Tax penalty on buying house in Okinawa

Will be selling our house in Maryland around Feb - Mar 2018 and relocating to Okinawa. We were wondering; if we transfer around 200,000 dollars to a Japanese bank and convert it into yen, will we incur tax penalties on that money since we will have already paid U.S. taxes on it when we sold our Maryland home. Just don't want to get taxed twice!

You are doing a simple transfer of funds - no reason for a deposit to get taxed AFAIK.

(You get taxed on selling a house? I suppose some countries still have "stamp" taxes and the like - not something I am used to.)

http://tk-tax-accounting.com/en/english-taxation-of-remitted-income/

some explanation but maybe it is better to contact someone who is specialist in this kind of things.

Thank you for your advice. We look forward to buying a house in Okinawa this spring (before the tropical heat turns on!).

transfering money from foreign bank to japanese bank. you will only pay
bank handling fees.
then you need to indicate the reason of transfering such much money .
�¦ if you are transfering to your personal bank account in japan . you will be contacted by japanese bank to come forward to clear your money.

�¦ if transfered to housing agency acc. they will prepare all the documents and clear it .

then if you buy your house in japan .. you will pay purchasing Tax and some agent fees which will be added in your purchasing fees.

From my own experience, buying a house or condo in Japan does not have the same benefits as in the US.
Property values do not increase very much over time like in the states. Friend of mine bought a brand new condo in Yokohama 12 years ago and the value today is pretty much the same, so not really a good investment. Maybe Okinawa is different, I don't know.

just my 2 cents

Friend of mine bought a brand new condo in Yokohama 12 years ago and the value today is pretty much the same, so not really a good investment.

Some people buy a house to live in. Other people dabble with investments. Depends which category you are in.

Investment aside, you can lose half of your money if you buy housing and decide to move out when the economy is lower. For example, people who bought housing in the 80s in Japan, ended up selling it half-price in the 90s when the original housing became too old or too small for the owner's lifestyle. Even if you don't sell it, you end up paying for maintenance. For that reason, many choose to rent housing instead, because it's usually cheaper to pay the rent than to pay the loan and maintenance fees for the home you purchased. But money is not the only reason you buy/rent housing, and either way, I'm sure the OP has taken care of that.

Continuing off topic, but...

For that reason, many choose to rent housing instead, because it's usually cheaper to pay the rent than to pay the loan and maintenance fees for the home you purchased.

We actually thought the opposite, as every 2 years we always had to pay the rental company and the landlord a "renewal fee" which felt like a waste as they didn't ever actually DO anything; any major renovation, maintenance, or up-keep on the house also seemed like a waste because it was essentially making someone else's investment worth more so the house just slowly fell apart; and for the same amount of money (or just a bit more), we could buy land, build a house, and always have the property no matter what changed in the future. So for us, buying+building made more sense financially than renting. We just felt like we wasted so much money renting, with nothing to show for it in the end.

Just another perspective!

scarreddragon, that's the reason we gave up the "renewal fee" of our apartment to buy a condo back in the late 80s. We started paying a bit more for condo loan than the apartment rent, and about ten years later we ended up "lucky enough" to sell the condo for less than half the price. We used that money to pay the rest of the condo loan and to buy a new house for which we started paying a new loan. After nearly 15 years and still paying the house loan, every interior is starting to break and we need to pay about 5 times the rent of our first apartment to fix them. But that's okay, because we were expecting all that and still wanted to own this house. We never set up solar panels, though, because we knew that the house will die before we ever get enough solar energy to pay off the panel price. Okay, I'm done with the off-topic topic.

Thanks Uco,Because We Thousands of Foreigners Living,residing in Japan need views From Japanese
perspective.However I living in Oita prefecture and My monthly rent cost is 20000‰~.Either you believe
it or not, my Japanese girl Friend paid 10000‰~ monthly as rent cost.It is only possible in Japan.So 99%
Japanese has shelter,such as Own apartment,condo,rental house.And If they stay away From their own home,then Hotel,Hostel,Motel,Minshuku,AirBnB etc.So I think mark7007 can take this chance,and stay in
Mainland Japan and rent a house from 20000‰~ to 100000‰~ per month according to ones own ability.
Thousands of rental agency exist in Japan.You can conduct with apamanshop, cbchintai etc.

Actually, there are circumstances where money remitted to Japan can be taxed. Who is "we"? Is your spouse a Japanese citizen?

For the amount of money you've mentioned, you would be wise to contact someone in advance at the Japan Tax Office in Okinawa. Or contact a Japanese zeirishi (similar to a CPA).

Also, many municipalities in Japan arrange free 15- or 30-minute consultations with lawyers and tax professionals, so you could try contacting a large municipal office in Okinawa and asking for advice.

"renewal fee" is Tokyo local habit.
so the arguments do not fit to other regions.