To help with cost of living increases
This has been in the news on and off since it was announced last year, but I’ve had a few questions about it and also almost no one I have spoken to in real life seems to have known about it, so I thought a quick blog post might be helpful.
What tax credits and benefits are available?
There is an income tax credit of 30,000 yen per person, a residence tax credit of 10,000 yen per person, and a benefit payment of up to 100,000 yen per household + 50,000 yen per child for low income households.
These are all one-offs in 2024 and are designed to help people deal with the increasing cost of living (and maybe help the LDP be less unpopular, although that hasn’t worked at all).
Who can get the tax credits and benefit payments?
Low income households are people whose income is so low they don’t have to pay residence tax. Only they are eligible for the benefit payments.
Anyone else is eligible for the tax credits of 30,000 yen and 10,000 yen, and dependent family members also get the same credits applied to the primary taxpayer’s bill.
People whose gross income is more than 20 million yen are not eligible for the tax credits.
How can we apply for the tax credits and benefit payments?
If your employer does your taxes, they have to take care of this and will apply it to the taxes they deduct from your paycheck. It is important they are aware of any dependents, so if your HR department asks you to submit a form listing your dependents it is in your best interest to do so!
If you do your own tax return you will get the credit as part of that.
Comments on the 2024 tax credits and benefit payments
This is fine, and should help lower income households in particular. The way it has been implemented (forcing employers to calculate the credit against June salary withholding) puts a huge strain on small businesses and in my opinion should have been done differently. My wife had to spend hours on this for her staff, time that she couldn’t really afford.
A small one-off payment like this doesn’t seem like it is going to make much difference to many people, particularly in the upper range. They could have capped eligibility at and annual salary of 10 million, or even 5 million, and maybe increased the amounts.
And it certainly doesn’t seem to have helped the government much. This scheme is pretty unpopular according to the opinion polls I have seen.
(Much) more information on the tax credits and benefit payments
This was just a quick and simple overview. As usual, the amazing u/starkimpossibility on Reddit’s JapanFinance board created a comprehensive post full of links and sources, so if you want to get all the details go and check that out.
What do you think? Were you aware of this? Do you think it makes sense as a policy to help people deal with the rising cost of living?
RetireJapan is here to help people living in Japan learn more about personal finance, investing, retirement, and life in Japan. Check out our introductory articles here on the site, the forum, and blog posts.
If you need some more help you might be interested in our publications.
Or coaching.
If you were forwarded the email you can sign up to our weekly or monthly list here.
Or you can subscribe through WordPress below if you want to get each post the moment it is published:
Reduce consumption tax if you want to help.
It is obvious that these small one-time rebates won’t put a dent in the newish consumption tax, reduction of energy subsidies, and devaluation of the currency.
I thought the income cut-off was 20 million per household, not 20 million per person. At least I think that’s what our HR told us.
Don’t think so! Much more detail in this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/1cdat2t/guide_to_the_2024_antideflation_tax_credits_and/