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Leaving Japan: Final Tax Return and Tax Agent

Last updated: 13 October 2026 · rules as of 1 April 2026 (令和8年4月1日現在法令等), and the 2026 changes as of 1 May 2026

When you leave Japan partway through a year and stop living here, three things happen to your tax. If you are still employed when you go, your employer normally settles the year’s income tax first. If you would need a tax return for the year anyway, you file it before you leave — unless you appoint a tax agent (納税管理人) to file it for you in the usual season. And resident tax carries on, on its own rules. This article is about the first two; the third has its own guide.

This is a general explanation for somebody paid a salary in Japan who leaves to live abroad. Whether you stop being a resident for tax is decided by the facts of your case. The National Tax Agency and your tax office are the authority, and a 税理士 can act for you.

If you are still employed: the year is settled before you go

If you leave to live abroad — the National Tax Agency’s example is a move expected to last a year or more — you generally become a non-resident (非居住者) for income tax from the day after you leave. If you are still on the payroll when you go — a transfer abroad, say — and have given your employer the dependent declaration (扶養控除等申告書), then with your last salary as a resident your employer does a year-end adjustment (年末調整) for the part of the year you lived here, just as it would in December. Above ¥20,000,000 of pay for the year there is none.

Two details differ from December. Insurance premiums count only if they were paid by the day you leave. And whether a spouse or relative counts as a dependent is judged on the day you leave, using an estimate of their income for the whole year. Hand your employer the insurance premium declaration and tell it about any change in dependents in time for that last salary. The year-end adjustment guide explains each declaration in English.

You then receive a withholding tax statement (源泉徴収票) for the year so far. Keep it: it is the record of what was settled.

If you left your job first and stayed on for a while, your employer did not adjust anything: an employee who leaves partway through the year and does not start another job gets no year-end adjustment. The slip from that job will show the two middle boxes of its top row empty. What was withheld is then settled only by a final tax return (確定申告) — often it gives some back — and if you would need a return for the year, it has to be filed by the time you leave, or through a tax agent, as below.

Leaving in 2026 before 1 December

The higher basic exemption for 2026, and the other deduction changes that come with it, take effect on 1 December 2026. If your last salary as a resident is paid on or before 30 November 2026, the year-end adjustment before you go is done without them, and so is a final return filed by that date. You can still get them afterwards: with a correction claim (更正の請求) from 1 December 2026 to 1 December 2031 if you filed a final return before departure, or otherwise with a return filed on or after 1 December 2026. Once you are abroad, you need a tax agent to file either one.

When you must file a return before leaving

Most people whose year was settled by their employer, with no other income, need nothing more, apart from the 2026 case above. But if you would need a tax return for the year anyway — the National Tax Agency’s examples are a salary of more than ¥20,000,000, or income besides your main salary that needs a return, such as the side income covered by the ¥200,000 rule — and you leave without appointing a tax agent, you have to file a final return before departure (準確定申告) by the time you leave — and pay any tax it shows by then too, not in the usual season. It covers all your taxable income for the part of the year you lived in Japan.

For most residents, taxable income means income from anywhere in the world. A non-permanent resident (非永住者) — without Japanese nationality, and living in Japan for five years or less in total over the past ten — is taxed on income from abroad only as far as it was paid in Japan or sent here. That is what “taxable income” means in the rest of this page.

You can also file a return before leaving by choice, to claim something only a return can give — a deduction for medical expenses, for example — rather than leave it to a tax agent after you have gone.

A tax agent lets you file in the usual season

If you appoint a tax agent (納税管理人) before you leave, by filing the appointment form (所得税・消費税の納税管理人の選任・解任届出書) with the tax office for your tax address, you do not have to file before departure. Instead the return for the year is filed in the usual season, 16 February to 15 March of the following year, through your agent, and any tax due is paid by 15 March: it covers your taxable income from the part of the year you lived here, plus any income that still arises in Japan after you left.

A tax agent can be a person or a company — a relative or friend in Japan, a colleague, a 税理士. Letters from the tax office are sent to the agent; the return itself is still yours and is filed with the tax office for your tax address. If you come back and become a resident again, the agent is dismissed with the same form.

Income that still arises in Japan

Salary for work done abroad after you have left is generally not taxed in Japan. But some income that still arises here can be — the National Tax Agency’s examples include rent from a property in Japan and gains on selling property or certain shares here. If you have income like that in the year you leave, the return for that year — filed through a tax agent from 16 February to 15 March of the next year — covers both your taxable income from the part of the year you lived here and that later income, even if you already filed a final return before departure; the tax settled in that earlier return is taken into account. In later years, a return through a tax agent is likely to be needed for each year that such income continues.

Resident tax is separate

Resident tax (住民税) is a local tax on the previous year’s income, and leaving does not cancel it. What happens depends on the month you leave: from January to May the rest of the bill is normally taken from your last salary; later in the year you may pay it in one go or through a tax agent you name to the city. The resident tax guide works through each case.

Questions people ask

Do I have to file a tax return before leaving Japan?

Only if you would need a tax return for the year anyway — for example with a salary over ¥20,000,000 or other income that needs one — and you leave without appointing a tax agent. Then the return is due, and any tax it shows must be paid, by the time you leave. With only a salary settled by your employer, you usually do not.

What does a tax agent (nozei kanrinin) do?

A tax agent receives letters from the tax office, files returns and pays or receives tax for you after you have left. It can be a person or a company, and you appoint one by filing a form with the tax office.

Is my salary after I leave taxed in Japan?

Salary for work done abroad after you become a non-resident is generally not taxed in Japan. Income that still arises in Japan, such as rent from a flat you let there, can be, and may need a return through a tax agent.

Sources

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