Just here to vent people (also PSA to anybody who is in the same boat as I can't be the only one this ever happened/will happen to). I have received a letter from the Sendai Tax office notifying me that they intend to garnish my wages for unpaid resident taxes. This has come out of nowhere for me. I have been receiving bills but they are all in Japanese so I had to translate them. Google Translate translates them as "receipts," so I never questioned them before. After translating the first one, I thought it was just a monthly receipt for paying my taxes. Well, looking at my most recent one it still translates them as "receipts," which is frustrating, but I at least get the context now.
For context, I moved to Tokyo in 2024. I guess the way it works is even though I moved, because I still lived in Sendai at the beginning of the year (I didn't move until March), I was supposed to keep paying them and not Tokyo for the entire year. When I left, my Sendai company took enough money for resident tax through May. My new company in Tokyo has been taking taxes, but I guess it wasn't taking resident tax for whatever inexplicable reason. Now, Sendai wants to garnish more than 50% of my monthly income to repay it and they say that according to law they cannot change how much they take per month.
Neither of my companies (Sendai or my present one) told me that this is how the system worked.
So, just as a recap, google translates these bills as "receipts," my current job has been taking taxes out but wasn't taking resident tax for whatever reason, and neither of my companies cared to tell me how the system worked. It's like the perfect storm of coincidences and misunderstandings as I was trying to do my due diligence to stay on top of everything and be a good Japanese resident: I checked my pay slips for taxes, I tried translating the Japanese documents I got, I paid extra monies as instructed by my previous company and trusted them and my new company to handle things like taxes like they said they would. Now I'm probably going to be one of those foreigners that has to flee the country and make other foreigners look bad because I literally cannot survive with how much they want to take. I wanted to make my life here. I'm so upset, and angry, and scared. This sucks.
by Ub3rchief_113
14 comments
So TLDR you blame Google?
That happened to a friend of mine this year. Btw translation works better with ChatGPT or other AI tools. How much is the lump sum they are taking from you?
This seems like you were “screwed” by your own lack of Japanese ability rather than the residence tax system itself
hey i did HR at my company and this is what i learned-
1. if your company takes taxes out of your salary- you should have received your 特別徴収税額決定通知書 (or copy of it) every year once your company gets it in May~June. it shows exactly how much residence tax should be taken out of your salary for it every month. payroll softwares require HR to type the amount in, so there’s room for error and why its on the employee to double check their payslips!
it also shows which city/prefecture is receiving those taxes.
if you received a 納税通知書 through mail, which it sounds like you did- that means you are responsible for your taxes yourself and pay 4x a year.
you need to discuss with your company how tax payments work through them.
2. go to your city hall’s tax office (or call) for whatever city is garnishing your wages and see if they can work out a better payment plan.
what is the kanji you mistook for “receipt”??
Yeah, probably had payment instructions and a due date…so? And you could confirm with a friend or someone, right?
The tax amount that you haven’t been paying is not insignificant. I think even with the Google translate issue. You would notice that you seem to be getting more money to spend even though you have taxes and insurance to pay, yet you didn’t even bar an eye to the surplus money from not paying.
What I don’t get is how you never questioned it… like did literally no red flags raise in getting monthly “receipts” for something you didn’t even understand?
It’s also your job to ensure that all of your taxes and other expenses are being paid. You can ask your company to take care of it, sure, and it sucks that they didn’t, but it’s on you to make sure those processes are actually being completed.
How much do you owe? How much are they taking each month? Seems a little drastic to flee over this unless it’s huge money.. in which you probably should have noticed it sooner.
Ignorance isnt really an excuse, my first job here done the same where everything but my resident tax was taken from my wage. Once the slips came the year after, I still took them and questioned them at work to find out exactly what they were for. Yes its a bit annoying that they didnt come from your wage directly like other taxes, but a lot of the information on there like FUTURE DATES should be a bit evident that they are expecting payment of something by that date.
Also relying on google translate was never a good idea in the first place.
in the end you’re responsible for your taxes mate. this is the same everywhere. it’s your visa at risk, the company or tax agency or google couldn’t care less
Alright, let’s see.
The way the timing works overall is: residence tax payments are June-May, not Jan-Dec. Your previous company helped you finish paying the previous year’s amount (up to May). Your current company (if you started there before June of that year) had nothing to go on.
It would’ve been better if they’d proactively asked for the new payment slips at the time you would’ve received them, but it isn’t a given. I think you’ve been unlucky in that sense.
Is your residence tax being taken from your salary automatically for this year? (from June 2025?) If not, sort that out ASAP as well.
There are two issues:
1. Did you check the pay slip you received from the Tokyo company? If you had checked it, you would have immediately noticed that your resident tax had not been paid.
2. Did you provide the company in Tokyo with documents proving your income from your time in Sendai? Normally, they should request this from you. You can refuse to provide it, but without it, they cannot calculate your resident tax, so they cannot deduct it from your salary. This means that you will have to pay the resident tax yourself.
Most companies only deduct national taxes, not city taxes. Cities usually send out payment coupons that you use to pay your taxes by the deadline indicated on the coupons. You need to find a Japanese friend or coworker who can advise you on how to handle your responsibilities in Japan. You’re likely going to have more problems like that if you aren’t functional in Japanese and you don’t know any Japanese people who can guide you through the intricacies of life in Japan.
Your employer really should have told you about this so you could set aside funds accordingly (mine did). I think tell your employer about your situation and see if they could give you a loan or otherwise help you out of this situation.
That said if it’s only one year of missed payments it shouldn’t be that much money- how many months would it be garnished?