Recently started a self proprietorship to do some freelance consulting on the side for foreign clients. I've been debating with myself whether to hire an accountant or not, and I would be grateful for some input from people who are in a similar situation as to the costs/benefits.
My situation in brief:
- I am not expecting very significant income, probably around 4 million gross this year, maybe 6 million next year if all goes well.
- I have very meagre business expenses directly associated with this hustle, at most 10-20 man a year.
- I am filing an invoice once every 2-3 months so it's pretty straightforward to keep track of it.
- The accounting services I have found online generally charge around 2.5-3 man per month minimum, so equivalent to around 5-9 percent of my expected business income. Based on some back of the envelope calculations, it appears unrealistic that such an expense could pay for itself through deductions on such a low income.
- Hence I've been thinking that it would be reasonable to just submit a white return by myself and call it a day. (I've done some self accounting before overseas, so at least I'm familiar with the basics.)
On the other hand:
- I am not keen on taking a crash course in Japanese accounting and business law and as I might want to apply for PR in future I would prefer not having any tax related mess.
- I am not familiar with Japanese accounting standards and might leave some significant deductions on the table (eg. since it's telework, I could claim part of the rent and utilities as business costs, maybe claim airfare when I fly home and meet clients, deduct my new coffee maker etc.) + the blue return deduction would obviously reduce my tax burden a lot.
- My income would be in foreign currency paid to an overseas account, which as far as I know means that I couldn't really use Freee. It also appears to me that dealing with foreign currency would be some extra administrative headache.
- Maybe there are services which can help me with the filing for a one-time fee, but do not charge a montly fee? Haven't found something like that, but I feel it would be more reasonable in my case.
by gkktme