RetireJapan

In any case, the point of choosing accumulating ETFs was to avoid filing a Japanese tax return altogether. The success of this strategy might depend on how much you are planning on saving going forward. There is a JPY 50m threshold for reporting foreign accounts. If you end up above this threshold,...

I am in this situation. Once you have left the US you may not be able to buy mutual fund type investments, but will still be able to buy annuity type investments. This is probably not a big problem as long as you choose a portfolio you are happy with before you leave. The tax treatment when you with...

Well this isn't encouraging... I didn't expect it's that complicated. It's complicated in the sense that the law is uncertain, but I don't think that necessarily means that your response needs to be complicated. Tax authorities are underfunded, and their objective is to get people to pay the tax th...

Distributing ETFs is an interesting option I haven't thought about yet! At least there would be no doubt about how to declare it. Actually.... You can find an ongoing argument online about the tax rate for dividends on (foreign) stocks held in a foreign brokerage account. Many accounting firms, inc...

I don't have specific experience with the NTA, but my impression from other countries is that if you submit a personal tax return in good faith, and they later decide that they disagree and that you owe them money, the penalties are likely going to small or potentially zero (other than the money tha...

There are several listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange:
https://www.jpx.co.jp/english/equities/ ... index.html

You purchase in the same way as if they were regular companies.

- The Japanese tax treatment with respect to dividends looks broadly identical to Japanese mutual funds: they can re-invest internally only having to pay foreign withholding taxes. This thread on r/JapanFinance highlighted something that I did no realize when I wrote the above. Offshore accumulatin...

@rhe: You mentioned earlier that you claim the 10% withheld US dividend tax against Japanese dividend taxes for your US-based investments? Does that mean you are holding some distributing ETFs? One thing to be aware of is that you might be paying tax earlier than necessary this way, so missing out ...

If you have a 401k, then I assume you are filling American taxes? You certainly would not want any PFICs then, right? For some reason a lot of foreigners close their 401k accounts when they leave the US, but this is actually not required. You had to be a "US person" when you were putting ...

The link above, for example, has a 0.22% ER, which is substantially lower than most (all?) Japanese "emerging markets" mutual funds. eMaxis Slim's emerging market fund is 0.187%. https://emaxis.jp/fund/252878.html 3. Position reporting didn't seem to be as good. If you look at the vanguar...