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Residence tax payment (newbie)
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 2:03 pm
by KCLenny
Hi all. Lived in Japan on and off for about 3 years with various visas. This is the first time I’ve stayed long enough to have to pay residence tax.
I am an absolute newbie when it comes to tax. I have 0 understanding of it and am finding it all a bit confusing.
I’m from the U.K. and this kind of stuff is pretty much done automatically for us with very little input.
Anyway, I live in Fushimi-Ku, Kyoto, I was here all of 2020, every single day).
So my question is, when will I receive a residence tax bill? How do I go about paying it?
And would anyone have a rough idea of how much i could expect it to be based on my annual income last year being around ¥2,000,000.
I really appreciate the help.
Connor
Re: Residence tax payment (newbie)
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 3:08 pm
by Beaglehound
As long as you were resident on January 1st this year, you will be assessed for residence tax for 2020. I think the bills are sent out around June and it will be around 10% of your taxable income. If you were a salaried employee you will benefit from some automatic deductions of c. 1 million, meaning that on a salary of c. 2 million you will likely be due to pay around 100k. If self-employed, it’s more complex, so please say if that is the case. If you have paid pension and health insurance premiums, these would also reduce the amount due.
Regarding payment, some companies will levy it automatically through payroll. If not, you will be sent four payment slips from your local city office, payable at various points throughout the year. You can pay these via your bank, at a convenience store, and other options probably exist. I have always just paid these all at once for the whole year at a conbini. Keep the receipts in case you want to apply for permanent residency in future. Bizarrely, paying residence tax on time is a big deal it seems
Re: Residence tax payment (newbie)
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 4:32 am
by KCLenny
Hey, thanks for the reply.
I work at a company. But it’s very very small. I can’t remember the correct term but I think it’s something like a limited company. Words to that effect.
I have paid national health insurance, but I haven’t paid any pension. I have an exemption for paying as my wages weren’t high enough at the time (because of corona closing our school for a few weeks and less students on average coming after).
It definitely won’t be done through payroll. My company doesn’t even have a payroll. Honestly we are so small there are a total of 5 staff. And one of them is the boss. We just get a wage slip and an envelope every month (income tax is deducted from that though).
Thanks for the advice regarding keeping the receipts though. Luckily I already keep everything just in case. It’s a shame no one ever tells you this before or at the start though. My wife thought I was mad for keeping all our health insurance receipts until my boss said I had to attach them to my end of year tax return sheet.