Reading Your Gensen Choshuhyo in Japan, Box by Box

Last updated: 6 October 2026 · the form for the 2025 tax year (令和7年分)

The gensen-choshuhyo (給与所得の源泉徴収票, the withholding tax statement in the National Tax Agency’s English) is the one-page summary of a year’s pay and income tax that your employer gives you after the year ends, or when you leave. It is the document a new employer and a final tax return (確定申告) ask for, and it is often asked for as proof of income. Here is every box on it in English, with a worked example on ¥5,000,000, and what it means when some of them are empty.

The top row: the four figures that matter

Below your name and address is a row of four amounts. They are the year in four numbers.

The example is somebody paid ¥5,000,000, single, under 40, in Tokyo, for a year worked out the way the calculator does it: every month at the insurance rates in force from April 2026, and the 2026 income tax rules. The deductions are ¥723,144 of social insurance and the ¥1,040,000 basic exemption; what is left of employment income after them is taxed to give ¥91,600. A real slip for 2026 will differ a little, because the insurance rates changed in the spring. The pay reads ¥5,000,004 rather than a round figure because the salary was the package divided into twelve equal monthly payments, rounded to the yen.

The second and third boxes are filled in only if your employer did a year-end adjustment (年末調整) for you. If they are empty, there was none — typically because you left partway through the year, or because another employer is your main one — and the tax in the fourth box is only what was withheld, not your settled tax for the year.

The rest of the slip, box by box

• 種別 — the kind of payment, usually 給料・賞与 (salary and bonus).
• （源泉）控除対象配偶者の有無等 and 配偶者（特別）控除の額 — whether a spouse was counted, and the exemption for spouse given. See what a dependent spouse is worth.
• 控除対象扶養親族等の数 — how many dependents were counted, split into 特定 (aged 19 to 22), 老人 (70 or over), その他 (others) and 特親 (specified relatives). Their names are further down. Relatives abroad are covered in claiming family abroad as dependents.
• 障害者の数 — a spouse or dependents with a disability, which give a deduction of their own.
• 特定親族特別控除の額 — the deduction for a relative aged 19 to 22 who earned too much to be an ordinary dependent.
• 社会保険料等の金額 — health insurance, pension and employment insurance paid in the year, plus iDeCo and similar contributions (shown as 内, “of which”). In the example, ¥723,144.
• 生命保険料の控除額 and 地震保険料の控除額 — the deductions for life insurance and for earthquake insurance premiums you declared to your employer. The premiums themselves are listed under 摘要 or in the boxes for their breakdown lower down.
• 住宅借入金等特別控除の額 — the home-loan credit taken off the tax, from the second year of a loan onwards.
• 摘要 — remarks: anything that does not fit a box, such as pay from a previous employer that this one included, or the premiums behind a deduction.
• Near the bottom, a row of small boxes marked when they apply — among them 乙欄 (column otsu), which means you did not give this employer your dependent declaration (扶養控除等申告書), so tax was withheld at the higher rate for a secondary employer and no year-end adjustment was done.
• At the bottom: the 中途就・退職 boxes (the date you joined or left, if within the year), your date of birth, and the employer’s name and address.

How it maps to the calculator

On the calculator, the salary is 支払金額 divided the way you are paid — twelve months, or months plus bonuses. A commuting allowance is not in 支払金額 as far as it is tax-free, but it still counts for social insurance: take it from your payslip and enter it in the calculator’s commuting allowance box. The calculator works out the social insurance, the deductions and the tax itself, so the other boxes are the ones to compare your result with: 社会保険料等の金額 against its year of social insurance, and 源泉徴収税額 against its income tax for a settled year. Dependents on the slip are the dependents to enter. Life insurance, the home-loan credit and iDeCo are not in the calculator, so a slip with any of them will show less tax than it does. iDeCo contributions the year-end adjustment took into account — taken from your pay or declared to your employer — are also inside 社会保険料等の金額, as the 内 figure: take that figure off before comparing it with the calculator’s social insurance.

Three things on it that mean a tax return

Most employees need nothing more than this slip. Three things on it — or missing from it — point to a final tax return. The second and third boxes are empty, so no year-end adjustment settled the year. The 支払金額 is over ¥20,000,000, which is past the ceiling for a year-end adjustment. Or the 乙欄 box is marked: this employer withheld without your dependent declaration. That is usual for a second job, and if you were paid by two employers the ¥200,000 side-income rule covers when you need a return; if this was your only employer, a return is how the year gets settled. A return is also how you claim deductions the slip cannot carry, such as medical expenses — the National Tax Agency’s No.1120 explains that deduction.

Questions people ask

When do I get a gensen-choshuhyo?

Your employer gives you one for each calendar year, usually with the last payslip of December or in January, and when you leave a job, for the pay up to your last day.

Two boxes on my slip are empty. Is something wrong?

Probably not. The boxes for pay after the employment income deduction and for the total of deductions are filled in only when the employer did a year-end adjustment. Empty boxes usually mean there was none — for example because you left partway through the year — and you may need to settle the year with a tax return.

Do I need to keep it?

Yes. A new employer asks for it to include your earlier pay in their year-end adjustment, and you need it for a tax return. It is also often asked for as proof of income.

This explains the National Tax Agency’s form for the 2025 tax year. Some employers print it on their own layout with the same boxes. The slip is the employer’s statement; the National Tax Agency’s rules and your tax office are the authority on your own case.

Sources

• National Tax Agency — F1-1 給与所得の源泉徴収票（同合計表）: the 令和7年分 form and the 記載要領 (what goes in each box; the two middle boxes of the top row only when 所得税法第190条, the year-end adjustment, applies)
• National Tax Agency — 通勤手当の非課税限度額の引上げについて (section 4: 支払金額 is written without the tax-free part of a commuting allowance)
• National Tax Agency — No.2665 年末調整の対象となる人 (the ¥20,000,000 ceiling), No.1900 給与所得者で確定申告が必要な人 and No.1120 医療費を支払ったとき（医療費控除）
• The example’s social insurance, basic exemption and tax are the calculator’s; their sources are listed on the calculator page and in the guide to the 2026 basic exemption change.