There are now just 30 days left in the year for you to furiously finish using up your Furusato Nozei (ふるさと納税) allowance, which must be paid for before midnight, December 31st, 2024.

There are often a bunch of questions about Furusato Nozei allowances, the one-stop system, how to figure out what your limits are, or Furusato Nozei in general around this time, so we have decided to open up a questions thread dedicated to the topic. We'll keep the thread stickied for as long as there seems to be demand for it.

There is also a searchable website version of the Wiki.

What is Furusato Nozei?

Furusato Nozei, or the home-town tax program, offers tax-paying residents an opportunity to donate a portion of their residence tax to the "hometown" of their choice, generally in exchange for a gift worth approximately 30% of the donation amount.

What is the cost?

The cost to use the furusato-nozei programme is ¥2000; the rest of the donations will return on your income and residence tax returns, assuming you do not exceed your limits.

What are the limits?

• Estimate your own taxable income.

• If you do one-stop or your taxable income is less than 1.95 million yen, any of the regular FN donation limit calculation sites -- such as this one or the more advanced, but accurate one -- should be fine. Otherwise, use this tool to calculate your FN donation limit accurately.

• For a very nice post about FN limits and their interaction with how much you can donate and get back, check out our Guide to Furusato Nozei Donation Limits.

• If you have a residential mortgage tax credit and don’t do one-stop, avoid the regular calculation sites unless your taxable income is at least 10x larger than your tax credit (e.g., if you are eligible for a 200,000 yen credit, your taxable income should be at least 2,000,000 yen).

Please note also that there is an annual exemption to "temporary income" of ¥500,000, and that Furusato Nozei gifts count as "temporary income". This means, using the 30% guideline for the value of gifts to donations, if you donate more than ¥1,666,667, or you have other "temporary income" (lottery wins, insurance payouts, etc), you will be taxed on that income.

So, what if I do exceed my limits?

You are essentially gifting money to the municipality as charity (although you will get whatever gift they send you). WE DO NOT RECOMMEND EXCEEDING YOUR LIMITS

Do I have residence tax this year?

Residence tax for year n is determined by (a) your income in year n (b) on your residency on Jan 1 in year n + 1. This is why in people's first year in Japan, they pay no residence tax because their income in year n - 1 is zero. If you are leaving before Dec 31st, your residence tax for 2024 will be zero, because you are not a resident on Jan 1st 2025, and you should not use Furusato-Nozei.

What is One-Stop?

If you gift 5 or fewer municipalities, and you are not required to file a tax return (because the basic YETA covers you / you do not have special circumstances), you can elect to do the "onestop" system, which allows you to avoid having to file a tax return.

You will need to either:

• Ask for one-stop at the time you make your donation(s)
• Mail the one-stop application to the municipality before January 10th of the following year for each donation

Or

• Use the portal site's / individual munipality's site to electronically submit the one-stop application (example).

If you do not use onestop, you must save the receipts that are sent to you for tax filing time, or file using e-tax where they are not required.

What are some sites I can use?

There are myriad sites which offer easy furusato-nozei options; the most popular are:

• https://www.furusato-tax.jp/
• https://event.rakuten.co.jp/furusato/
• FuruToku.Red and FuruSato.COM also regularly compares a large number of donation sites and cost-performance

How do I file my tax return next year with Furusato Nozei?

• Step by Step guide to tax filing if you cannot do one-stop
• How to verify your residence tax discount the next summer

What's new in 2024?

• The new Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications guidance that the total cost of providing gifts (including shipping, marketing, portal-site fees, etc) cannot exceed 50% of the donated amount has lead to widespread item price inflation.
• From October 2025, the government intends to ban point-back programs. If this does come to pass, there will be no more Rakuten super points, Amazon Cashbacks, etc, when utilizing Furusato Nozei. Rakuten is soliciting signatures to oppose this.

Previous year's threads

• 2023 - https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/18dk8rx/2023_furusato_nozei_question_thread/
• 2022 - https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/zhnf11/2022_furusato_nozei_question_thread/
• 2021 - https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/r8puxs/2021_furusato_nozei_question_thread/

I feel Japanese govt of splitting this between 前払いand 後払い is so inefficient. Combining this to just 後払い will cut out significant administrative work and therefore cost to government and companies. What do you guys think ?

Hi, sorry for the potentially dumb question! I moved to Japan this year and finally got approved for the SMBC olive basic rank card in august. (I think i screwed myself by applying for the gold at first which was a rejection, and I didn’t know you could change ranks and redo the credit assessment with that 😭)

Recently, I applied for the amazon mastercard (which is also handled by smbc) and got approved. I hoped this would remedy the problem of my low credit limit (100,000¥) as I kept running into trouble with it, even when doing 臨時払い as much as possible. (It takes so long for purchases to become available TO pay for!!)

I thought I would now have two cards with a limit of 100,000¥ - for a total of 200,000¥. But when I check vpass or the smbc app, they show as one credit pool. If i use any amount on my olive or master, the ご利用可能枠 goes down on each card (displays same amount on both)

Is this normal? Is it because I’m assuming I have a bad credit score or whatever? I’m a Japanese citizen but I’ve lived in the US my whole life, which, in terms of paying things off early, was way easier… plus, each card had its own pool - granted, none of the ones I had were issues by the exact same provider.

TLDR: I donated 250k JPY via furusato nozei on rakuten, reported that in my tax return, but I don't see that in the tax report on myNa app.

I just found out that via myNa portal I can see my previous year tax statement, or what I think it is. It is actually shown under 2024, but I guess this is just data they pulled in 2024 for the tax year 2023.

In that report, it seems that for municipal tax - donation deduction, less than half of what I reported is considered. I did it on time via e-tax and it registered the full 250k JPY I used for furusato Nozei.

https://preview.redd.it/g0812ulxl54e1.png?width=763&format=png&auto=webp&s=e9173ca3e403d85388d2719cdae9b4b84b0f5d1b

My understanding is that above screenshot shows the deducted amount due to donation, not the tax after the donation got deducted.

Am I missing something?

Asking if anyone has advice or tips for me. I’m still pretty new to all this, so I’m trying to learn as I go.

What I’ve Been Doing

• I only found out about NISA late last year when there was a lot of hype about the New NISA program. I managed to max out the old NISA quota by investing in the Rakuten Zensekai Index, using the bonus setting for purchases.
• This year, I’ve been putting ¥100,000 per month into my tsumitate (monthly accumulation) quota, splitting it equally between eMaxis All Country and S&P 500 funds.
• I also had some extra money I wanted to invest, so I maxed out the growth quota (last week) by splitting it equally between the same two funds.

I’ve stuck with index funds because they feel like a safer bet for someone just starting. But I know my portfolio is pretty U.S.-heavy since both All Country and S&P 500 are dominated by U.S. stocks.

A Few Questions

1. This year, I invested all ¥2.4 million of my growth quota in one day. If I want to max out the growth quota again in 2025, would it be better to spread it over the year instead of doing it all at once? I’ve heard spreading it out can help with market ups and downs, but I’m not sure.
2. Should I try something other than index funds in NISA? I’ve heard about investing in ETFs or individual stocks, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea for a beginner.
3. iDeCo has been recommended to me before, but I’ve always found it a bit confusing. Starting next year, I’ll be freelancing—would it still be worth looking into?

If anyone knows good resources—books, websites, or anything else—I’d love some suggestions! I don’t have much planned for the holidays, so I’m hoping to spend some time learning more about investing.

Thanks so much for any advice you can share!

I am a Permanent Resident in Japan, and considering buying a house in the near future.

My family is willing to help me finance the property by means of a loan, but we want to avoid the loan being seen as a gift and thus subject to gift tax.

Would such a loan structure be possible? Would the minimum interest rate have to be the minimum interest rate of the currency of the loan? (If we have to use the interest rate of my home country, it might not even be worth it)

Maybe someone with experience or expertise could shed some light on this? Thanks in advance.

I became full-time freelance about a year ago. Before that I had a full-time job the first few months of last year, and this year will be the first year where my entire income is purely freelance.

I’ve done all the stuff at my tax office, register for blue form, etc. last year.

My question is about using freee.jp to do my taxes.

I know that in order to use the blue tax form, you have to do double entry bookkeeping, which freee.jp can do for you.

I haven’t signed up yet, so my question is can I wait until next year to sign up for it, and hook up my bank accounts, and let it handle all of the income expenses, money out, money in, etc. for the 2024 tax season, or, do I need to do that before this year is over?

I’m basically asking do I need to pay the yearly subscription for this year, for it to handle my 2024 taxes, or can I just pay from next year, thus saving the ¥15,000 (can’t remember exact amount)?

as the title suggests

i would like to do options trading for US stocks but i feel like taxes would be too complicated. Hoping there is a tokutei koza with withholding so that i can avoid all that

Just a quick question, if I buy something on my credit card as a business expense in December, but I don’t actually pay my credit card bill until January of next year, what year can I claim that expense?

2024, since I bought it in December ‘24, or the 2025 tax year, since that’s when I will actually pay the credit card bill (automatically comes out of my bank account) ?

How can I invest in OTC or NYSE American stocks through Rakuten Securities? I currently have an account with Rakuten, but I can only find stocks listed on NYSE and NASDAQ. Are there any workarounds or alternative platforms for accessing OTC and NYSE American stocks from Japan? TIA

Hello, people! I am looking to moving into Japan and become an expat. I would like to get a bank loan to buy an apartment in Japan. My question is: how much would I qualify to loan, realistically? I will have:

• 3 Million Yen as down payment.
• 1 Million Yen annual income from foreign renting my apartment in Europe ( does the bank recognize this income? ) .
• And around 3 Million Yen annual income from my job as a delivery guy at a japanese company.

I will have a permanent resident visa.

• Thank you for your advice!

Moral judgement separate please. Baby is planned and wanted.

The relationship is a known secret—known of but not acknowledged. My wife’s standpoint on all of this is that she doesn’t want this to affect our shared children’s estate.

Currently M is living in an apartment under my name where I live four nights per week, separate from my family home.

M’s bank has agreed to give her a home loan under her name. To establish a legacy for our child and help support her, the plan is for me to pay a large proportion of the mortgage payments, as well as a living allowance.

To avoid any tax issues for M, we want to ensure that my payments to her are legal, to avoid any tax liability, and that those payments do not establish ownership rights for me so that the home I buy for her will not be part of my estate.

TL;DR: can I simply make payments to M and have her declare these as gifts and pay that tax, or is there a better way to do this?

tldr; My husband (40) is looking for a very simple life insurance policy, but has a preexisting health condition. Our current insurance company rejected him for simple life insurance because of it. Is it even possible to find an inexpensive plan for him, or should we just quit looking?

Longer version: We have other health insurance policies, and I have a basic life insurance policy, with Sony Sonpo. We wanted something similar to mine; no savings type thing, just a one-time payout for grievous injury or death. I bought my policy about 3 years ago. It's less than 1500 a month, I pay a years' worth at a time, and I plan to keep it about 10 years. At the time I bought it, I thought I remembered the representative saying that they couldn't offer it to my husband until past 40 years old, because of his pre-existing health condition. This year he turned 40, and had to be hospitalized for a night for a separate issue, so I reached out to our insurance representative asking about it. It turns out that Sony Sonpo wont offer the basic life insurance policy that I have to him at all, regardless of age, because of his health condition, so I must have mis-understood what they meant 3 years ago. Instead he was offered the 2man+/month "savings" type life insurance plan, which we rejected outright.

So, has anyone bought a policy like the one I have, but with a pre-existing health condition? We've run into problems with regular health insurance being more expensive, the house-loan insurance being rejected because of his health, and other problems so much that I'm wondering if it's worth even bothering trying to find one for him, or just skipping it. For the record, I would really like him to have it, as we've got young kids, he runs a small business by himself, and we've no family to help out should the worst happen.

Thank you for any insight or advice!

For context I'm a dual citizen.

I heard that with Japanese employment verification I can get around 1% interest rates, but with foreign employment I can get around 2-4%. This is a lot better than the 7% in the US.

Posting here because I was banned in living in Japan reddit. Lost the key to my mamachari. Is there a way to make a new key or unlock it at a shop, or another option? TIA

So i moved to japan last year and I am canadian

This year, i traded stocks on a canadian broker and made a good amount of money. I am certain that this time around, the income i generated from my stock trade will not be considered capital gains and instead will likely be considered business income due to the frequency of the trades. The original intention was to report it as capital gains but it's looking like it likely won't pass

I know if it is capital gains then you don't have to report it here and just pay taxes in canada as long as i don't remit to japan for 5 years. But i am not sure if this same rule applies if the trades that are considered business income. i asked chatgpt and it is saying that it's actually a grey area because even though physical presence is a factor, the location of the broker and the assets (US assets) involved determines the tax treatment when it comes to investment based income. Essentially that there is no strong enough ties to Japan as there isn't a service being performed for a client while living in japan.

I am trying to figure out if it's fine for me to report the daytrade income just in canada and keep it separate from japan as long as i don't remit

Our family welcomed a new baby recently and we started a bank account for him at Sony Bank.

We want to transfer savings to him annually (up to the taxable limit), but I wasn't sure if I gave him more than X amount, then it would trigger some kind of paperwork or explaining here and there. Or whether there's some threshold for bureaucracy/etc that we should be aware of?

I was wondering if anyone had experiences around this with their child.

Thank you

I don’t live in Japan, but frequently go there for leisure under a multiple entry visa. It just crossed my mind and I don’t really have any plans at the moment, but is it possible for non residents / tourists to obtain Japan issued credit cards? Are secured credit cards a thing?

Currently living in hotels looking for an apartment.

Apartment agency wants me to have a personal bank account.

I do not have a permanent address. I do not have a work, student, US military, or spouse visa. I do not have a job in Japan. I have been in Japan for just over 1 month. My resident card expires more than 3 months from now.

What options do I have?

Comments and Suggestions

Please advise on the best way to maximize my NISA growth. How does this allocation look?
Any feedback and/or criticism would be welcome. Perhaps as a group, we can come up with a decent investment strategy for those who want to max out their NISA every year, but are not financial advisers.

Growth Portion (¥3.6M):

Rakuten U.S. Total Stock Index Fund: ¥2,520,000 eMAXIS Slim All-Country Stock Index: ¥720,000 SBI U.S. Small-Cap Index Fund: ¥360,000

Income Portion (¥1.2M): Split equally: Rakuten U.S. Total Stock Index Fund: ¥600,000 eMAXIS Slim All-Country Stock Index: ¥600,000

Initially, I was just curious about the yen’s movements, but as I started analyzing the factors influencing it, I found Japan’s economy to be incredibly fascinating.

In my view, Kazuo Ueda, the Governor of the Bank of Japan, probably has one of the toughest jobs right now—it’s almost like walking a tightrope. Japan’s economy is heavily reliant on monetary policy. Having recently exited the era of negative interest rates, the country now faces a delicate balancing act: raising rates to curb inflation and stabilize the yen, while also avoiding heightened debt risks.

Externally, Japan is under significant pressure. For instance, if the U.S. raises tariffs in the future, it could deal a heavy blow to Japan’s export-driven economy, especially since the U.S. is one of Japan’s largest trading partners.

In the short term, I believe the yen will face upward pressure, but any rate hikes are likely to be slow and cautious.

I’d love to hear your perspectives—how do you see Japan’s economic future unfolding?

I'm a company employee, freelancer, NISA investor, sedning money to family overseas, and buying crypto. Hopefully I didn't forget anything.

Break down on documents I'm preparing, or going to prepare, and would love feedback to see if I missed anything (need more proof, or missing some good deductions):

• Company employee: I will get the tax witholding slip (源泉所得税) in late December, or early January. This should have all insurance premiums paid by company right?

• Freelancer, blue return: First year working on the side so haven't done anything before yet (extra stress) currenly using Freee for all accounting, I assume it can spit out some documents instead of running the numbers myself? would love if there's a guide for that. Income is easy to tell, but expeses are confusing me, I know for sure MS365, website hosting, and domain name are deductible and have receipts for them. But for dinner with potential clients is it ok to deduct that if I have the restaurant receipts? do I need to provide anything else?

• NISA investment: far as my understanding goes, no need to provide any extra documents, right?

• Overseas dependents: I'm sending money to my parents and brother who live overseas (not in home country) both have exceeded the 380k limit for living expenses

(2) A document issued by a foreign country or government (only valid if it contains the name, date of birth, and address or residence of the relative residing overseas).

• 380,000 yen remittance document: Just getting it from wise account should be fine?
• Crypto: I have only bought some using GMO-coin, moved some out to my private wallet, but no selling yet, do I have to declare anything on this?

Extra deductions:

• I have paid some national pension years back from when I was a student, I have the payment slip and that small foldable notice that I have paid X amount. Where should I claim this in my tax return? any extra documents needed?

As weird as ot sounds, this was exactly the notification my family member got when they tried to send me money via swift, in JPY, to my Japan Post Bank (ゆうちょ銀行) account.

The transaction was turned down by the bank for some weird reason (the reason being, the amount being sent was in JPY).

But it looks like they accept money in USD or Euro.

Isn't it weird? Is there any sort of reason for this (maybe something to do with the USD appreciating in value compared to the JPY?)

How do I transfer money from abroad, directly to my JP Post bank account?

Hello, everyone. Need some assistance since I'm a bit confused with setting up my NISA account and could use some collective wisdom. Here's my current situation:

It's near the end of the year, and I'm late to the game in setting up my NISA. Initially, I was set on opening an account with Rakuten Securities. However, I'm experiencing a delay with my Rakuten Bank application. (I decided to tie up my bank and trade application thinking it’ll speed things up) Meanwhile, I have a Daiwa account that would allow activation of a NISA account as soon as the next day.

I'm now torn between two potential approaches:

1. Quickly open a NISA account with Daiwa to utilize this year's tax-free investment allowance.

2. Hold off and wait for the Rakuten Securities account I originally preferred.

However, I'm concerned about account transfers between securities companies for NISA accounts based on researched I’ve done. Specifically, I'm unsure about:

• The restrictions on transferring NISA assets between brokers

• Whether opening a temporary account might complicate my long-term investment strategy

• The implications of not using this year's NISA allowance

Would appreciate insights from anyone who's navigated a similar situation. Specifically:

• Is it worth opening a quick NISA account with Daiwa just to use this year's allowance?

• What are the actual transfer limitations for NISA accounts?

• Are there any potential pitfalls I should be aware of?

Any advice would be incredibly helpful as I try to make the most strategic move before the year ends.

In case it helps, I’m of Southeast Asian nationality.

Thanks in advance!

I plan to leave Japan and return to my home country in January or February 2025. But if I am registered as a resident on January 1st, 2025, I would have to pay one year's residence tax. To avoid this, I was planning to fill out the “notice of departure” form from the city hall in December, and write as my "departure date" some day in late December.

However, I will be residing in Japan for a few more weeks in January. My question is: is the city hall going to check what date I actually leave the country through Immigration?

I have permanent visa, and my contract ends in March 2025, but my company lets me return to my country at any time, I can finish the work of these months online. However, I can't go back at the end of December because I have to leave my apartment and do other paperwork and I don't have time to finish everything before the end of the year.

Has anybody left Japan "on paper" at the end of Desember, and stayed here for a few more weeks?

Like title, I was in Japan doing my college so during 4 years of bachelor program I didn’t have to pay nenkin. I just learned that I have the option to pay those 4 years to receive more nenkin when I retire. My question is: which approach gives more return? Has anyone in this sub calculated average return of nenkin? Or compare the opportunity cost of each approach? Thanks!

Hi all, from next year I will be joining a company (was a freelancer so far and paid into the kokumin nenkin).

But is it possible to choose to stay with kokumin nenkin instead of paying the higher kousei nenkin. I was calculating and it'd be a 30-40k yen difference.

Is the ROI on kousei nenkin worth it? FWIW I've been investing into an ETF since I was 20 and I feel like if I continue investing the extra 40k here into that, it'd have a better ROI? But please feel free to correct my math

This is my first year as a full time freelancer. I registered as 個人事業主 and have set up to use 青色申告. I am currently using the website やよいの青色申告 to track my income/expenses.

I have been filling things out to the best of my ability, but there are a few things that I was uncertain how to file. I bought some machinery that was over the 300,000 so I was not sure how to proceed with it. Between that, and checking to make sure that I registered all of my income and expenses properly I would like to hire someone to check my documents and give advice.

I was wondering if you all had a recommendation of who to go to with these questions. Preferably online since I live out in Tochigi.

Hello friends I had a question regarding the ~1M JPY per year gift limit for family that isn't taxed. Is there any declaration of that gift that needs to be done?

Also, is it based on the calendar year or a 365-day period? (as in, could I gift my wife 1M JPY in December 2024 and then again in January 2025)

Sorry if this is a silly question Thanks for reading

Probably already answered in a few posts like this, and some questions might seem naive... but I'm a bit scared about costly mistakes and want to explain my plan so other users can point if there's something wrong, missed, etc.I would be very grateful if people can help me to improve this setting.

In summary, we should sell the non-taxable UK assets with higher capital gains that would become taxable in Japan, before we become permanent tax residents in Japan.

Who are we:
Married couple, EU national and Japanese national. We are moving to Japan on 1st April. We plan to live there for a long time, maybe forever. No plans to ever come back to UK

What we have in UK:

We own enough savings to retire, in several ISA accounts and DC workplace Pension Plans. We don't plan to work in Japan, there's no inheritance to receive or any other asset to sell with significant capital gains than those mentioned (we have bank saving accounts, but will ignore those) I am particularly worried about the ISA accounts, because they are taxable in Japan, and we have considerable capital gains in a few of them: some sit at more than 200% profit, others around 70-90% profit.

What we have in Japan: nothing:

What will be the tax status after moving

The Japanese national will be "Tax Resident" from day 1, and any capital gains will be taxable in Japan, even if she doesn't remit any money to Japan

The EU national will be "Non Permanent Tax Resident" for 5 years, and then become taxable like the wife was from day 1

What's my plan considering the above, in order to move money to Japan:

ISA Accounts

The Japanese National: My wife should cashout her ISA accounts before going to Japan. I am not sure which criteria the NTA uses to deem the gains made as "out of Japan", but I guess that selling everything and sending the money to a UK bank account a few days before she enters Japan will be OK to avoid any tax on those huge capital gains when money is remitted to Japan. I've seen
A doubt here: how early should she those assets? those it make any difference to sell one week, one month before leaving? Does it make any difference to sell in 2024 versus 2025,considering the fiscal year in Japan sis the natural year? We might need to send a huge amount of cash to Japan, just in case we decide to buy a house... That cash would be provided by her ISA accounts

The non Japanese national, I can use the next five years as NPTR to progressively sell my ISA accounts, cash out and send the money on the next fiscal year, or could sell everything in the last of those 5 years, and remit the money the year after. Whatever combination (I think is better to sell progressively the more risky/volatile assets, to avoid being trapped into having to sell everything last year in a bear market...or wait for the market to recover and the remit, but this time I'll have to pay taxes on the CG)

The doubts are more or less the same: how to sell so that tI don't fall in some of the landmines the NTA will have prepared for sure. I guess the safest bet is the same: sell and cash out to a UK bank account before the Japanese fiscal year ends, remit the money in later fiscal years. Same doubts: if OK to sell let's saya couple weeks before the end of tax year?

DC private Pension plans: my understanding is more blurry here. Main difference with public pension plans, is that Japan seems to not recognise the private plans as "pension income" and they are taxed as Miscellaneous Income (with less deductions, i.e. the non taxable allowance is smaller on private plans) Also ,if you take a 25% lump sum, it's tax free in UK, but can be taxed heavily in Japa (question: if I cash out the 25% tax free in UK in the very end of my last year as NPTR, and reit the money following year... will I avoid taxes doing that? , depending on the amount you cash out. My understanding here is that feels safer to cash out in a few or many years, constant amounts monthly.

Thanks for reading!