How to claim your tax refund while continuing to reside in Japan: 3 points to note
After you leave Japan you need to submit a form to designate a Tax Agent (Nozei Kanrinin, 納税管理人 in Japanese) in order to claim your tax refund in Japan. Your tax agent will claim your tax refund on behalf of yourself.
On the other hand, while you reside in Japan now and no plan to leave in the near future, you need to take up a different process than designating a Tax Agent. The following three are the major different points:
- (1) You need to claim your tax refund either by yourself or with designating a Tax Accountant
While you reside in Japan you are responsible to submit your tax return of each year (including tax refund claims). Basically you need to submit it by yourself to the tax office where you live. But it is also OK that you let a Tax Accountant (Zeirishi, 税理士 in Japanese) submit it on behalf of you(*).
(*)But while you are employed by a company your tax returns (including tax refunds) are all carried out by the employer on behalf of you employees. For details please see this article in our blog.
To note is that, though, a Tax Accountant is a public attorney, whose license is issued by Japanese government. Contrary to a Tax Agent, to whom you can designate any Japanese residents and companies, you can only pick up a Tax Account who has a public license. So please be sure to ask a Tax Accountant to claim your tax return (tax refund) on behalf of you.
- (2) You can claim your tax refund of this year since the next year begins
If you leave Japan within year 2021, for example, and claim your tax refund of the same year just after your departure (via Tax Agent of you), in most cases it will be accepted by Japanese tax office on the condition that you had taken your income only from salary. But while you reside in Japan you can only claim your tax refund of year 2021 after year 2022 begins. Japanese tax offices will accept the previous year’s tax returns (including tax refunds) after the new year begins (normally from February).
- (3) You need to designate your own Japanese bank account for receiving your tax refund
After you leave Japan your tax refund will be transferred into a bank account of your Tax Agent. You will receive it from your Tax Agent in turn. You can receive it in any possible ways. It is OK to receive it in your oversea account or it is also no problem to let your Tax Agent transfer it into an account of any other persons. But while you reside in Japan you can only receive your tax refund into your own Japanese bank account. You cannot designate an oversea account nor an account of any other persons.
YouAT LLC can claim tax refunds of non-Japanese persons who reside in Japan
We YouAT LLC has a Tax Accountant as one of our staff. So we can claim tax refunds or pay taxes of non-Japanese persons who reside in Japan. If you need help for your tax refunds or tax payments then please feel free to contact us.
For Detailed Information..
- Final tax return (National Tax Agency, External Link)
- 2020 INCOME TAX AND SPECIAL INCOME TAX FOR RECONSTRUCTION GUIDE (National Tax Agency, External Link)
YouAT LLC gives you services for Japanese pension and tax refunds
We YouAT LLC has more than 10 year’s history to support non-Japanese employees’ “Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments”, “Old Age Pension”, and income tax refunds.
We have staff of Labor and Social Security Attorney, Administrative Scrivener, and Tax Accountant.
Please feel free to contact us for Japanese Pension and Tax Refunds!
YouAT LLC website — > www.youat-jp.com/
Email –> info@youat-jp.com