Hi folks,
I’m a US citizen, Japan PR holder and currently a full-time employee at a company that my Japanese citizen spouse owns. I’m considering moving down to part-time and switching to being a dependent on the health insurance and pension, so first want to be sure I understand the situation with doing that, and then I’m also wondering long term if/how it makes sense to add freelance work on top.
I’m a little fuzzy on the levels of income around that – am I correct in thinking there are different levels that mean paying residence tax (lower, something like 8man per month?) and that mean enrolling in insurance and pension separately (11man per month?)? Is there an easy way to calculate the point at which it makes sense to go over the limit (I have heard this has changed since last I was PT many years ago when it was something like 14man per month?)?
If I were to add freelance work, how does that complicate things? Is it just pushing the income up from one bracket to the next (so say adding 2man per month to an 8man PT job – start paying residence tax but not insurance?) or does the process of taking on freelance work remove one from the dependent category altogether?
I’ve tried reading through similar threads and I am still not confident I’m figuring out all that’s involved, so I’m hoping for a little help, I am sorry if this is too much a retread of a common question! I appreciate whatever folks can share.
by purslanegarden