Photo of Fukuoka City Hall, from Fukuoka City
I. Income tax
This is the tax on income. The tax is levied on the salary you receive from your company, money you earn from your own business, or any other form of income. The amount remaining after deducting necessary expenses is your yearly “taxable income,” which is the basis for calculating the amount of income tax. The tax rates depend on your income gained between January to December.
Calculating income tax
Individuals are required to calculate their income and tax amounts for one year before filing a final tax return. However, if you are employed full-time at a company, then the company will generally calculate that sum and submit it on your behalf. If you are juggling multiple jobs though, then you will be forced to calculate and submit tax return forms on your own.
Ⅱ. Resident tax
This is the tax paid to the place of your residence from January 1. The tax amount is decided based on the income amount of the previous year. If you have just moved to Japan, you will be charged for resident tax the year after first receiving an income in Japan. The tax period is one year, from June to May of the following year.
You will receive slips which document how much you owe in residential taxes via post to your place of residence a year after you first receive an income in Japan. The sum of what you receive shall be broken up into four segments—one for each quarter of the year. They each have their own respective deadlines which you will be required to pay by. If you are not arranging payments via your employer, then you will be responsible for meeting the deadlines listed on each slip. You are free to pay for them one at a time, or in any combination, including all of them at once.
In the case of CyberConnect2, you can have the company pay the resident tax on your behalf by bringing in the aforementioned documents from the tax office. By having CyberConnect2 pay the tax on your behalf, it is deducted from your salary each month, and you do not need to worry about paying it yourself.
Ⅲ. Filing income tax for your home country
Depending on your country’s agreement with Japan, you may or may not be obligated to file yearly income tax reports for your home country in addition to filing one in Japan. Details will vary per country, so please be sure to research whether your country requires you to file taxes or not, and if so, by when they are due.
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