Starting an investment account with your Nisa/Ideco provider

[dav7dey]

Hi there,

I've been lurking the forum and website for a while, getting a lot of valuable insights. Very happy to join this community now.

I'm a 40yo, 3 years resident with no plan to move out of Japan any time soon. Have some experience in investing, but only since the beginning of the year I started taking financial independence seriously.

At the beginning of the year I applied for a Nisa account (Monex) and an Ideco account (SBI), which are still in the processing.
My next step is to open a standard investment account, and I sense it might take another few months for this account too to be ready.

In your experience, how long does it take to open an investment account?
Once the Nisa and Ideco account are ready, would it make it faster to open an investment account on the related providers (Monex/SBI)?

Appreciate the help!

[RetireJapan]

Generally you have the option of opening a taxable account at the same time as NISA or iDeCo. You may find that you have one with each of your providers already.

Taxable accounts are much quicker to open, maybe a week or so? Opening one with an existing provider might reduce the amount of paperwork required.

[dav7dey]

Thank you for the swift reply!

[RetireJapan]

One thing to watch out for is that there are three types of taxable accounts:
a) ordinary (一般) accounts: you need to file and pay your own taxes
b) tax-reporting (特定口座): calculates your taxes but you have to pay them yourself
c) tax-reporting and deducting accounts (特定口座源泉徴収あり）: calculates and deducts your taxes. In principle, you don't need to do anything further with the tax office

Most people find (c) the most convenient option, although (a) and (b) provide more options for sophisticated investors -I am not a sophisticated investor

Once you buy something you can't change it, so make sure you have the type of account you want before making purchases. You can easily change the type of account online via the menu options.

[TokyoWart]

Ben,

I have a question. You posted:

a) ordinary (一般) accounts: you need to file and pay your own taxes
b) tax-reporting (特定口座): calculates your taxes but you have to pay them yourself
c) tax-reporting and deducting accounts (特定口座源泉徴収あり）: calculates and deducts your taxes. In principle, you don't need to do anything further with the tax office

Which is also what I see described elsewhere but for a long time I have had one 特定 account with only 特定 stocks, one account with a mixture of 特定 and 一般 stock positions, and one 一般 account with only 一般 stock positions. In all cases the taxes are automatically withheld for dividends and capital gains. My 税理士 asks for all account information when I file taxes but I can't see that any of the numbers from those accounts appear on my tax return. Do you know why that would be?

[RetireJapan]

Ben,

I have a question. ... for a long time I have had one 特定 account with only 特定 stocks, one account with a mixture of 特定 and 一般 stock positions, and one 一般 account with only 一般 stock positions. In all cases the taxes are automatically withheld for dividends and capital gains. My 税理士 asks for all account information when I file taxes but I can't see that any of the numbers from those accounts appear on my tax return. Do you know why that would be?

I don't have any insight with regards to that, actually. I used to have a few 一般 holdings that I bought accidentally, but I sold them at a slight loss and only bought 特定 going forward.

Might be worth asking your accountant? Let us know what they say