Job Discussion Forums

[stumptowny]

There is up to a 500,000 penalty for not reporting. How many people do not even know about this change that happened last year? Like everyone!!! When there were changes to the foreign registration system, every foreign resident in Japan received clear notifications in the mail. Yet about this, not one word. Some (all?) people might get nailed for 500,000 yen out of ignorance. Imagine if the NTA proceeds as it does now, waiting for a full 5 years to add penalities and late penalties. Will be far more than 500,000 owed.

There will be masses of gaijins getting hit with something that they were never informed of, which may prompt some change, or may not, if wave after wave of unsuspecting and uninformed gaijin being told late via a huge fine, starts to bog down the NTA. Or as complaints mount. I really hope that is the case. Everyone is going to say the same thing.... "what is this about? I never heard of this?!"

Essentially the government is picking and choosing what gaijins know in advance and it appears to be based on the potential profit it may garner. Registration changes, get something in the mail. Easy. Tax revenue changes, nothing in the mail or from your company. You'd think someone somewhere would tell us about this?!!! Someone must be liable for this negligence in Japan.

So hope that you are not one of the unlucky ones now, getting shafted in the early days of the enforcement, before the masses come through the same grinder later. Maybe there will be a better chance for those being prosecuted later as NTA realizes no one even knew about this.... Or better yet, they are required to 1) notify all gaijin and 2) relax!!

Slim chance in heel that will happen. After all, they are penalizing people retroactively for maximum profit for something they never knew existed. It is so so wrong.

[nightsintodreams]

I do have sympathy for you and people in your situation, and I don't think being taxed twice seems fair at all, but it's not Japan's responsibility to go out of it's way to make sure you're aware of every single law that may effect you.

[stumptowny]

yes, it is there responsibility. and its triple taxed, not double. 1) job 2) US 3) NTA

[Vince]

[rxk22]

[Vince]

[rxk22]

It's an option to consider, but for some of us it would cause a lot of financial pain. We'd need to move our assets to Japan, thus triggering associated fees and taxes in the US. Long-term investment strategies could be significantly undermined. Then there's the question of what we can access through the Japanese system, how those investments perform, and what fees and taxes are involved.

I haven't really looked into it, but I've heard that investing in securities in Japan isn't very lucrative unless you're investing a lot of money. Have any of you had a different experience?[/quote]

Oh, only as a last resort. Only if it became really burdensome, then I would consider it. I would also offshore my money before surrendering my citizenship.

There are some stocks here that preform well. There is also, a HUGE amount of junk that I wouldn't touch. Hitachi and Fujitsu have made some very impressive turn arounds. Komatsu and Kubota are pretty decent buys as well. They are there, you just have to look.
You will lack the DGI stocks that the US and Europe has, like UL, PG, MMM, KMB, CL, Nestle, CLX, and the such. Which will suck

But I have no experience is owning/trading stocks here. I need to look into it. I am not sure what we can buy here. Are we limited to only Japanese securities? I own some ETFs, as an American it gives me access to the world markets. Are mutual funds even available? As, I own a few, so I can have access to bonds(Sorcery to me), and world growth funds. Want to make an investing

Going to be interesting, as my wife has a decent career here, and I can support our family on just my salary. So, leaving is not something we want to consider.