Japanese taxes
It’s tax season. On Thursday, February 21, 2019 I “did” my Japanese taxes. I don't mean I paid them, because my income tax is automatically paid through payroll deductions. I went to the Tax Counseling Center on the 5th floor of the NEWoMan office building in South Shinjuku to file paperwork for income and deductions declaration. This year the Tax Counseling Office is open from February 18-to-March 15. In December I confirmed it’s location and operating hours during a visit to the Nakano City Hall near my home in Tokyo’s Nakano War. The tax counseling office in Shinjuku handles residents from three wards: Shinjuku, Nakano and Suginami. I arrived on the 5th floor at 8:15 a.m. Doors opened at 8:30. I walked out at 10:15 a.m. Tedious, but not difficult.
Frist, I had to fill out some paper for Personal Income Tax ("kojin" as opposed to business income). I was given the familiar red clear file, not the yellow one. Then, after a clerical assistant checked my form and my official papers documenting my income and expenses, I moved to the Computer Corner where I had to enter all my information on a computer. As always, I selfishly - or practically, as the case may be - used a Japanese assistant do it for me.
Since I've done my taxes this way before I have a personal ID number. Enter that number into the computer and things go easier from the start.
When it was done, I was feeling so happy with myself that I went to the Kaldi Coffee Farm international shop in the basement of Odakyu Halc Department Store in West Shinjuku to buy some Cadbury Fruit and Nut chocolate. I could go home and relax before going to some afternoon work. I am owed a big tax refund which will be in my bank account on March 15th. I have to save that money because every yen of it is already marked to be paid directly back to the Japanese government in the Spring when I receive printed bills in the postal mail for the three Big Cash outputs: National Old Age Pension (“nenkin”); National Public Health Insurance (“kokumin hoken”); and Residence Tax (“jiminzei”). (In addition, I am scheduled to enter a Tokyo hospital for 48-hours starting on April 3rd for a “procedure,” and I will need some money for that - money that will ultimately be refundable in March 2020.)
"shotokuzei" = income tax
"shohizei" = sales tax
"juminzei" = resident/city tax