Income tax
On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, I filed for my income tax refund today at the Tax Consultation Office on the 5th floor of the NEWoMan building in South Shinjuku. The office opened yesterday and will stay open until March 16th. I like to get it done soon. The doors opened at 8:30 a.m., but the computer banks for online filing did not open until 9:15 a.m., which is usual. I arrived at 8:10 a.m. and there was already a line of people. But as always, once I reached the computer terminal filing took only 45-minutes. I checked my watch. I walked out at 10:30 a.m.
Things go smoothly if I have all of my documents available and tabulated. I just hand everything over to a Japanese assistant who enters it all into the computer for me (in Japanese). Since I file like this every year I have a User Number which makes it all easier.
Maybe I shouldn't be taking pictures in here. Oh, well.
More and more Japanese file online from their homes. I can’t do that because there is no way in this world I can negotiate the technical Japanese of the tax forms. Plus, my computer only has an English operating system, preventing me from typing Chinese characters where necessary. No problem! some might say. Just download this, that and the other thing into my computer and it's easy! People with advice like that are morons who don't understand what they're talking about.
So, I go to the Tax Consultation office. Consultation = assistance. Assistance is what I need. Finally, when it comes to money - especially large amounts of money - I prefer to transact face-to-face with a living human being. I buy airplane tickets in cash and face-to-face. Rather than pay my pension, health insurance and residence tax by automatic monthly bank account deductions - an option - I prefer to be sent paper bills in the postal mail that I can take to a convenience store or post office and pay face-to-face in cash. That’s real.