Becoming the householder.

Last year I told my employer that I was the householder so I only had to pay 800yen a month on withholding tax, but I my wife is the actual householder (she started renting the house before I came to Japan) so I had to pay a lot of money back this month. .

Because I am not the householder, and my wife and 2 kids are not under me officially I have to pay 3800 yen instead of the 800 yen. I am now thinking of becoming the householder instead of my wife, but my question is what does it mean besides paying less withholding tax.

Any experience or advice?

I don't understand the terms "householder" and "withholding tax" and "officially under me".

On your wife's koseki (family register), you cannot become head of house (settainushi or shotainushi 所帯主) because you are a foreigner. I suspect this is not the "householder" you are referring to, though.

The head of household I think you are referring to is for tax purposes. This doesn't have anything to do with who is paying the rent or whose name is on the lease. It has to do with who is supporting who.

If you are working and your wife has less than 380,000 JPY in annual income, then you can claim her as a dependent. This will reduce your liability for withholding taxes. That is always a good thing.

If she is making more than 380,000 JPY per year, then you cannot claim her as a deduction.

If you are supporting your children, then they should be "under you". Not entirely sure what you mean by that though. Up until last year, children earned you a 380,000 JPY deduction each, but from this year forward there is no deduction until they are 16 or older. Instead you receive the monthly tax-free payments of 13,000 JPY per child under 16.

Lot's of misunderstanding between my Manager and me.. I did not write down my childrens names on the tax paper, so I had to pay back what I payed to much.

The withholding tax became more expensive due to the financial support for children... I'm still working out how and what together with my wife. Yes, it's indeed about who is supporting who.

I will get back with this, as soon as I know more.

orochi said:

If you are working and your wife has less than 380,000 JPY in annual income, then you can claim her as a dependent.

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That's more like 1.1 million yen / year.

I did not write down my childrens names on the tax paper, so I had to pay back what I payed to much.

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That's your own fault, not something to complain about here and ask for advice on. Nothing that I can see should change.

I'm guessing it's not a withholding tax you mean, but a deduction for dependents.

Trying to figure out the cost here. You said "a lot of money", but if the difference is (3800-800) x 12 months, we're talking about only 36,000 yen, right?

> That's more like 1.1 million yen / year.

Thanks. It's actually 1.03 million year in gross income. After applying the income exclusion, you end up with (1,030,000-650,000) = 380,000 JPY in net income.

> Dutch Baka
So you filled out your withholding tax form wrong, not including your children? But your employer withheld less each month because they assumed you were taking the deductions for your kids? But at the end of the year, they realized you didn't ask for the deduction for your kids, so you had to pay the money back?

If that's the case, just fill out a kakutei shinkoku before March. Fill in the proper details about your dependents, and include any medical costs above 100,000 JPY and any other personal business expenses you might have. You will get the money back again.

And right around now your employer should be asking you to fill in the withholding tax information for 2011. You will be able to include your spouse as a deduction for income tax, but as I mentioned above, children under 16 can only count as dependents for local taxes.

orochi said:

> That's more like 1.1 million yen / year.

Thanks. It's actually 1.3 million year in gross income. After applying the income exclusion, you end up with (1,300,000-650,000) = 380,000 JPY in net income.

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Thanks for that accurate assessment. I've misplaced my link for the million figure. Do you have one I can use?