Hi, I'm a Japanese citizen that is planning on moving back to Japan from the US.
I have a few questions about moving logistics:
1.) I see that you can declare a shipment as unaccompanied (別送品) and be generally exempt from duties as long as it is within 6 months of the move.
I see a lot of online discussion around personal belongings being exempt. Are there clear rules around what is deemed used personal belonging versus new? I'm not bringing a bunch of new products that make it obvious I'm trying to sell stuff, but I also saw some mention about at least one year of utilization beyond purchase, but is this rule clearly written somewhere? I could not find it when searching it in Japanese.
I ask because I'm considering purchasing some expensive audio gear in the near future (e.g. $4000+ headphones) that I'd use for a few months (i.e. < 1 year) before my move and then bring it over with no intention of resale. If I'm going to pay duties on that, I'd rather just buy it in Japan.
2.) It says that when I arrive in Japan, that I must fill out two copies of the typical customs form (携帯品・別送品申告書), hand two copies over during the initial entrance, then keep the returned and stamped one for when retrieving the unaccompanied belongings. Does this mean I declare everything (accompanied + unaccompanied) in this same form? Or is there a longer list version of the 別送品申告書 that I need to use to list out all the things I'm shipping (e.g. via クロネコヤマト)? I ask because the typical form has just a few bars, so I'm wondering how one would be able to list out the items they are shipping.
EDIT: Nvm, I read the Japanese クロネコヤマト website. I should've read the customs form more carefully, i.e. 「携帯して持ち込んだ品物 のみを記入してください。」. I see that they have a packing list (梱包明細書) where you declare items and value.
Now for the slightly more nuanced question:
3.) How is one evaluated by the 国税庁 as the point in time that one becomes a 居住者? The Japanese article I read about (link below) seems to be intentionally ambiguous for a case-by-case evaluation, as it mainly states it is based on where your 「生活の本拠」 is.
https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/2012.htm
In my situation, I am going to continue to work for the same US company, but remotely. Company HR just needs me to give a move date a couple months in advance, which I presume is the point in time where the company will deem me legally an employee under the Japanese side of the business and paid my adjusted Japanese salary.
Lets say I take a couple weeks of PTO to move to Japan before this date that I give to company HR as the start of my employment, in order to handle the typical 行政手続き, e.g. I will immediately register my address (住民登録) and for health insurance.
Is it at that point (住民登録) that I'm evaluated as 居住者, and since I'm a Japanese citizen, taxed on my global income?
Or is it a couple weeks after when my employment deems me to be in Japan, as well as when I'll have a Japanese bank account and have begun moving over my financial assets?
Just curious how these evaluations happen.
by Big-Particular-6138