Do I have to file at home while living in Japan?
For most people the answer turns on whether the ties that made them resident have actually ended. For a US citizen or green-card holder it does not: the return is due in Japan exactly as it would be at home. Everything else on the file follows from which of those you are.
Is there a treaty between my country and Japan?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in Japan. Where is the rent taxed?
In Japan, because that is where the property sits. The complication is the base: gross-rent withholding takes no account of mortgage interest, tax or repairs, so a leveraged property can face tax on turnover. An election onto net profit, where it exists, is what fixes that — and it has its own timing.
Do I pay Japanese tax if I sell my house back home?
It depends on where you sit in Japan's own division between non-permanent and permanent residents. For an initial period after arrival, the foreign income and gains within the Japanese charge are limited, so a disposal of property outside Japan can sit outside the charge in one year and inside it in a later one. The length of the posting changes the taxable base, not merely the rate applied to it. The other half of the answer is your home country, where the sale is usually reportable whatever Japan does. We set the completion date against your residence history on both sides before saying which return carries the gain.
I am buying a flat in Tokyo — does Canada need to know?
If you are still resident in Canada, foreign holdings above a reporting threshold are disclosed annually, and the regime turns on use: property held for personal use sits outside it, property held to earn income does not. So a flat you live in and a flat you let are treated differently from the first day, and the intention you record at purchase is worth getting right. If the move to Japan ended Canadian residence, the annual disclosure question falls away with it, and the purchase matters instead as the start of a cost record you will need whenever you come to sell.
Does selling Canadian property while I live in Japan trigger withholding?
Yes, where you are non-resident of Canada at the time of the sale. The mechanism catches people out because the withholding is applied to the sale price rather than to the gain, so the amount held back routinely exceeds the tax actually due, and on a property that has barely appreciated it can exceed it by a wide margin. There is a clearance process that reduces the amount withheld before closing, and a return filed for the year of sale that recovers the rest. Start the clearance work before the closing date, not after it; the timetable is the part that is hard to fix later.
How is the gain worked out if I bought in yen?
Each system measures the result in its own currency, using the rates in force at the purchase date and at the sale date. That means the same transaction can show a gain on one return and a smaller gain, or a loss, on the other, because the currency movement between the two dates is part of the result rather than a separate item to be stripped out. Keep the completion statements for both the purchase and the sale, in yen, with the dates clearly on them. Reconstructing a cost base years later from bank entries alone is the most expensive part of a property file.
I am American and bought property in Japan — do I still file at home?
Yes. American filing follows citizenship rather than address, so buying in Japan does not close the home obligation and letting the flat opens a further one. Japanese tax on Japanese rental income or on a Japanese gain is generally relieved by credit on the American return rather than by leaving the income out, which means both returns describe the same property and have to agree. Depreciation and allowable costs are not measured identically on the two sides, so the figures diverge legitimately. We keep one schedule for the property and derive both returns from it.
Should I sell before or after I become a permanent resident for tax?
It is a fair question rather than a trick, because Japan's distinction between non-permanent and permanent residents genuinely limits which foreign income falls within the charge during an initial period. A completion date that drifts across that boundary can change the taxable base. Two cautions. Your home country may tax the gain regardless of what Japan does, so moving the date solves one side and not always the other. And a sale timed for tax rather than for the market carries its own cost. Work out both sides on paper first, then decide whether the date is worth moving at all.
Is an inheritance from overseas taxable in Canada?
Canada has no inheritance or estate tax, so receiving a bequest is not income to you. Tax happens on the other side of the transaction — the deceased's final return, where a deemed disposition of their property can arise, and any tax the foreign country levies on the estate. What changes for you is what comes next: the asset you now hold may be reportable foreign property, and its value at the date of death becomes your cost base for future gains. See a foreign inheritance.
Do I pay US tax on an inheritance from abroad?
A bequest is not income, so the receipt itself is not taxed. Reporting is a different matter: a US person who receives large gifts or bequests from a foreign person or estate files an information return for the year, and inheriting a foreign account or an interest in a foreign trust brings the account and asset reports with it. The penalties here attach to the information return, not to tax — which is why people who owed nothing still get letters. See Form 3520.
