A few months ago I started working as a Freelance software developer.
Prior to this I was on my Japanese spouse’s National Health Insurance as a dependant.
We’ve since received new health insurance cards and my card lists my spouse as Head of Household.
I’m wondering, is it OK to continue like this as a dependant on my spouse’s National Health Insurance if I am working as a Sole Proprietor (kojin jigyo)?
Do I need to go back to the ward office and request to be on my own National Health Insurance?
She’s technically unemployed at the moment — should add her as a dependant to mine?
Does me not being the Head of the Household / her dependant, but still paying the monthly slips for National Health Insurance for both of us, present any problems when it comes to taxes?
It’s my first few months working as a freelancer after years as an english teacher with all the tax/insurance/pension stuff pretty much handled for me, so I’m just trying to get some clarity on what I need to do here and avoid a big surprise at some point in the near future.
Thanks in advance!
6 comments
You should be paying your own national insurance and pension. Your wife will receive separate bills that she’ll need to pay as well. Or you can pay if you wish. City hall can put the bills together into one if you like.
We’ll if it’s new company and you’re not making any salary yet . Or just a little .. stay on your wife’s plan for the time being…. It’ll save you some money.. no advantage to getting your own card ..
I think it’s like 1.3 million max salary .. per year
Or if your wife’s also using National
Health just stay in her card … there’s no reason to get your own card .. financially
To be clear, my wife is also on National Health Insurance, and we were both issued cards from the ward office prior to me starting to work as a Sole Proprietor — at the time I received the card I was unemployed. She is listed as the ‘Head of Household’, and we received only one stack of payment slips, in her name, nothing in mine, which I pay each month.
Is there no penalty or rule against this as a sole proprietor on a spouse visa?
No requirements that I change to my own insurance when I start working as a Sole Proprietor?
Are there any tax implications such as being able/ not able to deduct the health insurance payments?
If you’re both on national health insurance then you are not a dependent. There is no dependent system for national health insurance, only for health insurance through a company.
If you’re on shakai hoken through a company you can be registered as a dependent and the employee with the shakai hoken doesn’t have to pay any extra money for having dependents. He/she could have a spouse and like 10 kids as dependents and pay the exact same amount as if it was just them paying.
For National health insurance you each have separate amounts to pay. Each person in the household who is on NHI is billed for it, so if a couple were both on it and then also had 10 kids on it, they’d be billed for 12 people’s insurance and it would be WAY more expensive than the couple with 10 kids in my example above where they have shakai hoken and only pay one flat percentage of salary and it covers everybody.
It lists a head of household on your bills because your wife is the head of household on your juminhyo, and technically the head of household is the one with the responsibility for the bills, as in, if you refused to pay she would be on the line legally to pay. You aren’t a dependent of her though and your bill is exactly the same as if you were single so there is no need (it’s not even possible afaik) to switch to “your own health insurance” because you already are billed as a separate person. This is why shakai hoken is better for couples/families to have than NHI
As u/Mercenarian explained, National health insurance is billed to the household (part of the payment is actually a per household amount).
However, you can still deduct it on your taxes. Either all, or in part, you can deduct the amount you ”actually” paid. If you take the slips to city hall, they can help you figure out the breakdown.