Hello,
French guy here living in Japan since 2018 with a spouse visa.
Wife is a freelance consultant and I'm currently stay-at-home dad. We have a 1 y.o son.
In few months, we are planning to relocate to France, where I will start a new job.
We still wish to maintain a base in Japan, roughly planing to spend 8 months in France and 4 months in Japan per year (all family together), thus keeping our rented house in Japan.
I have a few questions:
– Can we keep our Jūminhyō registered even if Japan is not our primary residency? Keeping our Jūminhyō would make a lot of things easier (keeping our car, wife wants to keep investing in NISA, …etc)
– About taxes: I will start paying taxes in France with my new job. My wife will keep working remotely for Japanese customers. Does she have to keep declaring her incomes in Japan?
– From what I have researched, it seems that keeping our Jūminhyō might create a confusion about where we should pay taxes, as Japan authorities might still consider us residents, while our main residence would actually be in France (so French authorities will expect to collect our taxes). If that is the case, what is the best way to handle this? Do we need to notify Japanese tax office of our situation before leaving?
– Any additional advice about how to optimize this kind of lifestyle between both countries?
Thank you for reading and I appreciate your insights/experiences on the matter.
by Rich-Battle-2209