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Tax deduction options for foreigners living in Japan?

Ok, so I went to a tax calculation office with my wife and we both filled about all our information using an etax system. Turns out I will be getting money back and they were even able to file my taxes to the tax office from there. Since it was my first time filing, I was happy to find out that they are able to deposit the money directly into my Japanese bank account.

It is funny because the following morning, I received a letter telling me to pay my pension. I realize that the tax office and the pension office are separate, but maybe the pension office was able to get word that I'm getting tax money back, so they got on the ball about shaking me down for some cash lol.

My boss, who is a Japanese woman keeps insisting that I shouldn't worry if I'm a little behind on my pension payments because it won't effect my visa renewal process? From what I have been reading online, it has become a requirement to not only sign up for shakai hoken, but to make sure you are up to date or relatively up to date on your monthly payments?

I plan to call up the pension office to talk with them and mention that I plan to seriously pay what I can, so they get off my back a little. I just find it funny because a few weeks ago my boss was telling me how even a lot of Japanese people don't pay their pensions much at all and that they would have to hunt down many people individually, so I shouldn't worry so much. Well, I must be on their shit list because it sure seems like I'm one of the first ones they are hassling for money lol.

Has anyone on here ever received any letters from the pension office about making payments?
 
It is funny because the following morning, I received a letter telling me to pay my pension. I realize that the tax office and the pension office are separate, but maybe the pension office was able to get word that I'm getting tax money back, so they got on the ball about shaking me down for some cash lol.

Has anyone on here ever received any letters from the pension office about making payments?

Your faith in the effectiveness of the Japanese bureaucracy is hearth warming. Do you seriously believe that even if they exchanged information anything would happen in less than a year? :D

And about the letters; anyone who hasn't paid in the pension system is getting those letters. And according to the statistics most of them just ignore them; similarly with Japanese and foreigners. :eek:
 
Your faith in the effectiveness of the Japanese bureaucracy is hearth warming. Do you seriously believe that even if they exchanged information anything would happen in less than a year? :D

And about the letters; anyone who hasn't paid in the pension system is getting those letters. And according to the statistics most of them just ignore them; similarly with Japanese and foreigners. :eek:

Do you receive and ignore these letters yourself? lol

I will just pay what I can, when I can.
 
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Hey Hey Hey!
Because all you fuckers don't pay your pension, the pool is draining, and even though I've paid for 20+ years, I get a perfume scented letter from the Pension office annually informing me that I can expect to receive the massive sum of about 30,000yen a month when my pension kicks in.
So TJB get off your ass, get down to the pension office and pay up, so when I hit 70 I'll be able to afford a once a month session at JK style (not accounting for inflation, accommodation, food etc).

Your faith in the effectiveness of the Japanese bureaucracy is hearth warming. Do you seriously believe that even if they exchanged information anything would happen in less than a year?
Obviously not the case in Shizuoka. They have those old style love hotel air shooters directly from the Tax dept to the pension office.
 
I will just pay what I can, when I can.

That's probably the worst route to go with the pension payments... You need to pay for 25 years, and not a month less, to receive anything from the system. :(

Because all you fuckers don't pay your pension, the pool is draining, and even though I've paid for 20+ years, I get a perfume scented letter from the Pension office annually informing me that I can expect to receive the massive sum of about 30,000yen a month when my pension kicks in.

I am guessing that is what you get after paying the system for that minimum 25 years? To me that deal sounds like we've been fucked all over even without taking the p4p route :ROFLMAO:

Japan is the only country that has already confessed that the youngsters who start paying now will eventually receive less than they have paid when they retire. And if they confess that the situation must be pretty much worse. So be prepared for the retirement age to go up and the monthly sums to go down as soon as the baby boomers have secured their pensions. :(

So better to make that member's card to the love hotel and get your senior citizen discounts; you save way more than 30k each month! :D
 
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I received a letter telling me to pay my pension. I realize that the tax office and the pension office are separate, but maybe the pension office was able to get word that I'm getting tax money back, so they got on the ball about shaking me down for some cash lol.

My boss, who is a Japanese woman keeps insisting that I shouldn't worry if I'm a little behind on my pension payments because it won't effect my visa renewal process? From what I have been reading online, it has become a requirement to not only sign up for shakai hoken, but to make sure you are up to date or relatively up to date on your monthly payments?

It's an obligation for your employer to enrol you in shakai hoken if they have ten or more employees and you're full time. If you're a part timer, then they don't need to enrol you, but you need to enrol yourself in kokumin hoken (NHI) and the kokumin nenkin (pension). Currently neither of these affect your visa renewals, but your residence tax does. That's not to say that these will not factor into visa renewals in the future, though.

As to the pension letter, now that you're on their radar, get paid up - it's currently 16,260 yen per month, and they can enforce payments up to two years back. If you talk to them, they'll work out a payment plan for you. The pension office can, and will, put a lien on your bank accounts if you don't. I know several people that have had this happen in the last year - getting hit with a 400,000 yen surprise withdrawal. It seems the My Number system has enabled them to more easily work out who is properly registered and who isn't.
 
One good thing about the new pension law is that the years of enrollment required for eligibility for old-age pension benefits will drop from 25 years to 10 years, although it will be pro-rated (so if you’ve worked, for example, 12.5 years, you would be entitled to half what you would if you’d worked 25 years).
 
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One good thing about the new pension law is that the years of enrollment required for eligibility for old-age pension benefits will drop from 25 years to 10 years, although it will be pro-rated (so if you’ve worked, for example, 12.5 years, you would be entitled to half what you would if you’d worked 25 years).

They have talked about that law change now for years but as far as I know it is not even decided yet when it will be in effect?

I am guessing lowering the limit is more for being able to force more people to pay; currently if you can't get 25 years full before you turn 65 they let you go free.

Anyway your pension after paying 10 years will be something like 12.000 yens per month so you'd better prepare some other sources of income too.
 
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Be careful about skipping health insurance payments too. I heard of someone who dodged the payments until he became seriously sick. He wasn't allowed to join the system until he paid three years back payments. This is standard practice in Japan.

You don't need to be going through the stress of finding a ton of money when your ill.
 
One good thing about the new pension law is that the years of enrollment required for eligibility for old-age pension benefits will drop from 25 years to 10 years, although it will be pro-rated (so if you’ve worked, for example, 12.5 years, you would be entitled to half what you would if you’d worked 25 years).

Yep - one of the reasons I've been staying in Japan in recent years has been the financial incentive to knock out the last few years of pension eligibility - on kosei nenkin it's a not insignificant sum. From next year, I may start looking more closely at jobs in Australia...
 
One good thing about the new pension law is that the years of enrollment required for eligibility for old-age pension benefits will drop from 25 years to 10 years, although it will be pro-rated (so if you’ve worked, for example, 12.5 years, you would be entitled to half what you would if you’d worked 25 years).

Do you have a source for this new law?

I found this on reddit:

I don't know what these rumors are, but the article you linked states that it won't take effect until April of 2017.

Additionally, according to the both the Japanese (for people born after 1941/4/2) and English web sites for the pension system, it still requires at least 25 years. There is no mention of it becoming 10 years... yet
 
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That's because the law change hasn't gone into effect yet. The official sites are reflecting the current state of the law - as they should.

Yes, I realize that but is there at least an article from a reputable Japanese source about the Diet signing for this change that goes beyond mere skepticism?
 
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Waiting 10 years for a payout actually sounds like something I am capable of handling...but 25...fuggedaboutit!

I don't think you quite understand how the pension system works. You don't get a payout after "waiting 25 years". You are eligible for a pension when you retire at retirement age after working 25 years, and after the law goes into effect after working 10 years. You still don't get the money till you retire.
 
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Your favorite, probably only, self-described Google guru (me) did a bit of research. What I found may benefit many TAG members. It might even merit a thread of its own. I'll leave that up to the moderators.

It appears that Japan and the USA, TJB's home country, have a mutual social security agreement. Social Security payments are part of a worker's retirement income.

Here's the Social Security Administration's introduction to the webpage outlining the provisions"

"An agreement effective October 1, 2005, between the United States and Japan improves Social Security protection for people who work or have worked in both countries. It helps many people who, without the agreement, would not be eligible for monthly retirement, disability or survivors benefits under the Social Security system of one or both countries. It also helps people who would otherwise have to pay Social Security taxes to both countries on the same earnings."

https://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/japan.html


So, it seems to me, it would be wise to report income and pay taxes in order to take advantage of the above agreement.




 
I don't think you quite understand how the pension system works. You don't get a payout after "waiting 25 years". You are eligible for a pension when you retire at retirement age after working 25 years, and after the law goes into effect after working 10 years. You still don't get the money till you retire.

I was reading on reddit where a few people mentioned the money being "claimable after 10 years" so perhaps they are incorrect. What about for people that have to move out of Japan due to certain reasons? They just get pink socked? lol

I also assume that because I'm not up-to-date, that they will use the missed payments against me in the future, which will make the money I get back insignificant when I retire. I can't imagine getting back very much when Japan has an aging/sick population to help out.

My boss and I called up the pension office this afternoon and they mentioned over the phone that they would be able to wave my payments for my second year working here because I wasn't earning a lot and the payment amounts they were expecting me to pay were extremely high. We will visit the pension office next Wednesday to start that process and hopefully everything goes smoothly. Of course, I will make some payments on my more current bills to show that I'm willing to work with them.
 
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I was reading on reddit where a few people mentioned the money being "claimable after 10 years" so perhaps they are incorrect. What about for people that have to move out of Japan due to certain reasons? They just get pink socked? lol

I also assume that because I'm not up-to-date, that they will use the missed payments against me in the future, which will make the money I get back insignificant when I retire. I can't imagine getting back very much when Japan has an aging/sick population to help out.

Well, all the information on all these questions and much more are in English in the Japan National Pension website. :D

Though in my opinion it is not worth much to study the current system as when you get old enough to be able to claim pension there is no money left in any country :confused:
 
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rem-losing-my-religion.jpg


You already know what I'm going to tell you don't you...





IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!
 
I was reading on reddit where a few people mentioned the money being "claimable after 10 years" so perhaps they are incorrect. What about for people that have to move out of Japan due to certain reasons?

Well, now it is official; they are changing the minimum terms to 10 years from August. And against the popular opinion of the Japan bashing crowd you can get pension paid abroad too.

http://www.nenkin.go.jp/international/english/index.files/leaflet.pdf

Of course one thing this means is they will be able to go for the older foreigners living in Japan too. Before if you were over 40 years old when you moved to Japan you didn't need to get to the system as you wouldn't have been able to get the needed 25 years full before you turned 65. Now they can make everyone less than 55 to join.

With 10 years paid to the system you will be eligible to receive around 190.000 yens per year when you retire. Well, at least you can have one good night in town every year :D.
 
against the popular opinion of the Japan bashing crowd you can get pension paid abroad too.

Of course you can - tons of divorced salarymen retire to the Philippines or Thailand and collect their pension there.
 
With 10 years paid to the system you will be eligible to receive around 190.000 yens per year when you retire. Well, at least you can have one good night in town every year :D.
Woah, you can probably live of that for one or two months, what are you supposed to do the rest of the year?
 
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Woah, you can probably live of that for one or two months, what are you supposed to do the rest of the year?

With that kind of pension Japanese nationals would be eligible for welfare benefits. And not surprisingly more than half of the people who receive them are older retired people.

Couple of years ago the Supreme Court rules foreign nationals are not eligible though.
 
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