Bonus Tax in Japan With No Salary Last Month

Last updated: 17 October 2026 · the National Tax Agency’s 2026 withholding tables · figures for the 2026 tax year

Income tax on a Japanese bonus (賞与) is normally one rate, read from what you were paid the month before. That rule needs a month before to read. When there was no salary that month — a sign-on bonus paid before your first payday, a bonus paid while you are on unpaid sick leave or childcare leave — or when the bonus is more than ten times that salary, the rate table is set aside and the bonus goes through the monthly table instead, a sixth at a time. The result can surprise in both directions: a ¥500,000 bonus with no salary behind it has no income tax taken at all, while a ¥2,000,000 bonus after a ¥150,000 month has ¥24,871 more taken than the rate table would have taken. The usual case is in the bonus tax guide; this page is about the exceptions.

Withholding is an estimate taken at the time of payment, not your tax for the year. The year-end adjustment (年末調整) in December, or a tax return, counts the bonus with everything else.

What these figures assume

• An employee of one Japanese company, insured through 協会けんぽ, with the dependents declaration (扶養控除等申告書) handed in — so column kou (甲欄) of the tables — except where column otsu (乙欄) is the point.
• Single, no dependents, under 40, working in Tokyo in an ordinary business, with the 2026 rates and withholding tables. The figures come from the engine behind the take-home calculator.
• A bonus that covers six months or less of work, unless the section on longer bonuses says otherwise.

The usual rule, and the three cases where it stops

Normally the National Tax Agency’s 賞与に対する源泉徴収税額の算出率の表 gives a single rate from your previous month’s salary after social insurance, and that rate is applied to the whole bonus once its own insurance has come off. Note 4 of the 2026 table, and article 186(2) of the Income Tax Act, set it aside in three cases:

• No salary was paid the month before.
• The salary paid the month before was no more than its own social insurance, so nothing was left of it.
• The bonus is more than ten times the previous month’s salary, both counted after social insurance.

In all three the bonus is taxed through the monthly table (月額表), the one used for an ordinary payslip:

1. Take the bonus after its social insurance and divide it by 6.
2. Add last month’s salary after social insurance (nothing, if there was none) and look the total up in the monthly table.
3. Subtract the tax on last month’s salary alone, and multiply what is left by 6.

In effect the bonus is spread over the six months it is assumed to reward, and each sixth is taxed as if it were extra salary in one of them.

What that does to four bonuses

Tokyo, under 40, no dependents. Take-home is the bonus less social insurance and income tax; resident tax is never taken from a bonus.

No salary the month before

The ¥500,000 bonus loses ¥73,450 to social insurance either way, which leaves ¥426,550. With a ¥300,000 salary the month before, the rate table charges 4.084% of that. With no salary, a sixth of it is ¥71,091, and with no dependents the 2026 monthly table charges nothing on a month below ¥105,000. Six times nothing is nothing, so the whole ¥426,550 is paid out. Anything under ¥630,000 after insurance — six times that threshold — comes out the same way. A ¥1,000,000 bonus leaves ¥853,100; a sixth of that is ¥142,183, the monthly table charges ¥2,010 on it, and six of those is ¥12,060.

This is not a tax break. It is the withholding failing to see the rest of your year, and the year-end adjustment catches it up: if you are paid a salary for the rest of the year, the bonus is counted with it in December, so the refund you would have had is smaller, or tax is taken from that payslip instead.

A bonus more than ten times last month’s salary

A ¥150,000 salary leaves ¥127,965 after insurance, and ten times that is ¥1,279,650. A ¥2,000,000 bonus leaves ¥1,751,950 after its own insurance, which is over the line. So instead of 4.084% of the bonus — ¥71,549, what the rate table gives on that salary — the monthly table is used: a sixth of the bonus is ¥291,991, which on top of the salary is a month of ¥419,956. The monthly table charges ¥17,370 on that, against ¥1,300 on the salary alone; the ¥16,070 difference, six times, is ¥96,420.

The rule exists for exactly this case: somebody on a small monthly salary — part-time, or on reduced hours — receiving a large bonus, which the rate table would otherwise tax as if they were on a small income all year. The sharp edge is the ten-times line itself. A ¥1,200,000 bonus after the same ¥150,000 month stays under it and is taxed at the 4.084% rate.

A bonus for more than six months

When the bonus covers a period of more than six months — an annual bonus, typically — the National Tax Agency’s method divides and multiplies by 12 instead of 6. Spreading the same bonus thinner lowers the tax: the ¥1,000,000 bonus with no salary behind it is a month of ¥71,091 when divided by 12, below where the table starts charging, so nothing is withheld. The calculator on this site always divides by 6, so for an annual bonus in one of these cases it shows more tax than your payslip will.

On column otsu (乙欄)

If you have not handed this employer the dependents declaration — usually because it is your second job, and the declaration went to the main one — the bonus is taxed on column otsu (乙欄). That column has a rate table of its own, with much higher rates: after a ¥300,000 month, the same ¥500,000 bonus is charged 20.42%, which is ¥87,101 instead of ¥17,420. The three exceptions above apply to it as well, through column otsu of the monthly table. That column charges even small amounts, so a ¥500,000 bonus with no salary the month before has ¥13,062 taken rather than nothing.

Column otsu is not a separate tax either. If your main job does the year-end adjustment, the second job’s pay and bonus are not in it, and a final tax return (確定申告) settles them.

Social insurance on a bonus in the month you join or leave

Health insurance and the pension are charged on the bonus with anything under ¥1,000 dropped, up to ¥1,500,000 a month for the pension and ¥5,730,000 a fiscal year for health insurance. Whether they are charged at all depends on the month:

• The month you join. A bonus paid on or after the day your coverage starts is charged as usual — even if your coverage also ends that month, as long as the bonus is paid before it does.
• The month you leave. Your coverage ends the day after your employment end date (退職日), which is later than your last day at work if you use up paid leave first. A bonus paid in the month your coverage ends carries no health insurance or pension premium, unless your coverage also started that month. If you have been insured since before June and your employment ends on 20 June, a bonus paid on 10 June is not charged; on a ¥500,000 bonus that is ¥25,200 of health insurance and ¥45,750 of pension that are not taken. If it ends on 30 June instead, your coverage ends on 1 July, so the June bonus is charged in full. For health insurance, a bonus paid before your coverage ends still counts towards the fiscal-year limit.
• During childcare leave. Premiums on a bonus are waived only when the leave is long enough; the guide to premiums during childcare leave has the rule.

None of this changes the income tax: it is worked out on whatever social insurance was actually taken.

After the bonus: what settles it

Every figure on this page is withholding. If you are still employed in December, the year-end adjustment puts the bonus together with the year’s salary and works out the tax on the total, so a bonus with nothing withheld costs you in December instead. If you leave during the year and have no employer at the end of it, nobody does that for you: your last employer gives you a withholding tax statement (源泉徴収票), and you settle the year with a tax return. And if this is a second job, its bonus is settled in your return too.

Questions people ask

No income tax was taken from my bonus. Is that a mistake?

Probably not, if you were paid no salary the month before. The bonus is then taxed through the monthly table on a sixth of it, and a sixth of a modest bonus is often below where that table starts charging. It is withholding, not your final tax: the year-end adjustment, or a tax return, counts the bonus with the rest of the year.

Why was more tax taken from my bonus than from a colleague’s?

Usually one of three things. Your salary the month before was higher, so the rate table gave you a higher band; your bonus was more than ten times that salary after insurance, so it went through the monthly table; or you are on column otsu (乙欄) because you have not handed this employer the dependents declaration.

Is social insurance taken from a bonus paid in the month I leave?

It depends on when your employment ends. Your coverage ends the day after your employment end date (退職日), and a bonus paid in the month your coverage ends carries no health insurance or pension premium, unless your coverage also started that month. If your employment ends on the last day of a month, coverage ends on the 1st of the next, so a bonus paid in that last month is charged as usual.

This is a general explanation and an estimate, not advice about your situation. Company health societies (健康保険組合) set their own rates. A 税理士 (licensed tax accountant) is the person to ask about your own bonus.

Run your salary and bonus

Sources

• National Tax Agency — No.2523 賞与に対する源泉徴収 (the rate table and its two exceptions: a bonus over ten times the previous month’s salary, and no salary the previous month — divide by 6, or 12 for a bonus covering more than six months, read the monthly table, multiply back; column kou when the dependents declaration has been handed in, column otsu when it has not). Japanese, as of 1 April 2026, opened 17 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — 令和8年分 賞与に対する源泉徴収税額の算出率の表, note 4 (the previous month’s salary no more than its social insurance), and the 令和8年分 給与所得の源泉徴収税額表 (月額表), read through the calculator’s engine. Japanese.
• Income Tax Act (所得税法) 第186条 — e-Gov (withholding on a bonus). Japanese.
• Japan Pension Service — 賞与にかかる保険料 (anything under ¥1,000 dropped; the caps; a bonus paid in the month coverage ends is not charged, and for health insurance one paid before that day still counts towards the fiscal-year total; a bonus paid on or after the day coverage starts is charged, including when coverage starts and ends in the same month). Japanese, updated 6 October 2026, opened 17 October 2026.
• Japan Health Insurance Association — 任意継続の加入条件について (coverage ends on the 資格喪失日, the day after the employment end date, 退職日の翌日). Japanese, opened 17 October 2026.