Applying For Tax Refund

INTRODUCTION
If you started working here in Japan, every end of year the company will give you application form(a green paper) about your income tax declaration. One information that your must declare here is your dependents. If you forgot to declare it from the time you start working here, there is a chance that you can refund some part of the taxes you paid already in the government.

The following are the documents you needed when applying for tax refund here in Japan.

Certificate of income and witholding tax. This document will be given to you by your company. You must keep it.
Alien registration card
Passport
Birth certificate of your dependents in the Philippines or any documents that will prove your relation to your dependents
Bank account certificate. A document that will prove that you are sending money to your dependents.
A letter telling your reason why you are refunding some tax you paid.
Your bank account where your tax refund will be send.
Your hanko

ONE POINT REMINDERS
(1) Certificate of income and witholding tax is very important. This certificate will be given to you by your company. If they refuse to give it to you, chances are they are not declaring your taxes paid or deducted to your salary. You can report it to the tax office. If that certificate was lost, your pay slip can be used.

(2) If you have no proof that you are sending money to the Philipphines like the bank account, you can make a letter and make your dependent sign it in the Philippines and make sure it was signed by notary attorney in the Philippines also. This is what I've done before.

(3) You can declare your niece, cousin, etc. as your dependent provided that you can prove it.

(4) For processing, you must go to the section that process tax refund. Try to ask at information desk for "SYOTOKUZEI KANFU SEIKYUU". They will guide you. For the papers, try to submit not the original one but the copy one. If they ask for it then submit it. There maybe additional documents that they may ask base on your reason or situation. When you submit it, they will evaluate it for approval. After evaluating it, they will give you your copy and you will be the one to submit it at the window. That was my experience.

(5) You can refund the tax for previous years also at the same time but seperate application form. For example, you wanted to refund the tax you paid for 2005, 2004, 2003, and 2002 that is possible. The average amount you can refund is 90,000 yen. But it may differ base on your salary and tax paid. In my experienced it was almost 90,000 yen.

(6) The processing will takes 2 to 3 months. The tax office will send you a letter reporting to you that they already send the money on your bank account.

(7) There are some office who are giving their services to refund your tax but they will takes 25% of the money refunded. The processing is very easy, so I'm advising to you to do it by yourself.

If you have a husband or wife that is a Japanese, make them read the Japanese version of the information below so that they will know that they can refund some taxes they paid in the government.

所得税還付請求にはどのような書類が必要ですか。会社に請求して交付してもらう源泉徴収票がまず必要です。その他必要なものは以下のとおりです。ただし、書類を追加請求される場合もありますので、事前に管轄の税務署で確認してください。

１　外国人登録票
２　パスポート
３　扶養証明書（大使館などの公証印のある、家族の続柄、誕生日などを記したもの）
４　家族への送金証明（銀行が発行したものが良い。友人などに依頼すると証明が困難な場合が多い）
５　銀行口座名（税金の払い戻しのため）
６　印鑑又はサイン
万一、会社が源泉徴収票の交付を拒むような場合には、これは所得税法違反ですので、管轄の税務署に会社を指導勧告してもらう必要があります。それでも出さないようなら、「源泉徴収票不交付の届出書」で還付請求できます。その際には給与明細が必要です。

APPLYING FOR TAX REFUND