Any resource to help pay taxes?

Hi everyone,
I've been looking for some local help to understand how to pay taxes as a self employed (freelancer), but in 2 months I didn't get far.
The local foreigner support office connected me to a person who refused to answer any question and asked me 50,000 yen (plus tax... which is ludicrous to even have it pointed out. That's like half what I earn in a month on average) to file my return, rather than pointing me in the right direction.

I have no idea where to get the documents as they wouldn't tell me, and even if they did I need them in english, or some way to get through the office in english to get the right documents. Is there any service that works across all japan, maybe via email, directed to foreigners?

I live in Oita, by the way.

Thanks in advance.

1) Very basic explanation about Final tax return, "Kakutei-shinkoku" (English)
https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/individual/12011.htm

2) The portal of Kakutei-shinkoku (Japanese)
https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/shinkoku/tokushu/index.htm

The right forms you are expected to fill in depend on your situation. Read through all the documents and FAQ on the National Tax Agency's website, understand, and do what is necessary. The tax bureau already has started processing appointments on the app LINE. The info about it is also on #2. (Due to current COVID situation, they talk to tax payers in an irregular way. An appointment is needed.)

It's not simple even for native Japanese speakers. That's why many hire a tax accountant. The person you were introduced to should be also one of the accountants. They are not cheap because they are certificated specialists who deal with this complicated paperwork instead of you. If he 50,000 yen is not ridiculous at all, I'd say. If you can do everything by yourself, you don't need to pay, of course.

Well, since I'm Japanese, what I did on my first year as a freelancer was to go to the tax support session (which is basically the same thing as going to the local tax office during this season), get a number card to queue, and tell the volunteering tax accountant what my profession is and that I'm stupid and know nothing.

The accountant told me how to write every form, and gave me all the tips I needed to know. I made personal notes for reference, even though I still didn't understand what they really meant. The next year, I automatically received the right set of forms I need to fill out.

Maybe you could buy lunch for a non-professional interpreter who would accompany you to a free consultation. E-tax (on-line tax report) has been encouraged for years, and the National Tax Agency would promptly answer questions sent on-line, but since you're a beginner, you may want to go directly to the free consultations first.

50000yen is reasonable or cheap.
hire him/her and LEARN how to do.
usefulness of accountant hiring is not only filing, but also you can get advises for this year's document collections and managements.
principle of taxation in Japan is "if you make mistakes and pay too much as tax, it is your fault and tax office will not tell you your mistake to get money back. however, if you make mistakes and pay less amount of tax, they will surely inform you your mistakes and often charge you penalty tax."

many people will make a long waiting line to get free consultation in front of tax office. they just give you advises and if you make mistake by the reason of incomplete understanding, it is your fault.
which do you take irresponsible free service or cheap but responsible service ?

Not that I disagree with the other poster, but just so that the OP knows, this year, in hope to avoid Covid, the free consultations at Oita are handing out seiriken (numbered tickets), so the queue won't be too long. And just to be fair, I never had to wait in a long queue here in Yokohama, and I was always kept waiting inside a warm room. Again, I'm not disagreeing with the other poster.

By the way, the biggest amount of tax a freelancer can get back is likely to be about 10% of everything (s)he earned that year. And depending on that amount, a 50000 yen advice can be either cheap or expensive. Meanwhile, on the books, the 50000 yen can be deducted from the freelancer's income, which may help him/her get more taxes back depending on the situation.

Just not to make OP misunderstand, Kakutei-shinkoku is not just to get refunded. It's done to sum up all your income including the benefit from investment and such, expenses for your business, to claim that shouldn't be counted as income like donation and insurance, then fix the right amount of tax.

Sometimes you get refunded, sometimes you have to pay more, as a result of Kakuten-shinkoku. And it's the duty of residents in Japan to pay the proper amount of tax.

as you don't know an accountant, how can you compare it with free service ?

@Uco

Hi! I did a google search in Japanese to get some info on the tax support session in my town. Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck since I didn't know which Japanese keywords or phrase to search. If it's not too much trouble, could you please tell me the keywords/phrase I should be googling? (I'll just add the name of my town after the phrase). Thanking you in advance!

It's on the portal site I mentioned in my first post.
https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/shinkoku/tokushu/nyujo.htm

Why do people expect professional services to be cheap/free - you don't give away your services.
I pay an accountant a monthly fee and at the end of the year the annual return is pretty simple for them and they charge me a bigger fee for filling in the masses of forms and submit it for me. I also get correct advice about tax adjustments mid-year and end of year. I pay a little less than 50k/year, but not much, for a 50k fee for a tax return/filing to a casual client does not seem exorbitant.
For a professional service, I am paying a lot less than I would in my home country for a similar service, it saves me a lot of time (which has value to me), and it is done correctly.

Just to clarify, I wrote that paying 50,000 yen for an accountant can be a good thing, especially if you're earning more than 600,000 yen a year.

tetopko,

You can also get more information by making a phone call to your local tax office. Or, as you can see by following Tai's link where it says �m��\�����̂��m�点, for this year, sessions are typically available during Feb 16 to Mar 15 depending on which tax office you belong to.

As for myself, I used to get info through our local "kairanban" neighborhood bulletin circulations. In Yokohama, they used to do sessions at a room in a bank (but not any more) or the ward office. At the ward office, we were able to send out our papers as well.

I also forgot to write that the volunteering accountants at the free consultations would sign their names on your tax return forms.

NOTE, HOWEVER, THAT TO AVOID THE SPREADING OF COVID=19, YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO STAY HOME AND ASK QUESTIONS/FILE TAXES ON-LINE. I was just mentioning about options for beginners. People with language barriers still deserve a fair chance.

https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/shinkoku/tebiki/2020/pdf/050.pdf

This is the guide to be used this year for filing taxes on income during 2020. My non-Japanese spouse (freelancer) receives a copy of this every year in the post, as he has been filing taxes over many years already. Myself (= Japanese spouse) am doing my taxes (also a freelancer) too, so I get the Japanese version and do the filing for the two of us, so we�fve never read this document in detail, but this should help.

@ Tai @Uco @AK

Thank you for the helpful info! ��(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)��

Thanks everyone for the replies. Well it's expensive for me since I earned about 7000 dollars last year (yes, year). And since I spent over half of it to update my rig to work better, indeed 50000 is a lot. I am trying to go through the free services but nobody speaks english. Even the accountant I found has a terrible time with english and keeps asking me to find someone that speaks to her in japanese (she is also very rude).

The problem with the tax consultation is that it's only 2 days a month and I might not necessarily be free from work when it happens (also I have to spend all day there, cause the tickets are given in the morning and the consultation is in the afternoon. I live in the deep countryside so going there takes about 1 hour).

I looked into their online system but they want you to install some software and change stuff on your pc, which I ain't gonna do.

Also to clarify, I did NOT receive any tax form since I would be filing taxes for the first time, so I can't even go to ask for it since they claim not to speak english at the office.

You can't read through the explanation on the website by the tax bureau. (Did you try Google translate?)
You can't speak Japanese at the tax bureau office even to ask for the forms. (Don't you have someone that interprets for you?)
You can't afford the paid tax accountant.
You don't have free time for a free consultation.

Well, I can't find any fault on their side.
Just like you can't do tax in Japanese, you shouldn't expect full support without making efforts or paying to break through the barrier.

* Just like you can't do tax in Japanese in your country,

Free consultation, in Japanese, is usually available throughout the whole tax registration period and maybe more. It is also possible to ask questions through phone or email, and they're quite helpful.

Did you try looking for a friend who can interpret for you, like I suggested previously? How were you able to work freelance in Japan when you had no language assistance at all?

By the way, the whole idea of filing tax is that the government would be able to know the honest amount of your income, so that they could charge you your monthly income tax in the coming year. In return, you will most likely be getting money back in a couple of month, if you only earned a small amount last year.

I assume you have business revenues rather than �gsalary,�h so I guess you�fd need these two forms. You can print these, and if you fill these out according to the English language guide (provided earlier), that should do.

https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/shinkoku/yoshiki/01/shinkokusho/...

https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/shinkoku/yoshiki/01/shinkokusho/...

@Tai I am single parenting a 2 year old as a stay home dad. My wife, japanese who dragged me here, is uncooperative and unhelpful. So yes, I do all of the above, and yes, nobody helps and time is tyrannical. As I said I speak basic japanese (enough to interact with the teachers of the daycare) but nowhere near the level required to ask for tax details. And I do not reat kanji at all. My wife won't translate for me and even JAT has no interpreter in Oita.
The judging tone of your reply is very irritating; I am sure you just had it easy, but I invite you to be a little more respectful, since you are unaware of people's life situations.

To the other replies:
I can definitely print out those forms, but the guide said they should be carbon copy, so I assume it has to be some special paper or document they provide? If those are okay I can definitely do and am thankful for that.