RetireJapan

Hi all.
The company I work for is really small so they ask me to fill out my own end of year tax return forms. There are 3 of them.
I’ve already done it and have no problem with the forms themselves.
My question is more of a admin nature.
I have to input how much money I’ve paid in health insurance and pension on one of the forms.
Why?
Why is the government asking me how much money I’ve paid...to them?! My health insurance is the national one. Not private. And my pension is too.
So why am I telling them information they should already have access to?
Sorry if this sounds really dumb. But I come from the U.K. where all this is done automatically. This system just seems a bit odd to me.

Whatever you have paid in health insurance and pension will be deducted from your taxable income. So it’s to your benefit in this instance.

Why they ask? Probably due to systems not being joined up. In the UK it is more connected, probably due to NI going into the same pot as income tax. Here the pension and health insurance systems are separate.

KCLenny wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:31 am Why is the government asking me how much money I’ve paid...to them?! My health insurance is the national one. Not private. And my pension is too.
So why am I telling them information they should already have access to?

As you mentioned the government is well aware of how much you contributed to the national pension and healthcare.

The reason you have to write these numbers is to subtract them from your total income in order to get your taxable income, to which your tax rate will be applied. So it is not that you are telling the government how much you have paid for pension and healthcare, it's just that the form uses these numbers to help you calculate the amount of tax you owe. If the amounts you reported don't match with their records, the tax office will be in contact with you very shortly - even more so if the error is not in their favor.

N00bster wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 11:24 am

KCLenny wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:31 am Why is the government asking me how much money I’ve paid...to them?! My health insurance is the national one. Not private. And my pension is too.
So why am I telling them information they should already have access to?

As you mentioned the government is well aware of how much you contributed to the national pension and healthcare.

The reason you have to write these numbers is deduce them from your total income in order to get your taxable income, to which your tax rate will be applied. So it is not that you are telling the government how much you have paid for pension and healthcare, it's just that the form uses these numbers to help you calculate the amount of tax you owe. If the amounts you reported don't match with their records, the tax office will be in contact with you very shortly - even more so if the error is not in their favor.

That is a better answer than mine.

But I don’t understand why I have to tell the government how much tax I owe. Surely they know how much I’m earning, they know how much I’m paying in health insurance and pension, so they could just add that all up automatically and save everyone the hassle and a million trees worth of paper.

Side note
So my taxable income is the amount after my health insurance payments?
I just want to clarify because I remember filling in 2 boxes on one form. But was unclear what the difference was as they seemed to both say income and I couldn’t really tell the difference.
I added up as
Box on the left - total income
Box on the right - amount received after paying income tax (only income tax as my pension and health insurance I pay separately each month at the combini)

Was I supposed to deduct the health insurance and pension payment amounts from my total income too?

KCLenny wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 1:48 pm Surely they know how much I’m earning

They know if your employer reports that information and takes the tax directly from your salary, but that does not seem to be your case (does your company ask you to fill a kakutei shinkoku?). It is done for the vast majority of employed people here, so I'm not sure why your employer asks you to do it yourself.

I am not sure what the income categories on your form mean exactly either, but on earnings of c.2m your actual income tax should not be taking you down to anything like that figure on the right. You are entitled to a basic deduction plus employment deduction of around a million, and income tax is only 5% at that level of earnings, so should only be around 50k. I would suggest talking to your employer to see what is going on.

So I think I’ve understood it wrong.
I just received a breakdown from my boss which I think explains it better. I’m still not 100% sure but it’s at least in the 90% area.

I believe the first number is my total amount before any deductions and taxes.
The second number is after deductions. Which I think is my taxable income?
In total I’ve paid about 30,000 in tax for 2020, so clearly it’s not 800,000. So that’s the only think I can think.

KCLenny wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 2:51 am So I think I’ve understood it wrong.
I just received a breakdown from my boss which I think explains it better. I’m still not 100% sure but it’s at least in the 90% area.

I believe the first number is my total amount before any deductions and taxes.
The second number is after deductions. Which I think is my taxable income?
In total I’ve paid about 30,000 in tax for 2020, so clearly it’s not 800,000. So that’s the only think I can think.

Not sure if you can read Japanese but this tool works perfectly in your case. Apologies if I'm just causing more confusion.

https://www.zeikin5.com/calc/

Just three fields in yellow to populate in your case.

給与収入 2,214,150

社会保険料控除 26,692

扶養控除(一般) (Select one person over 16) "1人"

So your income tax calculation is actually.
1,468,400(net after allowance of 745,750) - 886,692(income tax allowances of 480,000, health insurance payment 26692 and dependant allowance of 380,000) = 581,000 (rounded down) * 5% = 29,050 (plus 610 extra for restoration fund then rounded down.) = 29,600

I need a lie down..

Your 2020 resident tax, payable from June, will be 68,000

Jesus!
Thank you so much for that though.
All those numbers add up so it’s right. I just have no idea about 80% of the terms and vocabulary used. It’s all just super confusing and I really need to find a good book to explain it all including all the jargon!
Thank you though!