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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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 Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 2:43 am Post subject: |
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| PAULH wrote: |
| bornslippy1981 wrote: |
I'm a bit confused about the residential tax. I lived here 8 months in 2005, and got a 50,000 Yen city tax bill, payable in four installments.
It was my first time to Japan. Should I have received this bill or not? You say you're exempt in the first year? |
This year is 2006 so you are getting charged based on last years tax return. The tax office sends information on your national taxes to the city office and they calculate the resident taxes you pay on the declared income. You are not exempt in the first year, the resident tax is post-paid in the following year. |
This is close, but not quite right. Your residential tax is determined from the information presented from your national tax, but it is not garnered from information sent by the tax office for national taxes. It is determined from the declaration of income you or your company provide when you do your taxes through the city. Most companies do taxes for you, but your are able to file your own even if the company already did. This is especially useful if you have a part time job in addition to your full time position.
In very rare cases a company may cheat on its taxes to your and its favor. If the company has offices in more than one prefecture (or at least a paper office) it can play one prefecture of the other in reporting its taxes. Company residence taxes are base upon income and number of workers in the locality including a few more determinents. If a company tell the locality that it's workers actually live and do most of their work in another prefecture they will be liable for far less taxes in that locality. If they say the same thing to the other prefecture they are in effect paying almost no taxes. This benefits you because they in effect never show you to be liable for taxes because you never show any declared income .
If this happens you can actually get national health insurance at the smallest possible payment and you'll never recieve a residence tax bill. It all works because none of the different offices and beauracracies talk to each other, and the government refuses to investigate tax fraud based on tips.
However, if an employee who is working under such a system has a part time job and declares his or her full income in the national tax return at the municipal office, said employee is exposing the company for tax fraud. So, an employer who practices this method will likely fire an employee who has a part-time job on top of their regular employment. A mild slap on the wrist for breaking labor standards law is nothing compared to charges for tax evasion. |
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HollyC
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Posts: 74
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| Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 5:32 am Post subject: |
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| For the residential taxes..you aren't supposed to pay until after 2 years of living in Japan. That's when I got mine. If you are leaving Japan and you get a statement..just ignore it since, you are leaving. Your employer is not supposed to deduct that from your pay because these residential taxes should be coming directly to your own mailbox wherever you are living. |
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Hoser
Joined: 19 Mar 2005
Posts: 694
Location: Toronto, Canada
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| Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't know about that. I just got somethng in the mail from my city office. They want me to make 4 payments of about 15,000 yen each! (not all at the same time of course.) I've only just been here over a year so why would they be making me pay it already?? |
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bornslippy1981
Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 271
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| Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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| HollyC wrote: |
| For the residential taxes..you aren't supposed to pay until after 2 years of living in Japan. That's when I got mine. If you are leaving Japan and you get a statement..just ignore it since, you are leaving. Your employer is not supposed to deduct that from your pay because these residential taxes should be coming directly to your own mailbox wherever you are living. |
Yes, ignore it, and don't ever plan on coming back to Japan.
Taxes aren't fun, but need to be paid.
As somebody said a few weeks ago when I was confused about receiving a bill, you aren't exempt the first year. I still had my trash collected, and the money for that service has to come from someplace, in addition to the other services the city provided.
I had a Japanese friend call the city office to verify that I had to pay, even though I didn't live in Japan a year, and me receiving a bill wasn't a mistake.
Perhaps HollyC got lucky? I'm not sure. |
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MrChips
Joined: 06 Jun 2007
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 2:54 am Post subject: |
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I just received my first residential tax in the mail yesterday. I've been in Japan for 19 months. My monthly salary is the standard 250 000�. I live in a small city, Tokushima. And for some reason I need to pay 165 000�. 
Does this amount seem high to anyone? I spoke to some of my coworkers in Takamatsu, a larger city, and they mentioned that they pay around 72 000�.
I really hope there's some kind of mistake.  |
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Apsara
Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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| I pay 5% of my income as ward tax here in Tokyo, which I think is pretty standard. In your case, 5% of your yearly income is 150,000 yen, so that doesn't sound too far off, especially if you did a bit of overtime. I hate paying it as well, but at least my income tax isn't about 35% like it would be in NZ. |
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bearcat
Joined: 08 May 2004
Posts: 367
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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| MrChips wrote: |
I just received my first residential tax in the mail yesterday. I've been in Japan for 19 months. My monthly salary is the standard 250 000�. I live in a small city, Tokushima. And for some reason I need to pay 165 000�.
Does this amount seem high to anyone? I spoke to some of my coworkers in Takamatsu, a larger city, and they mentioned that they pay around 72 000�.
I really hope there's some kind of mistake. |
Resident/citizen tax varies from city/township/region. Its also based on declared income. So the takamatsu guys could be paying less because:
1. Its less in Takamatsu area
2. They in someway declared less income (some places declare/count the kotsuhi(commuting expense) in the declared income even though technically it shouldnt be and thus it bumps up the amount).
3. They or the school/company they worked for was able go give them some sort of tax deduction.
4. Any combination above. |
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ironopolis
Joined: 01 Apr 2004
Posts: 379
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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| bearcat wrote: |
| MrChips wrote: |
I just received my first residential tax in the mail yesterday. I've been in Japan for 19 months. My monthly salary is the standard 250 000�. I live in a small city, Tokushima. And for some reason I need to pay 165 000�.
Does this amount seem high to anyone? I spoke to some of my coworkers in Takamatsu, a larger city, and they mentioned that they pay around 72 000�.
I really hope there's some kind of mistake. |
Resident/citizen tax varies from city/township/region. Its also based on declared income. So the takamatsu guys could be paying less because:
1. Its less in Takamatsu area
2. They in someway declared less income (some places declare/count the kotsuhi(commuting expense) in the declared income even though technically it shouldnt be and thus it bumps up the amount).
3. They or the school/company they worked for was able go give them some sort of tax deduction.
4. Any combination above. |
No, it's none of those. The reason is that Y72,000 is what they paid last year and that the way city tax is calculated has just changed and is being reflected in the vastly increased amounts on the bills being sent out around now. Basically, about half of what was previously taken in income tax is now being taken from city tax instead. If you check your recent pay slips you should find that you're paying substantially less income tax than you did last year.
Mr. Chips, your Y165,000 sounds about right. My bill is also just over double what I'd paid the year before. I do sympathise, as it must be a bit of a shock if you didn't know about the change. |
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Apsara
Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm, I couldn't read it all, but I thought that some of the information which came with my tax return form this year was saying that the ward tax would be higher this year- I'm expecting a whopping bill to arrive in the next few weeks in that case- I'll probably be giving back the whole 130,000 tax rebate I got back to them and then some.  |
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MrChips
Joined: 06 Jun 2007
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:48 am Post subject: |
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Wow, that's disappointing. When I first received the bill I was fairly confident that it was due to some kind of error.
I was expecting 60 000, 70 000� maybe.
I also need to pay for health insurance this month. |
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Hoser
Joined: 19 Mar 2005
Posts: 694
Location: Toronto, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Well I got a bit of a shock today. Last year I paid res tax for the first time and it turned out to be four payments of about 12,000 yen. This year it was four payments of 46,000 yen!! That's 184,000 yen!! Jesus fucking Christ! |
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azarashi sushi
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 562
Location: Shinjuku
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| Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 2:59 am Post subject: |
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| I just received my ward tax bill this year too... and went into shock! It's about double what it was last year. |
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wabisabi365
Joined: 04 Feb 2007
Posts: 111
Location: japan
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| Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:03 am Post subject: Skyrocketing　Tax |
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Last year: 36000
this year: 177000
Very unhappy.
Argh. |
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rai
Joined: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 119
Location: Osaka
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| Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:19 am Post subject: |
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Just a quick note: You can go to city hall and ask them to split your payments up almost anyway you want them to. Last year I just paid 10,000 yen a month. They might look really unhappy and grumble a bit, but it is your right (and you are still paying after all). I'm also splitting up the lump sum I owe for back health insurance payments.
Take a Japanese friend with you if you can. |
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furiousmilksheikali
Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1660
Location: In a coffee shop, splitting a 30,000 yen tab with Sekiguchi.
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| Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 7:12 am Post subject: |
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| HOLY SHIT |
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