Wise people of r/JapanFinance;
I'm in a pickle with my (now previous) accountant as the title states.
Long story (not-so) short:
Freelance Foreigner, 10 years in Japan. Been Freelancing for 6 years now (Art/Media Industry). I started off with my current Accountant when he was the owner of his own company, let's call him K-san. K-san was doing great. I kept him for 2 years until he got a bit too expensive and pricey for my then financial situation.
Someone in my network recommended another accountant (T-san), so I switched and the new guy was amazing albeit a bit weird. Everything was great, I always delivered all the documents required, everything got filled in on time, I paid everything on time (both to the accountant but also to what I owe in taxes).
T-san told me that he was down-scaling and shifting his trajectory so he had to let me go. Sad, but fair because I liked the dude and his work was great.
So for 2025 tax filling, I went back to K-san. Except now, K-san belongs to this big group corporation (not sure if he is a shareholder or something). This year is my first year with K-san's new group. I filled in everything they sent me, replied as fast as I could. The new 担当者 in charge of my case was kinda not on point, mixing up my previous address (same ku), asking me for the same documents twice, etc. I had to call their office once and realize that such person actually lives in the Philippines.
March comes and I asked them if everything was ready for March 16th. They don't reply until March 20th. I'm freaking out but they say: Oh don't worry, the deadline is actually March 31st (I have an email proof of that, me asking and them replying).
We file everything by March 31st. I leave for a long Golden Week holiday on the April 23rd, came back on May 8th to a letter from Tax Agency saying that I filled in late (March 31st) and that I have to pay a 22,000¥ late fee.
I sent a salty email to the Accountant, CC' everyone that I had email from asking them what's up with that (incl. pictures of the letter, email receipt from their team, etc). On the letter it says that I can 'fight back' the current fee through a court appeal, etc.
Has anyone ever experienced something like that? I'm asking them to fix that error as I'm planning to apply to PR this year and kinda scared that it's gonna f me up.
by hbn14