more commonly ¥20k-25k. And it’s not rare for those fees to be higher. Parking may be included, or may be an added monthly extra.
Yeah, the manshon fees for our place are 22,000 a month! And parking is 8,000 a month after that, if you can get it. We only have 60 spaces for 100 units, so we have been on the waiting list for six years now.
That house is starting to look much more attractive!
You should be able to find the actual assessed value of your property on your annual property-tax notice, normally issued on May 1 (the scan in your post is the notification of the automatic bank-transfer amounts you made during the past tax year — your receipt, so to speak). I believe the article you linked to is mistaken in saying the tax notice doesn’t include the assessed value of the property — mine unequivocally does. Something for you to watch for this year (you’ll get a notice even if your payments are made through bank transfers). You can also go to the local legal affairs bureau to get a certified copy of the assessment value (for a fee). That certification is what’s required for gift taxes and inheritance taxes. Land and buildings are assessed separately, as the article you linked to points out. As the article also notes, the annual property-tax notice gets sent to the person whose name is on the deed on January 1, so if you bought your place last year, maybe the reason you don’t have an official property-tax notice or payment postcard from last year is that property taxes were included among your closing costs (i.e., you essentially reimbursed the former owner for taxes originally assessed in his name). Don’t exactly know how the process works when buying a used manshon, though.
By the way, the tax office makes the rosenka valuation maps publicly available (both at the tax office and online), so it’s quite possible to make the calculation of the assessed value of the land yourself, at least for standalone houses. The usual rule of thumb is that the assessed value of the land is 70-80% of the market value (which is why real estate is often a better value than cash for gift or inheritance purposes, since those taxes are based on assessed value rather than market value). Houses/buildings always depreciate in this country, worse luck, so property tax on buildings will normally go down with each three-year cycle (slower in the case of condos, as the article notes). Various tax-reduction policies tend to lower the tax somewhat for those of us not fortunate enough to own huge spreads. I consider my own property taxes — which have definitely gone down over the past decade — to be quite reasonable, all things considered. But as the article notes, the only actual onsite inspection you get is when you first purchase the property, so if a mistake is made then, you’re likely to keep paying for it.
Guaranteed free parking is a definite plus for a house owner!
Oh, that explains why I haven’t seen the valuation postcard yet. I’ll probably do another post then.
Thanks for the very thorough comment! I should probably replace my post with your comment at this point 🙂
One small correction: since property taxes are local taxes assessed by the city, etc., you don’t go to the legal affairs bureau for the assessed value certification, you go through the regular city office. The legal affairs bureau handles certified copies of the actual title. I knew I was going to get something wrong.
Does owning farm land and traditional house get any kind of special treatment in terms of property taxes?
I would love to learn more about this (and maybe do a post about it). I have heard that land designated as farmland gets taxed at a much lower rate. However, in order to build on it you need to be registered as a farmer. You can buy the land and existing buildings but can’t rebuild them as a normal person.
I think.
How old is your manshion?
Im thinking about buying a manshion but seems faffy. Not sure if its worth it v renting.
Any thoughts on that?
Hmm. It’s going to depend, methinks. Our manshon is 26 years old, in an excellent position and pretty solid build.
Our total spend on it is under 60,000 yen (mortgage, manshon fees, property tax). Market rent is probably 80,000+ yen a month.
For me it was worth it as buying it gave us stability, allowed us to renovate it, and I think we could sell it for a profit (we bought it cheaper than market price).
Those numbers and assumptions will probably look different for others.