RetireJapan

northSaver wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2024 8:32 am Thanks Beaglehound. Yes, I think that might be the best policy. If they ask for previous years' and charge late-payment penalties then so be it. He was in the wrong after all. I'll try to follow up with him next year and post back with how it went. There may be others on here who are reluctant to pay tax on foreign income due to fearing the consequences of several years of non-payment.

Given how much you can claim as deductions on property purchases; mortgage interest, stamp duty and depreciation with the Japanese tax office. In my experience it really does pay (quite literally!)to be as honest as possible with them. You get none of this with HMRC. Indeed you are not even allowed to leave the website when you are doing a HMRC online tax return until they have your bank information and the income tax is being electronically transferred to them.

Is there a limit (yen equivalent) below which you don't have to declare foreign income? 50 quid lands in your account as a birthday present, for example. Do you seriously have to declare it to the taxman in Japan?

There is a tax free annual gift limit, gifts below that account don’t need to be declared.

I see, thanks for replying. Do you happen to know what the limit is? And what is the situation re non-gifts, eg Premium Bonds, dividend income, etc?

Max wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 11:56 am I see, thanks for replying. Do you happen to know what the limit is? And what is the situation re non-gifts, eg Premium Bonds, dividend income, etc?

1.1m yen annually. This is not per gift, it's for the aggregate of all gifts you receive.

For premium bond prizes it depends how long you have been in Japan, but assuming you have been here for five of the past ten years it should be declared here. I won't comment on dividends as I think they may be treated differently but I don't know the details.

Beaglehound wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 2:17 pm For premium bond prizes it depends how long you have been in Japan, but assuming you have been here for five of the past ten years it should be declared here. I won't comment on dividends as I think they may be treated differently but I don't know the details.

It's probably not worth holding premium bonds anyway - without the tax advantages a normal savings account is probably better, and they may be illegal to hold whilst living in Japan - see the previous thread: https://retirejapan.com/forum/viewtopic ... 9&start=10