Tax Time
For those of you Americans who live here in Japan, just a reminder that today is the last day you can file your taxes with the foreign earned income exclusion under the automatic two-month extension. So if you haven’t filed for another extension already and you haven’t sent in your tax forms, time is running short. Don’t know how? No problem, here are the instructions that I wrote out three years ago. It has links to download the 1040 and 2555 forms, and a link to the 2006 annual average exchange rate (same link as the 2003 rate). As I stated then, I’m not a tax expert and you follow the instructions at your own risk. The forms are a bit outdated–the line numbers have changed a little–but with the illustrations, you can still follow it perfectly well.
Nice writeup, Luis. Do you know if American with legal Japanese Residency is required to pay gift tax by system of Japan? or are we only subject to income taxes? I’m asking because I might be receiving some money from my wife.
Andy
Andy: sorry, I have no idea about Gift Tax. I believe that all income, from anywhere, is taxed by the US government, gift or not. I *think* that Japan taxes all your income in Japan, but not what you earned in your home country if it stays there. But I don’t know for sure.
Looks like I got to make sure. Years ago I lend my wife 50k to pay off her credit card debit. Now that she is better off than I am I’ve asked her to pay it back when I move to Japan and she’s agreed to it. I know its not really a big amount but I just wanted to be sure. I think in U.S. the person who wires the money has to be taxed. In Japan, the receiver has to pay tax. Thats kind of sucks isnt it. Worse thing is I didnt have any kind of debt note to back up my claims.