Japan's Spouse Exemption Form: How to Fill It In

Last updated: 19 October 2026 · the National Tax Agency’s 2026 form and year-end adjustment guide · figures for the 2026 tax year

At the year-end adjustment (年末調整) your employer hands you one sheet with four declarations on it. The spouse part — the declaration for the exemption for spouse (給与所得者の配偶者控除等申告書) — asks you to estimate two incomes for the whole year, yours and your spouse’s, tick two boxes, and copy one amount from a table: up to ¥380,000, or ¥480,000 for a spouse aged 70 or over. This page goes through the 2026 form in that order. What the deduction is worth to your take-home is in the guide to what a dependent spouse is worth.

This is a general guide to the 2026 form (令和8年分) for an employee whose employer does the year-end adjustment. The form is the employer’s, and many hand it out on a payroll website rather than on paper; the boxes and the table are the same.

The sheet: four declarations in one

The National Tax Agency prints the basic exemption declaration (基礎控除申告書), the declaration for the exemption for spouse, the declaration for specified relatives (特定親族特別控除申告書) and the declaration for the income amount adjustment deduction (所得金額調整控除申告書) on one sheet. You fill in the first for yourself; the spouse part is on the right and only applies if you are married. Everything on it is an estimate (見積額) of income for January to December 2026, so you fill it in before the year is over.

Step 1: your own income, and your band

In the basic exemption part, write your salary for the year and your income from it — the salary less the employment income deduction, and the income amount adjustment deduction (所得金額調整控除) if you get it: on a salary over ¥8,500,000 it takes off up to ¥150,000 more if you have a special disability (特別障害者), have a dependent under 23, or support a dependent, or a spouse sharing your living costs on ¥620,000 of income or less, who has one. Add any other income, then tick your band. Three of the bands carry a letter that the spouse part needs, entered in the box marked 区分Ⅰ:

• A: income of ¥9,000,000 or less (a salary of up to ¥10,950,000 if salary is all you have, or ¥11,100,000 with the adjustment);
• B: over ¥9,000,000, up to ¥9,500,000 (a salary up to ¥11,450,000, or ¥11,600,000 with the adjustment);
• C: over ¥9,500,000, up to ¥10,000,000 (a salary up to ¥11,950,000, or ¥12,100,000 with the adjustment).

Above ¥10,000,000 of income there is no exemption for spouse of either kind, and you leave the spouse part empty.

Step 2: your spouse’s income for the year

Write your spouse’s salary and other income for the whole of 2026, including what they expect to be paid in December. A salary counts in the year of its payday — the date set by the contract or the usual payday — even if the money arrives late. If their only income is a salary, their income for 2026 is simple below ¥2,191,000: nothing up to ¥740,999, and from ¥741,000 that is pay minus ¥740,000. Unemployment benefits, maternity allowance and childcare leave benefits are not income here.

Then tick the box that fits and copy its number into the box marked 区分Ⅱ:

• ①: income of ¥620,000 or less (a salary up to ¥1,360,000), aged 70 or over — born on or before 1 January 1957;
• ②: income of ¥620,000 or less, under 70;
• ③: over ¥620,000, up to ¥950,000 (a salary up to ¥1,690,000);
• ④: over ¥950,000, up to ¥1,330,000 (a salary up to ¥2,070,000).

Over ¥1,330,000 of income your spouse gives you nothing on this form. ① and ② are the exemption for spouse (配偶者控除); ③ and ④ are the special exemption for spouse (配偶者特別控除).

Step 3: read the amount off the table

The form’s table crosses your letter with your spouse’s box. For ④ it splits the income into steps of ¥50,000:

Step 4: write it in the right box

With ① or ②, write the amount under 配偶者控除の額 (the exemption for spouse). With ③ or ④, write it under 配偶者特別控除の額 (the special exemption). Only one of the two is ever filled in. Add your spouse’s name, date of birth and individual number (マイナンバー) at the top, and their address if they do not live with you.

An example: you earn a salary of ¥6,000,000, which is ¥4,360,000 of income — band A. Your spouse works part time for ¥1,600,000 in 2026, which is ¥860,000 of income — box ③. You write ¥380,000 as the special exemption. Had they earned ¥1,800,000, their ¥1,060,000 of income would fall in the step up to ¥1,100,000, and you would write ¥260,000.

Married this year, or your spouse started work

• Married during 2026: whether you have a spouse is decided on 31 December, so a marriage registered by then counts for the whole year. Your spouse’s income is still the whole year’s, including what they earned before the marriage.
• Your spouse started or stopped working: count only the salary with a payday from January to December 2026. If they were on your dependents declaration (扶養控除等申告書) and now earn more, tell payroll, so the monthly withholding stops counting them.
• A spouse living outside Japan: the form has a box for it, and you hand in documents showing the relationship and the money you sent — the year-end adjustment forms in English has the list.

When the estimate turns out wrong

If your spouse’s income (or your own) ends up different from what you wrote, and the deduction changes, tell your employer: they can redo the year-end adjustment until 31 January of the next year. After that the final tax return (確定申告) is where it is put right — to claim a deduction you were owed, or to pay back one that was too large. The guide to fixing a year-end adjustment mistake has the steps for both.

Questions people ask

My spouse earns more than the exemption for spouse allows. Do I still fill this in?

Yes, as long as their income for the year stays within the upper limit. Above the line for the exemption for spouse, the same part of the form gives the special exemption for spouse instead, and in the lower bands it is worth the same.

We married in December. Can I claim for my spouse this year?

Yes. The status is taken on 31 December, so a marriage registered by then counts. Their income is the whole year's, including what they earned before you married.

Can my spouse and I both claim for each other?

No. If you both qualify on income, only one of you can take the special exemption for the other; the other leaves the spouse part of the form empty.

Sources

• National Tax Agency — 令和8年分 給与所得者の基礎控除申告書 兼 給与所得者の配偶者控除等申告書 兼 給与所得者の特定親族特別控除申告書 兼 所得金額調整控除申告書 (the form: the bands A to C, the boxes ① to ④, the table; on the back, 4-1, who counts for the income amount adjustment deduction). Japanese, PDF, opened 19 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — 令和8年分 年末調整のしかた 2-2 (pages 16 to 18: filling in the form step by step, the salary equivalents, one spouse claiming the other) and 6 再調整 (page 43: redoing the adjustment until the end of January). Japanese, PDF, opened 19 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — No.1191 配偶者控除 (the status on 31 December, the income for the whole year) and its Q4 to Q6 (unemployment, maternity and childcare leave benefits are not counted), and No.1195 配偶者特別控除. Japanese, opened 19 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — No.1410 給与所得控除 (the employment income deduction for 2026), No.1411 所得金額調整控除 and No.2509 給与所得の収入金額の収入すべき時期 (salary counts by its payday). Japanese, opened 19 October 2026.

See what the deduction does to your pay