Resident Tax When Leaving Japan Mid-Year

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 to whoever was living in Japan on 1 January. Leaving in the middle of the year does not cancel it: you were resident on the 1 January it was assessed on, so the rest of that bill is still owed. What leaving changes is who pays it after you go — your employer out of your final pay, or a tax agent (納税管理人) you appoint before you leave. The income you earn in your last year is a separate matter: it is not charged at all, provided you are not living in Japan on the next 1 January.

The bill you are already paying

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications states the two rules this page turns on: the tax is assessed on 1 January, and it is charged on the previous calendar year’s income. If your employer collects it for you (特別徴収), the year is split into twelve and one instalment comes out of each payslip from June to the following May. If you pay it yourself (普通徴収), it arrives as slips carrying your municipality’s own due dates — fewer of them, and not monthly. Either way the year earned and the year paid are never the same year, which is also why your first payslips in Japan have no resident tax at all.

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. A new arrival on the same salary who lands in April pays ¥0 of it in their first twelve months — how long that lasts depends on the month you arrive, which is why the calculator dates everything from the one you give it. Leave at the end of September, four instalments in, and ¥161,600 of that year’s bill has not been paid yet. That is the money this page is about.

What the month you leave changes

Two things decide what is left behind you: how far through the June-to-May run you are, and whether a new bill was assessed on the 1 January you were still here for. One distinction first: what you owe is decided by where you were living on 1 January, but how the rest is collected turns on when your employment ends. The table assumes the two fall in the same month, as they usually do; finish the job in December and fly out in January, and it is December the collection rules read.

All three rows are about money taken out of pay. On slips instead (普通徴収), none of the lump-sum rules reach you: what is left falls due on its own dates, and somebody has to be in Japan to receive the paper and pay it.

The collection rules are in the Local Tax Act (地方税法 第321条の5) and apply everywhere; the forms and the desk you file at are your own municipality’s, and its page is the one to read. Hiroshima City is quoted here because its English page is unusually plain.

A tax agent (納税管理人)

A tax agent stays behind to receive your tax notices and pay them for you. Hiroshima City describes it as appointing “someone still living in Japan”, and the National Tax Agency, for the national taxes it handles, puts the test as “a Japanese corporation or a person who resides in Japan” — no requirement that they be a professional. In practice it is an employer, a colleague, a partner or a friend.

For resident tax the appointment is filed with your municipality before you leave: the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications says somebody leaving Japan before the payment deadline must designate a tax agent and notify the municipal government beforehand. It is a separate piece of paper from the national-tax one, which goes to your tax office — what that one changes for your final tax return (確定申告) is in leaving Japan mid-year: final tax return and tax agent.

Skipping it does not make the bill go away. Hiroshima City sets out what happens instead: the city cannot send the documents, so they are served by publication, and if the tax is still unpaid after that, delinquent charges can follow.

What this calculator does not do

YenTake projects a timeline forward from the month you arrive. It does not model leaving: there is no lump-sum collection in it, no final-year settlement, and no proration of the year you go. What it gives you is an estimate of the bill under the assumptions it lists, which is enough to plan with; the amount you actually owe, and what is left unpaid, is on the assessment your municipality sends. Changing jobs without leaving Japan follows the same collection rules with one more route, the new employer carrying the deductions on; that is on what happens to resident tax when you change jobs. The income-tax side of leaving, the quasi-final return (準確定申告), is a different tax and outside this page; the National Tax Agency covers it on the page linked below.

Questions people ask

Do I still owe resident tax after I leave Japan?

For a bill already assessed, yes: Hiroshima City states that somebody leaving in the middle of the taxable year is still legally responsible for paying it. What you do not owe is a bill for a 1 January you were not here for — so the income from your last year is not charged, provided you have gone before that date.

Can my employer deduct the whole year from my last salary?

Not the whole year — what is left of it. For employment ending between 1 January and 30 April, Hiroshima City says lump-sum collection from the final pay is mandatory, as long as the pay left by 31 May covers what is uncollected; between 1 June and 31 December it happens if you tell your employer you want it. Either way it covers the instalments remaining in the current run, not a bill that has not been issued yet — and if the final pay falls short, the rest comes back to you to pay. It is worth checking your last payslip for the amount actually taken.

What is a tax agent (nōzei kanrinin)?

Somebody living in Japan whom you name to receive your tax notices and pay them on your behalf after you leave, filed with your municipality beforehand. They are not taking on your debt — the tax is still yours — they are the address it is sent to and the hands that pay it.

This is a general explanation, not advice about your situation. Municipalities differ in their forms and deadlines, and a residence in two countries is a question this page does not reach. Your city or ward office is the place to ask, and a 税理士 (licensed tax accountant) after it.

Sources

• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications — 外国人の方の個人住民税について (the 1 January assessment date, the previous year’s income, and appointing a tax agent with the municipality before leaving). Japanese only.
• Hiroshima City — Municipal Residents Tax and Prefectural Residents Tax for International Residents (liability when leaving mid-year, the tax agent, service by publication, and lump-sum collection — mandatory for 1 January to 30 April departures). English. The same city’s 給与所得者異動届出書の提出 is the employer-facing version, and is where the condition on it sits: the lump sum is taken when the pay due by 31 May exceeds the uncollected tax, and what cannot be taken moves to collection from the taxpayer. Japanese.
• National Tax Agency — No.12004 Income tax information for an individual who will leave Japan (the national-tax agent, filed with the tax office, and the quasi-final return). English.
• 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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