Context – I was working in Japan for the last few years until April of this year and I am leaving Japan in roughly 2 weeks from now. The university where I was working, was doing the taxes for me so thus far I did not have to do anything myself (salary that I received was already tax deducted). I recently learnt that I have some pending taxes to pay so I went to pay the amount to my city tax office today. Here is what I learnt. For the period Jan 1 – May 31, I have to pay about 50k Â¥ (because I was earning income as of Jan 1 2024). It sounded too less to me but I guess the major amount was already deducted from my salary this year. All good. Now additionally I learnt that there is about 300k Â¥ worth of tax that one has / can pay for the remainder of the year.
Questions – The last sentence was very confusing. I had trouble communicating with the language barrier and kindly enough a translator helped us out. My main question was, is this additional 300k Â¥ a mandatory tax that I have to pay? I did not get a clear yes or no on this. The tax officer said something along the lines that 'you can leave without paying and you are not expected to pay tax to Japan if you are not living here' however 'it will be appreciated if I paid that amount'. Now, I have enough money to pay that amount (if it is mandatory) but not enough money so that I can just give it away for charity 😀 I further clarified that what happens if I do not pay this 300k Â¥ and want to come back to Japan may be few years down the line – will my actions be considered illegal and may be deny me visa due to this. The tax officer said don't worry there won't be any trouble due to this in future. Can I trust this and take his words ? There is also the pension thing (a lump-sum amount that we get back after leaving which was being accumulated as pension funds). If I don't pay 300k Â¥ does that any how affect me getting back the pension amount ? If it affects then should one check if the pension amount is greater or less than 300k Â¥ and calculate my net profit or loss ? 😀
Final thoughts – The kind Brazilian woman who helped me with the translation later told me offline that this situation was confusing because the tax officer was trying to hint at something but couldn't say it out loudly. So this seems like some kind of grey area that I am not aware of. Is there some cultural point that I am completely missing. Anyways, the tax officer handed me a bill for the 50kÂ¥ and asked me to pay it at the convenience store and then I left. I am in Mie prefecture by the way (don't know if it matters or laws are same everywhere in the country). What would you do in this situation?
by StruggleHot8676