Inspection for Property tax assessment

[regular]

Dear all,

Just moved to a newly built wooden house (3F) a month after receiving the key, opened the mailbox and noticed two letters from the Tax office stating he same thing. They want to know when are we able to give them a chance (around 30-60 min) to inspect the property so that they can assess the taxes.

Is there any smart tip on what should be done to lower our assessment, if at all possible?

Regards

R

[RetireJapan]

I believe it is based on the floor space of the dwelling and land, so not sure if there is any way to game that.

Anyone else?

[gogakuhei]

We just had our assessment, but haven't heard the results yet. My wife had a day off, so we scheduled it for then.

As I understand it, they looked at the floor space and the land. They noted the heat exchange air system (熱交換換気システム), but I don't know if that was strictly out of personal interest or not. We recently had solar panels and a batter installed, and when my wife asked about that they said it's not counted. They also said things like our carport don't count.

I know this isn't much, but I think it supports what Ben said.

[regular]

OP here. I am writing to update for possible benefits of others. We just had a young female from the tax office visit us for the inspection to assess tax for our house. She went into each room in each of our floors, counted the windows and wash basins installed, checked the presence of balconies, went to each of our toilets (having washing basin inside which we built may increase tax) and to our bathroom and to shower room, noted what material was used for our glasses, asked for the thickness of our insulation material and noted it from the papers we had, also checked the outside of the house for window sizes, etc. A much involved process I must say.

[ricardo]

The inspection on our new house last year took about 10 minutes.

They basically checked the floor space, construction, type of cooker and kept a copy of the plan from the builder.

I don’t think there’s much you can do to lower the potential tax. The house is what it is and they will tax accordingly.

[captainspoke]

The inspection on our new house last year took about 10 minutes.

...and kept a copy of the plan from the builder.
...

For new construction, I'd kind of wonder why this would not be a requirement (or an option).

Basing it on that might level the playing field. Less variability from assessor to assessor, or even the same person who might be having a good/bad day--measuring or noting things more or less carefully from house to house.

[ricardo]

My house builder said it *was* a requirement to give them a copy of the plan.

They measured a couple of things to make sure the plan was correct.

They gave me a sticker to put on my drainpipe to show they’d been. (I didn’t put it on there).

FWIW, my house tax is around ¥80,000 per year.