RetireJapan

I'm only referring to the specific case of someone leaving full time employment which means they will owe local inhabitant's taxes based on their previous year's salary while not having a salary. I'm selfishly interested in how to ameliorate this (as well as health insurance payments, also based on previous year's salary).

I agree with others. By paying furusato nozei you are just bringing the amounts forward in exchange for bribes *cough* gifts. I don't think it will serve to reduce the amount of total inhabitant tax you pay (roughly 10% of previous year's income). In your situation I would suggest you go to the city office and talk to the tax folk there as I imagine this must be a pretty common problem that people who leave work involuntarily experience.

So I've been trying to wrap my head around furusato nozei and one thing that stumps me is how the residence tax is reduced if I'm a salaryman. I don't file a tax return myself (my company makes me fill out a form at the end of the year for dependents etc so I don't know if that counts).

Also, if I do the onestop application, I can only buy 5 things off of Furusato Nozei?

If you do the one stop application, the towns that you have donated to will each contact the town where you live at the start of the following year so that your residence tax bill issued during the following year is reduced.

The one stop system limits you to donating to five towns but not to five donations, so you can make as many donations as like to the five towns that you choose to donate to.

Recently been trying to understand furusato nozei, but it still doesn’t make much sense in my head.

For example, if during this year I "donate" an amount of money (after using the furusato nozei simulator to calculate the amount to donate), when will the money come back?
Is there any recommended timing to do the donations, or it doesn’t matter the month I do the donations?
Also, my company does the taxes for me, if I use the one stop method do I have to file anything myself?

pfdsa wrote: ↑Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:14 am Recently been trying to understand furusato nozei, but it still doesn’t make much sense in my head.

For example, if during this year I "donate" an amount of money (after using the furusato nozei simulator to calculate the amount to donate), when will the money come back?
Is there any recommended timing to do the donations, or it doesn’t matter the month I do the donations?
Also, my company does the taxes for me, if I use the one stop method do I have to file anything myself?

Basically, you are paying part of your taxes ahead of time. You are choosing what municipality will get that tax revenue.

As a thank you, that municipality will send you a free gift.

....

That is the system in a nutshell.

We just got contacted by the tax office, and they requested our Furusato receipts from last year. They said it was a "random" audit. That is all they requested, and since we are pretty confident we followed the rules we should be fine.

The first year we did it we submitted it.
The second year submission was not required.
This year we didn't submit it either.

So, be sure to keep those receipts, even after submission! It can be a bit tricky, as when we donate/order something sometimes the order comes before the receipt, leading us to forget to watch out for it.

EDIT: We got our paperwork back from the tax office, all "OK" and no further docs required. Took about a month.

pfdsa wrote: ↑Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:14 am Recently been trying to understand furusato nozei, but it still doesn’t make much sense in my head.

For example, if during this year I "donate" an amount of money (after using the furusato nozei simulator to calculate the amount to donate), when will the money come back?
Is there any recommended timing to do the donations, or it doesn’t matter the month I do the donations?
Also, my company does the taxes for me, if I use the one stop method do I have to file anything myself?

There's an article on the wiki. We can change it, so let me know if there's anything that's unclear.

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Furusato_Nozei

adamu wrote: ↑Fri Aug 20, 2021 8:07 am

pfdsa wrote: ↑Tue Jul 06, 2021 5:14 am Recently been trying to understand furusato nozei, but it still doesn’t make much sense in my head.

For example, if during this year I "donate" an amount of money (after using the furusato nozei simulator to calculate the amount to donate), when will the money come back?
Is there any recommended timing to do the donations, or it doesn’t matter the month I do the donations?
Also, my company does the taxes for me, if I use the one stop method do I have to file anything myself?

There's an article on the wiki. We can change it, so let me know if there's anything that's unclear.

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Furusato_Nozei

Thanks a lot. That makes things clearer.
Regarding the deduction, understood that if I "donate" this year, it will be deducted from the following year's residence tax.
What I still quite don’t understand is if that the deduction will be made in a lump sum, or gradually in separate months during next year.

As always, it depends.

pfdsa wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 11:17 pm if I "donate" this year, it will be deducted from the following year's residence tax.

Not quite.

That's true if you use the one-stop system, and don't submit a tax return.
If you do a tax return, part of it is deducted from national income tax, part from residence tax.

pfdsa wrote: ↑Sun Aug 22, 2021 11:17 pm What I still quite don’t understand is if that the deduction will be made in a lump sum, or gradually in separate months during next year.

Depends how you pay.

If you do not submit a tax return, and your residence tax is deducted monthly from your salary, then it will lower your monthly payments. You should get a statement around May from your municipality showing you the monthly amounts.

Sorry, forgot to say that I was asking about the one-stop system.
Now it makes sense, thanks a lot!