E-filing Japanese taxes in English

[solo7100]

Hello,

I was told by a Japanese tax accountant that it is easy to do my American taxes online. I can file it myself. He said there is an English version.

I was like, huh?

Anyone know anything about this? I use Turbotax in the states, but I didn't know there was (or seems to be) an equivalent in Japan?

[RetireJapan]

it is easy to do my American taxes online. I can file it myself. He said there is an English version.

I'm guessing you mean your Japanese taxes?

It is easy to do as long as you have a My Number card.

https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/s ... /index.htm

Not sure about English, I did mine in Japanese. Next year's tax forms aren't available yet, of course.

[VG1]

Hello,

I was told by a Japanese tax accountant that it is easy to do my American taxes online. I can file it myself. He said there is an English version.

I was like, huh?

Anyone know anything about this? I use Turbotax in the states, but I didn't know there was (or seems to be) an equivalent in Japan?

You can also go to the tax office, and they will be happy to fill it out for you. I did it this way several times.

[adamu]

I'm not aware of an English service for filing tax returns, but for the end of year tax adjustment, I believe Smart HR provides an English version, however that's a charged service your employer has to subscribe to. There are also official English translations of the forms linked from the EOY tax adjustment page on the wiki.

For the tax return itself, there is also an official English guide.

It seems there's also an English PDF that tries to tell you how to use the Japanese online system too.

[captainspoke]

...
Anyone know anything about this? I use Turbotax in the states, but I didn't know there was (or seems to be) an equivalent in Japan?

Thankfully, there is no turbotax-like crap necessary here (no tax software industry, like the US, where it has a very strong/parasitic grip on the system).

I don't e-file, and just go to the tax office to run thru it, but have read (I think here and other places) that you can use Chrome and have that translate it on the fly.

[Tkydon]

These are all for 2022, as 2023 docs will not be available until January of 2024 for 2023 Tax Season in March April 2024

https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/s ... df/050.pdf

https://www.e-tax.nta.go.jp/manual/manual03_e.pdf

[solo7100]

Thanks everyone for the links and resources!

[Gulliver]

...
Anyone know anything about this? I use Turbotax in the states, but I didn't know there was (or seems to be) an equivalent in Japan?

Thankfully, there is no turbotax-like crap necessary here (no tax software industry, like the US, where it has a very strong/parasitic grip on the system).

I don't e-file, and just go to the tax office to run thru it, but have read (I think here and other places) that you can use Chrome and have that translate it on the fly.

I don’t know… I completed an accurate US tax return for last year in about a 1/2 hour sitting at home in my pajamas. This included multiple investments and foreign income/asset reporting. I used one of the major US e-filing programs.

This, as opposed to my Japanese tax return with which I had to waste several days gathering documents, speaking with multiple specialists and paying for annoying crowded transportation to far-flung offices and restaurants. (and in the end, I was still not feeling 100% certain I was getting all of the deductions due and reporting done correctly).

I’ll gladly pay $70 for the former.

Also, at least in the US you have the option to do your own taxes for free, or use the premium software. In Japan, if you need to do a complicated tax return that involves foreign income on easy mode, there is diddly squat.

[Tkydon]

...
Anyone know anything about this? I use Turbotax in the states, but I didn't know there was (or seems to be) an equivalent in Japan?

Thankfully, there is no turbotax-like crap necessary here (no tax software industry, like the US, where it has a very strong/parasitic grip on the system).

I don't e-file, and just go to the tax office to run thru it, but have read (I think here and other places) that you can use Chrome and have that translate it on the fly.

I don’t know… I completed an accurate US tax return for last year in about a 1/2 hour sitting at home in my pajamas. This included multiple investments and foreign income/asset reporting. I used one of the major US e-filing programs.

This, as opposed to my Japanese tax return with which I had to waste several days gathering documents, speaking with multiple specialists and paying for annoying crowded transportation to far-flung offices and restaurants. (and in the end, I was still not feeling 100% certain I was getting all of the deductions due and reporting done correctly).

I’ll gladly pay $70 for the former.

Also, at least in the US you have the option to do your own taxes for free, or use the premium software. In Japan, if you need to do a complicated tax return that involves foreign income on easy mode, there is diddly squat.

You can go to the Local office of the National Tax Authority in your City/Ward/Town/Village during Tax Time (Not the City/Ward/Town/Village Tax Office) - 14 Feb to 14 Mar, and the staff there will help you enter everything into the system there for free.

https://www.nta.go.jp/about/organization/index.htm
https://www.nta.go.jp/about/organizatio ... /tokyo.htm

https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/s ... df/050.pdf


Or you can do the E-Tax.

https://www.e-tax.nta.go.jp/manual/manual03_e.pdf

[captainspoke]

...
I don’t know… I completed an accurate US tax return for last year in about a 1/2 hour sitting at home in my pajamas. This included multiple investments and foreign income/asset reporting. I used one of the major US e-filing programs.

This, as opposed to my Japanese tax return with which I had to waste several days gathering documents, speaking with multiple specialists and paying for annoying crowded transportation to far-flung offices and restaurants. (and in the end, I was still not feeling 100% certain I was getting all of the deductions due and reporting done correctly).
...

I do pay for a US software package, and the reason is that it connects directly to my broker, and all the year-end tax stuff flows in to the right places in about 10 seconds. On the other hand, it does seem a little odd that I have to repeat that, since all of it has already been forwarded to the IRS...

For people with US/foreign accounts, it does take more work, but keep in mind that for domestic filers (people with japan-domiciled investments only,) the great majority of those don't even need to put that on their tax returns--the brokers deal with all that and the customer/investor doesn't have to do or think about anything. ((Another POV would be that the filing difficulty here for US people is due to the US's quirks--that it's the US, thru a bunch of disincentives, that doesn't allow you to invest like a normal person here. That is, the US has created the situation, not japan. So, place blame where it is due...? ))

The best strategy for reporting US trades and any distributions/interest here is to have a couple spreadsheets set so you can update them thru the year. I do trades (sale) within a couple days of the sale, and adding right then when it's fresh in mind is the perfect time to do that. I do dividends and interest 3-4 times during the year, so that come late January, I only have to update the last month or two (e.g., November/December) and it's done. Any trades for 2023 I have already done up to the present.

Especially for any trades, where the basis and proceeds as converted to yen can sometimes be 'surprising', keeping this up to date can help in planning, since you then already know your passive income to date (divs/interest), and, versus the US, whether you have yen-based gains/losses. This also helps some with planning what to sell and when--and whether you want to be taking gains due to yen depreciation, or not. And doing these updates several times thru the year means that you won't waste days gathering documents.

I'm not sure what specialists you're talking about. After a few years of doing this, to me it seems pretty straightforward.