RetireJapan

Hello all,

I recently was required to transfer my Interactive Brokers account internally to one that has Japan as my place of residence. I am a bit lost on how capital gains tax works with an IBLLC account here. For reference, I’m a Canadian expat with non permanent resident status.

If I hold on to my positions and never sell, then transfer my positions out if I leave Japan for good, I would not be liable for any tax, correct?

If I do sell some but do not withdraw/remit into a Japanese bank account, is that still counted as a gain?

Finally, has anyone ever tried filing capital gains taxes with IBLLC as their broker? Is it a hassle?

I filed taxes this year for an IBLLC account. There were no major problems, but IB doesn't seem to calculate the JPY cost basis correctly in any of its reports. For example, if you have a US stock, it looks at the cost basis in USD, and then seems to convert that to JPY using the current exchange rate, rather than the historical exchange rate for the day you bought it. I don't do very much trading, so I just went back and calculated the correct cost basis for all my positions using the original activity reports from IB.

If you are buy and hold, you should be fine, but if you are a big trader, you might have a nasty accounting problem on your hands...