Thanks for the explanation. Your accountant is in Japan, right? If not, are they fully in tune with the Japanese tax code? If you're tax-resident in Japan then you have to declare all foreign income (including the sale of an inherited house), regardless of how it was taxed abroad. You can then deduct any foreign tax paid from the Japanese tax bill if a double-taxation treaty exists.Silversurfer wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:43 am In my part of what I like to call the “Anglo-sphere”, an income tax return has to be filed for a deceased person for the year of deceasement. (New word.) The income for the deceased must include the value of all property as if it had been sold that year, minus various deductions. A lot of money was spent on fixing the house over a 60 year-period and so that brought the value of the house down to below a certain tax threshold. (Japan and this Anglo-spheric country have an agreement about double taxation being verboten.) Below this threshold, no property tax. My accountant took care of it. I submitted a mountain of documents.
My accountant also told me a few weeks ago that I’ll be getting an income tax refund of about the equivalent of 650,000¥ due to the estate of the deceased, which is me.
The property was not in Beverly Hills or a trailer park.
So in your case... if the sale price of the house less expenses such as acquisition costs, improvement costs and selling costs is greater than the purchase price of the house 60 years ago, then as far as I know you will have to declare that income to the Japanese tax office. You will have to pay CGT on it at a rate of about 20%, unless you already paid more than that in your home country. At least that's my understanding from what I've read. Thankfully I haven't had to go through it myself yet.