RetireJapan

Hello Retire Japan. Question for you regarding working in Japan remotely for a US company- basically, how does it work? I am a US citizen and a PR of Japan.

At first I thought I would be responsible for US national and state tax, as well as Japanese tax. The amount of taxes alone may make the work impractical.

Then I heard that it kind of depends on the contract type. I heard that if you are hired as an independent contractor (instead of an employee), a US-Japan tax treaty allows you to pay the tax on the income in Japan only. It sounds too good to be true.

Does anyone here work remotely for a US company? Can you provide any insight as to how your taxes work?

https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/

There's some comment on it over there--very knowledgeable people. I think the gist is that 'contractor' is better, not only for you, but so that the company abroad doesn't get snagged by rules here (they might need to maintain a japan 'presence' if you're an actual employee). Something like that.

This isn't something I'm competent to answer, I'm just relaying something i read, so ask/search over there.

No no, I really appreciate the help. I was having a hard time finding a good resource. Most of what I found was based on the employer's POV, which is basically what you just stated regarding the employee's status. I will check this out. Thank you.