japaninfoswap

Answers 1 to 2

• I myself have never paid this tax, although I've been here for 4 years. I occasionally get calls from the city office, but I just pretend I don't understand and they give up.
  by Last Samurai at May 02, 2008 17:29
• Ward tax, or shiminzei as it's called in Japanese, is a tax that is paid to the local government of the place (ku or shi) where you are a registered resident. The good news for those who have just arrived or don't plan to stay for much longer than a year is that you don't usually have to pay this tax until you've been in the country for at least a year. To be liable to pay ward tax you have to have been registered as a resident of a particular district on January 1st of the same year. You also need to have earned more than a certain amount in Japan in the previous year (I think it's 1 million yen or thereabouts).
  
  The tax is calculated on the basis of your taxable income(ie. income over 1 million yen) for the previous year and is now just under 10% of said income. That means if you earn 5 million yen per year you will get a tax bill of around 400,000 yen.
  
  Ward tax bills usually arrive in your post box in early summer and are payable in 4 installments over a period of around 8 months. In the past you could ignore the deadlines for payment and just pay at your own convenience but recently they have started to penalise those who pay late by adding a 2,000 yen penalty fee.
  by JK Admin at Mar 31, 2008 16:28