So I’m a Japanese/US dual citizen (by birth) and after living my whole life in the US, I finally decided to move and live in Japan for good. I saved about 100K in a 401k which I transferred to an IRA, while also having about 10K in a Roth IRA, and I also have about 15K in an HSA. I just moved to Japan in mid December of last year, and I just recently landed a job. Side question: I don’t need to file taxes in Japan for 2023 right? I was literally only here for about three weeks and had not even registered with the gov’t yet. However, after registering in January, the gov’t is requesting I pay for health insurance since the first day I arrived, even though I wasn’t even covered at the time, so I’m wondering if they are going to be equally demanding about taxes?
I understand the importance of saving for retirement, but I’m not sure if that will even be feasible for me given what I have researched (btw, I am not good at taxes by any means so if my understanding of anything is incorrect, please point this out). If I want to use NISA or Ideco, or any kind of Japanese investments, the US will f\*\*\* me with PFICs, which I want to avoid at all costs, and from what I understand, Japan will not like my US retirement accounts either and will be taxing the unrealized gains on those each year. It seems my only option is to try and continue investing in US based stocks, but I can’t really do that anymore since I don’t have a US address anymore (I also don’t have any family I can rely on in the US either).
I’m thinking about hiring a tax lawyer given how complicated the situation is, and I’m wondering if any other dual citizens might have any recommendations for who to contact? They would need to speak English as I am not bilingual. Also, I am wondering if my only real option if I want to escape all these restrictions is to renounce my US citizenship so that I can take advantage of Japan’s retirement system? I’m not sure if this is a good idea though. While I don’t ever plan to go back to the US, I’m not exactly sure what the tax consequences will be for renouncing. I don’t think I will count as a covered expat since my net worth is not even close to $1 million, let alone 2, so I don’t think I would have to pay the exit tax, but are there other significant ramifications?
I really want to continue saving towards retirement, but it just seems like I’m completely trapped due to my dual citizenship. If anyone has any advice or experience regarding this, any help is appreciated!
by redditIsBetterThanSO
