RetireJapan

Hello Forum,

I am yet to start with my Furusato Nozei. I was under the impression that I make the application by the end of the year (2023) and buy gifts next year (2024).
But, I was wrong!

If someone can confirm my following understanding, I'd be so grateful.

1. I must act quickly and make the purchase before end of December. If I place the order by end of December I hope it works; even if the delivery takes time.
2. Since I have a necessary tax office run for this year I don't have to worry about the 'One Stop' deadline for sending the application. In fact Kakutei Shinkoku would be better for me?
3. If it's kakutei shinkoku, after I receive the gifts and the certificate I don't need to do anything else until the end of the financial year. When I go to do the taxes, I do the final step.

Any other important points I am missing out here?

If you are asking about getting fursato nozei payments to count for 2023, my experience is that you can make the payment even very late in December and the municipality will correctly send you a receipt that applies to 2023. I have received the mailed receipts in January and they showed the December payment date. The thank you gifts can arrive in the following year without changing that. I use Rakuten and have made orders up to about December 28 which worked out fine. I also always use kakuteishinkoku (確定申告) so I don't know if there is a different deadline for using one-stop.

Dee.Geo wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 2:03 am 1. I must act quickly and make the purchase before end of December. If I place the order by end of December I hope it works; even if the delivery takes time.

Right, as long as the "donation" was paid in December, I think it should be fine.

Dee.Geo wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 2:03 am 2. Since I have a necessary tax office run for this year I don't have to worry about the 'One Stop' deadline for sending the application. In fact Kakutei Shinkoku would be better for me?

If you are doing a tax return, one stop seido is void, so yes, no need to worry about it, nor to complete the one stop forms.

Dee.Geo wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 2:03 am 3. If it's kakutei shinkoku, after I receive the gifts and the certificate I don't need to do anything else until the end of the financial year. When I go to do the taxes, I do the final step.

Correct (well, not sure what "financial year" is, the tax year is the same as the calendar year). If you file online, you can even get a summary XML file to import the data, no need for paper certificates.

Dee.Geo wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 2:03 am Any other important points I am missing out here?

If you're one of the edge cases where the tax rates differ between Income Tax and Residence tax, you might end up paying more than 2000 yen. It's very complicated:

https://reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comme ... on_limits/

Thanks a lot for the replies.
Great help!

If you're one of the edge cases where the tax rates differ between Income Tax and Residence tax, you might end up paying more than 2000 yen. It's very complicated:

https://reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comme ... on_limits/

That poster on Reddit really has an amazing understanding of Japanese taxes. There was just one thing he didn't mention in that excellent post. There is an upper limit after which your furusatonozei deduction is reduced because you have received too much in "thank you" gifts. My accountants tell me that after 1.5 million in yen donations you likely exceed the 500,000 yen in allowed gifts and get a reduction in tax benefit beyond the usual 2,000 yen reduction.

Yes, that is similar to what my accountants (KPMG) told me. Anything over 500,000 yen worth of benefits can be potentially counted as extra income and you are then liable to pay tax on it if you get pulled up on it. So far though, I've not had any pushback when I've submitted my tax returns and have claimed more than this theoretical 1.5 million yen limit.