Hello!
I have a bit of a different housing purchase situation than some, I think.
My family (wife (Japan citizen), 2 kids) and I are looking to buy/build a house in the Nara area and my wife’s sister has offered \~5000万円 to help with that. The complication is the sister (Japan citizen) lives in the Netherlands and the money does not currently reside in Japan. We do not have enough cash on hand ourselves to buy a place outright, nor would I want to sink all our money into a house here.
I do not yet have PR (on 2nd year of spouse visa; not yet a 3+ year visa) so while I’m aware a loan is not impossible, it is more difficult and potentially at a much higher rate until PR acquired. Income is 12mil per year before school is paid for (so.. let’s say 10mil after that).
Is there a scenario where this is not just a giant mess of taxes and pain?
Some scenarios in my head:
1. House+land is within the 5000万円 threshold and bought outright. We’d technically not own it, but.. no mortgage.
2. We get a loan for the land and she pays the costs to build a house on said land.
3. We get a loan for everything when/if we’re able to get a decent rate and.. she sends us money regularly to “pay for living expenses?” I think I’ve read that was some weird workaround to avoid gift tax.
We’re going to talk to an accountant/tax person about this as well, but any information is going to be helpful I feel. Having spoken to a few realtors, I don’t expect we’ll get much useful information out of them on this particular topic.
If the flair is incorrect, apologies, I felt it was the closest in the list.
by kbick675