Can you help me?

Q: Can you help me? I got what looks like a tax bill in the mail. My friend said it was a bill for Residents Tax. What is it and do I have to pay it?

 A:  All residents of Japan, including foreign residents, are required to pay Residence Tax. The municipality in which you were residing in on January 1 is the municipality that will administer your Residence Tax bill. The amount of Residents Tax to be paid, this includes Prefectural Residence Tax and Municipal Residence Tax, is determined by the amount of income received between January and December of the previous year, and the number of dependents you have. If, on January 1 2008, you had lived in Japan continuously for one year or more, or if your occupation requires you to live in Japan for one year or more, then under the eye’s of the law you are a resident and therefore are required to pay Residents Tax this year. If the above applies to you, then June’s arrival of the Residence Tax bill in your mail box should not come as a surprise to you.

Even if you were living in another city in Japan on January 1^st and have recently moved to Nagoya, then your previous municipal office will issue you a bill to your Nagoya address. Alternatively if you were living in Nagoya on January 1^st but have recently moved to another city in Japan, then your old Ward Office will issue you a bill to your new address. If you are new to Japan this year, you won’t get a bill this time and you can breathe a sigh of relief until next June…

 How and Where do I pay?
Either your employer will deduct tax payments from your salary each month from June to May and then pays the tax to the Ward Office for you. Or you will receive payment slips in the mail directly from your Ward Office. The payment slips are issued in June, August, October and January. If you fail to pay your taxes by the deadline, a delinquency charge will be added. Residence Tax can be paid at a bank, post office or directly to at the issuing ward office. If you move out of Nagoya or permanently leave Japan, you must pay any remaining balance you have, or appoint a proxy to pay the remaining balance to your former ward office or its branch office.

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