I'm thinking about moving some money from the US into Japan to buy a house, and want to double check that I understand all the tax implications before pulling the trigger
- I'm a non permanent tax resident (< 5 years in Japan) and I remitted no money into Japan in 2025.
- I had $80K of capital gains in 2025 in the US. Almost all of it was acquired before I moved to Japan except for $500. My understanding is that because I didn't remit any of it into Japan, none of it was taxable.
- I also had about $50k of passive US dividends in 2025 and will have about $50k again in 2026. My understanding is that this is foreign sourced income and is also tax free in Japan unless remitted, so none of the 2025 dividends were taxable (and if I do remit foreign dividends into Japan, it's taxed by Japan at the normal income tax rate I think?).
- If I remit $200K into Japan to buy a house this year, $50k of it will be taxable (or more accurately, it will cause $50k to become taxable, since my $50k of 2026 dividends now becomes "remitted into Japan"), but the rest of the $150k won't be taxable? But it won't affect the $80K of capital gains or the $50k of dividends from last year in 2025? (The funds will be drawn from the account that held those capital gains from 2025, not sure if that matters)
Also a bit of a side note – this will be an investment property so I'm thinking about setting up a company in the US to buy it instead of buying it as an individual. If I transfer the money to the company in the US, and the company is the one that ends up remitting the $200K into Japan, would that let all of it remain tax free? Not sure it's worth setting up just to avoid the taxes but if I'm going to do it anyway would be good to know.
by japan8591
1 comment
Probably best to get advice from a professional tax accountant.
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