Resident Tax When Changing Jobs in Japan

Last updated: 6 October 2026 · figures for the 2026 tax year (令和8年分)

Resident tax (住民税) is charged on last year’s income, so changing jobs does not change the bill you are paying — it only changes who collects it. What decides the rest is the month you leave: early in the year the balance comes out of your last pay; from June it is your choice between a lump sum and payment slips. And the new employer does not pick the deductions up on its own. That takes a form, and a request from you.

Why the amount does not change

Resident tax for the year that runs from June to the following May is worked out on the calendar year before it and is fixed before the first instalment. If your employer collects it (特別徴収, special collection), it is split into twelve and one instalment comes out of each payslip. A new job at a lower salary does not reduce it; a new job at a higher one does not raise it. The change reaches the bill that starts the June after the year in which you earned the new salary — and that bill is on the whole of that calendar year, both employers together.

On a ¥5,000,000 package in Tokyo, the calculator on this site puts a settled year at ¥243,000: ¥20,800 in June and ¥20,200 in each of the eleven months after it. Leave at the end of September, four instalments in, and ¥161,600 of that bill is still to pay. Leave at the end of February and three instalments are left — March, April and May, ¥60,600. Those two balances are handled differently.

What the month you leave decides

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications sets out the rule in its English leaflet for foreign residents, and Hiroshima City’s page for employers gives the detail. The difference is where in the June-to-May run you leave.

In either half of the year there is a third route: the new employer carries on with the monthly deductions where the old one stopped. That is the one people assume happens by itself, and it does not.

Carrying on at the new employer

When you leave, your old employer files a change notice (給与所得者異動届出書) with your municipality. Hiroshima City describes the continuing route as the case where the taxpayer, on changing jobs, asks for special collection to continue at the new employer — the instalments the old one can no longer take are then deducted by the new one. In practice the old employer fills in its half of the form, you take it to the new employer, and the new employer completes it and sends it on.

Nobody does this unless asked. Leave between June and December without asking for either the lump sum or the carry-on, and the rest of the year’s bill becomes payment slips in your name. They carry the municipality’s own due dates — fewer instalments than twelve, and each one larger than a monthly deduction. Plan for that if the gap between jobs is short and the first pay from the new job is weeks away.

The next run, which starts in June, is a new bill. Employers report the previous year’s pay to your municipality each January, and the bill is normally sent in May to the employer that reported you (特別徴収税額の決定通知書), so a new employer you had joined by then usually collects it from June whichever route you took for the old one. If that year’s bill reaches you as payment slips instead, ask the new employer about moving it to special collection.

If you leave at the end of the year

Resident tax is assessed on where you live on 1 January. Changing jobs inside Japan keeps you liable; leaving Japan is a different case, with a tax agent (納税管理人) and a different set of choices. If you move house as well as job, the bill for the current run stays with the municipality that assessed it; the one you move to picks you up from the next 1 January.

Income tax is a separate matter

The income tax your old employer withheld is settled at the end of the year: give your withholding tax statement (源泉徴収票) from the old job to the new employer before its year-end adjustment (年末調整), and December corrects the year across both jobs. Without it you file a return yourself. None of that moves the resident tax you are paying now.

Questions people ask

Does my resident tax go down if my new job pays less?

Not the bill you are paying now. Resident tax is charged on the previous calendar year’s income, so the amount was fixed before you changed jobs. A lower salary shows up in the bill that starts the June after the year you earned it.

Will my new employer start deducting resident tax automatically?

No. The deductions carry on at the new employer only if you ask for that and the paperwork (給与所得者異動届出書) passes from the old employer to the new one and on to your municipality. Otherwise what is left of the year’s bill is taken in one sum from your last pay — as a rule if you leave between January and April and that pay covers it, and between June and December only if you ask — or comes to you as payment slips.

Why am I paying resident tax twice?

Usually you are paying two different bills: the rest of last year’s on payment slips, and a new year’s deducted by the new employer from June. Check the tax year (年度) printed on each notice. If the same year’s bill is being both deducted and billed, call the tax office of your municipality.

This is a general explanation, not advice about your situation. Municipalities run their own forms and dates, and the notice your municipality sends is the amount that counts. Your city or ward office is the place to ask.

Sources

• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications — For foreign residents working in Japan: Don’t forget to pay resident tax! (special and general collection, what happens when you leave an employer, and the choice between June and December). English leaflet.
• Hiroshima City — 給与所得者異動届出書の提出 (the change notice, the lump sum for January to April, the choice from June to December, and continuing special collection at a new employer on request). Japanese.
• Local Tax Act (地方税法) 第39条・第318条 on the 1 January assessment date, and 第321条の5 on collection in twelve instalments from June

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