RetireJapan

Wales4rugbyWC23 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 12:35 am Thanks to the work of Retire Japan, most long term expat residents in Japan are not investing in those so called 'offshore' investments, any longer.

I have them to thank for the existence of RetireJapan at least -they were the only reason I started the site

tiubhart wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 4:47 am
Regarding the tax situation in Japan, I’ve already filed taxes through my company for last year. Since the surrender payment was deposited into my bank on December 30th, I assume I need to include it in my tax return. Should I ask my company if they can refile my tax return for the past year, or should I just wait to be contacted by the tax office? I don’t want anyone thinking I’m trying to hide anything, but I’m not sure if my company will be willing to assist with the paperwork again.

Speaking of paperwork, do I need documents to show how much I paid into the policy versus the final payment? Apologies for all the very basic questions. As you can probably tell, I’m quite new to all things investing. Hopefully, with some further research on the Retire Japan forum and site, I’ll improve.

This kind of thing would not be part of the annual adjustment 年末調整, so you will need to file your own personal tax return in Feb/March. This is fairly easy to do online, and you can go into the tax office to get them to do it with you if necessary.

tiubhart wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 4:47 am or should I just wait to be contacted by the tax office?

I don't think you will be contacted. Did you do an end of year adjustment or a tax return?

You will probably want to declare it as "separate taxation" to take advantage of the fixed 20.315% rate for stocks.

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Income_Tax#A ... e_Taxation

Wales4rugbyWC23 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 12:35 am Thanks to the great work of Retire Japan, most long term expat residents in Japan are not investing in those so called 'offshore' investments, any longer.

I wouldn't say most, only the people who look around before they dive in (or after and realise the water is cold...). It's probably the minority that get the message. Best we can do is keep putting the message out there.

I did an end of year adjustment through my company. Should I try to cancel that or can I just do the additional adjustment in February/March at the tax office.

Thanks again for the help and advice.

tiubhart wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 6:55 am I did an end of year adjustment through my company. Should I try to cancel that or can I just do the additional adjustment in February/March at the tax office.

That's good news, it means things are simpler, so what RJ said:

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 5:13 am so you will need to file your own personal tax return in Feb/March. This is fairly easy to do online, and you can go into the tax office to get them to do it with you if necessary.

Except you can actually do it now: https://www.keisan.nta.go.jp/kyoutu/ky/sm/top
If you say you don't have a my number card and want to submit the paper form, you can run through a dummy one as much as you like - no need to enter your real details.

You can tell it what income you have. Hopefully it's just salary 給与 and capital gain 株式等の譲渡（売却）.
1. For your salary it'll walk you through entering the information from the 源泉徴収票 you should have from your employer.
2. For the stocks, choose 特定口座以外での取引 and it'll walk you through that (I'm not sure of the details as mine are always done automatically through Japanese tax-reporting accounts).

You could do just 1) and walk through to the end to make sure it results in ¥0 to match your current declaration. Then back up and add 2).

I'm not sure though if it counts as a capital gain, or some other kind of income.

adamu wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 5:24 am

tiubhart wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 4:47 am or should I just wait to be contacted by the tax office?

I don't think you will be contacted. Did you do an end of year adjustment or a tax return?

You will probably want to declare it as "separate taxation" to take advantage of the fixed 20.315% rate for stocks.

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Income_Tax#A ... e_Taxation

Wales4rugbyWC23 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 12:35 am Thanks to the great work of Retire Japan, most long term expat residents in Japan are not investing in those so called 'offshore' investments, any longer.

I wouldn't say most, only the people who look around before they dive in (or after and realise the water is cold...). It's probably the minority that get the message. Best we can do is keep putting the message out there.

To my knowledge, when I first start investing in one of these so called 'offshore' investments over 16 years ago, Ideco and Nisa did not exist. For long term expats these 'offshore' investment products really were the only form of investments that could be made. How things have changed. Even the Japanese Post office is marketing Ideco and Nisas.

Wales4rugbyWC23 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 9:41 am

adamu wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 5:24 am

tiubhart wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 4:47 am or should I just wait to be contacted by the tax office?

I don't think you will be contacted. Did you do an end of year adjustment or a tax return?

You will probably want to declare it as "separate taxation" to take advantage of the fixed 20.315% rate for stocks.

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Income_Tax#A ... e_Taxation

Wales4rugbyWC23 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 12:35 am Thanks to the great work of Retire Japan, most long term expat residents in Japan are not investing in those so called 'offshore' investments, any longer.

I wouldn't say most, only the people who look around before they dive in (or after and realise the water is cold...). It's probably the minority that get the message. Best we can do is keep putting the message out there.

To my knowledge, when I first start investing in one of these so called 'offshore' investments over 16 years ago, Ideco and Nisa did not exist. For long term expats these 'offshore' investment products really were the only form of investments that could be made. How things have changed. Even the Japanese Post office is marketing Ideco and Nisas.

You could have simply invested in a taxable account?

The siren of "tax-free" leads a lot of people astray. In this case it was simply tax delayed.....

Then we were signing our mortgage the hammered home the tax saving with whole life vs our term.

Tsumitate Wrestler wrote: ↑Tue Jan 07, 2025 11:57 am
You could have simply invested in a taxable account?

The siren of "tax-free" leads a lot of people astray. In this case it was simply tax delayed.....

Then we were signing our mortgage the hammered home the tax saving with whole life vs our term.

True, but back in the day there were no online brokers.
You generally went to a branch of one of the securities companies close to a station. Minimum amount they would accept was, if i remember correctly, 1 million yen. And of course they would bamboozle you with complicated Japanese investment lingo.
It was definitely too complicated for me when I first thought about trying to invest for my future.

Later, when kabu.com came along it all seemed a bit risky, to be honest. Internet security was not great at that time and again, the Japanese small print before you could open an account put me off.

So, yeah, I agree with the poster who said that these offshore schemes were often the only choice for many of us at that time.

No eMaxis funds back then, either. (?)

captainspoke wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 12:23 am No eMaxis funds back then, either. (?)

Similar Japan list tracker funds were on the market in the late 90s. Before then US etfs in the early/mids.

I imagine in the 1980s it was considerably more difficult. You would probably have to pick your own bluechips and hope for the best.