Do I have to file at home while living in Japan?
Residence decides it, and residence is a question of facts rather than of where your post arrives. The one exception is US citizenship, which carries the filing obligation with the person wherever they go. So the first thing we establish is which system still claims you.
Is there a treaty between my country and Japan?
Treaty networks change with each protocol and each multilateral-instrument position, so we confirm the treaty in force for your specific year with the issuing authority rather than relying on a published summary. Where there is none, unilateral relief and domestic law do the work instead.
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 still file a home country return for the year I move?
Almost always, yes. The year you leave is a split year, not a blank one: you were resident for part of it, and that part has to be reported with the date your residence ended stated on the return. Two things commonly get missed. Income that arrives after the move but was earned before it still belongs to the resident part of the year. And the return for the departure year is where the valuation of what you owned on the departure date is recorded, which is the document you will want years later when you sell any of it.
How do I tell the tax authority I have left for a posting in Japan?
Mostly by what you do rather than by what you announce. Residence ends on the facts: the home is sold or let on a proper arm's length lease, the family travels with you, the vehicle and the licence go, the club memberships lapse, and the Japanese address becomes the real one. The departure date then goes on the return for that year, and any payer who withholds from you needs to be told your status has changed. Keeping a house available for your own use, or a spouse in it, is the single most common reason a departure does not take effect.
My family stayed behind while I work in Japan — am I still resident?
Probably, and that is the point to settle before the posting rather than afterwards. Where a spouse and children remain in the family home, the strongest tie stays put, and most systems will treat you as resident on that basis even if you are physically in Japan for most of the year. That is not a disaster: it means worldwide income comes home and the Japanese tax paid is generally relieved by credit. What it does mean is that a plan built on being non-resident will not hold, so it is better to price the posting on the correct basis from the start.
Is my Japanese salary taxed at home in the year I leave?
The part of it earned after your residence ended generally is not, and the part earned while you were still resident generally is. So the answer turns on the departure date and on when the duties were performed, not on which bank account the pay landed in. If your residence did not in fact end, the whole of the Japanese salary comes into the home return and the Japanese tax is credited against it. We usually prepare both readings in the departure year, because the difference between them is what tells you how much the residence question is actually worth.
What is departure tax and does a posting to Japan trigger it?
It is not a separate tax so much as a stop line. When residence ends, most of what you own is treated as though it had been sold at its value on that day, so the growth that accrued while you were resident is settled before you leave the system. Some categories are outside it, and there is normally a route to defer payment rather than sell assets to fund it. It is triggered by residence ending, so a posting where your residence does not actually end will not bring it into play. Either way the departure-day valuations need recording at the time.
Does a fixed-term contract make me a Japanese tax resident immediately?
Not immediately, and not in one step. Japan distinguishes non-permanent residents from permanent ones, which limits the foreign income within the charge for an initial period after arrival, so the length of the posting changes the taxable base rather than only the rate. A short contract and an open-ended one can therefore produce very different results on the same salary and the same foreign investments. Work out where the contract, and any extension of it, places you on that scale before you decide what to do with assets held outside Japan.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
Do American citizens living abroad have to pay taxes?
American expats and green card holders need to file US returns for life, and many of them pay little or no US tax once the relief is applied — but the filing is what unlocks the relief, so the two questions have different answers. The exclusion for foreign earned income, the credit for foreign tax already paid and the treaty between the two countries between them usually leave the total at roughly the higher of the two countries' tax rather than the sum. Skip the return and none of it applies. See Americans abroad.
