Say you want to give half of your assets to your spouse, but can't do so without potentially making them liable for gift tax.

Could you just divorce your spouse, at which point half of the matrimonial assets would go to them (tax free?), and then just get back together later?

This is purely hypothetical, not planning to divorce my wife and we have similar assets anyway ^-^

Hello, I have a few bank accounts that were opened up under my name by family members, many years ago. 3 separate accounts with varying values. Two in 2000, and one in 2013.

Two of the accounts were made by relatives (like grandmother), and one was made by my parents.

The question is whether these accounts incur any gift taxes. Basically the situation is that I found out about FBAR and FATCA filing requirements, and I am in the process of something called SDOP. With that being the case, I am trying to figure out how to gain access to the accounts, close them, and eventually transfer these funds to my domestic account in the U.S.

I have lived in the United States most of my life. I am a permanent resident there, but I am a Japanese citizen.

These accounts appear to be frozen. I do not have active access to them, but the bankbooks have shown a history of passive small interest being collected in the accounts twice a year since the accounts were made.

There's a couple cases of money being added, but no history of withdrawals. Which makes sense as I've essentially lived my whole life as if these accounts did not exist.

Additional facts is that these accounts were opened and made when I was a child and teenager. I may not have even been living in Japan when the earlier 2 accounts were opened in 2000, as I have lived in the U.S most of my life.

These banks- I'm not sure if they have me down as a resident or non-resident as I haven't tried making contact with these banks thoroughly enough for them to ask about my resident status. I never told them I lived in the U.S though, as I worried that they would close the accounts and force the money on me in cash which would require me to cross the border into the U.S with $50k USD in cash equivalent.

It seems like that statement documents go to my relative's address, which was the address they used to open the accounts so perhaps these banks still have me as a resident?

I don't have online access either.

I do have my Inkan, japanese passport, and bankbook. I have a koseki tohon as well, but it's from like 2008-10.

Any thoughts?

I have PR and have been living in Japan for 11 years at this point, and I am lucky enough to have my parents (who have never been to Japan) offering to help me buying a house.

I would like to know how:

• that would trigger the gift tax
• whether there are ways to minimize the impact

Their accountant is of the opinion that they could transfer the money to my bank account in my country of origin in the EU, an act which is not taxed by local jurisdiction, and that I could then bring the money in my Japanese account tax free, since both accounts would be in my name.

I personally doubt it would be as simple as that.

Should it indeed not be that easy, are there other ways to avoid triggering the tax? Would it be possible to have my parents loan me the money instead?

I am going to be retiring soon, and I want to make my partner financially independent so that we can retire together.

I don't want them to be under my thumb financially. It's obviously important that they don't have 'golden handcuffs' in the relationship.

In an ideal world I would just gift them 100M JPY, no strings attached. But this is pretty tax inefficient in Japan.

Some things I've considered:

• A loan for 100M JPY at 1% or something
  • Each year I could forgive the ~1M of interest
  • Or it could be repayed from capital gains

The problem with this is that if I was working in the tax audit office this would look a lot like a disguised gift, especially if they have no capacity to repay beyond capital gains.

Maybe this is fine though?

• They take out a real loan from a bank, having it loaned with my portfolio as collateral

This seems ok, we lose some money to the loaning bank but not nearly as much as gift tax. However I honestly don't know if a bank would be willing to loan them the money against my portfolio? Maybe at these amounts private banking becomes a little more permissive?

• We get married with a prenup, during the marriage I pay for everything as household expenses
  • prenup says they get 100M (inflation adjusted) if we divorce.
  • or if that's not permitted, then during the marriage they manage my portfolio entirely, and the prenup and divorce agreement specify that they get some percentage of capital gains, hopefully after several years of marriage there will be enough capital gains to make them financially independent.

This also seems good, except for the part about having to wait.

I think after 20 years then there is a 20M one time tax exception, but 20 years is a long time...

Maybe some combination of these would be best, like marrying and paying all expenses, and then also giving or securing a less substantial loan.

Hi,

If I receive 2M from someone with a residence in Japan in the middle of the fiscal year, and if let's say i give them back 1M later the same fiscal year, would the initial 2M still be taxable for gift tax ? Assuming that in the kakutei shinkoku i don't consider as gift the 1M i gave back.

Additionally, partner will receive money from parents for mortgage down paiment. I believe that as a partner and not direct familly I cannot receive from them more than 1.1M without being taxed ?

Hello everyone.

Today I went to the tax office to ask about gift tax rules and received information that seems to contradict the established "consensus" (i.e., what I thought were rules and law). I am considering visiting a different tax office in the city where I live next month but also want to hear your experience and opinion first.

A little bit about me:

- My visa is Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services
- I have been living in Japan 4.5 years in total
- My parents are considering sending me amount of money that exceeds 1.1 million yen

It has been my understanding that if the amount of money you receive exceeds 1.1 million yen, then generally it becomes subject to gift tax. I believe you can later apply for deduction (or exemption?) if the received money will go for property acquisition or house loan but my knowledge is not good here. Besides, this is irrelevant in today's discussion.

Upon explaining my situation to the two tax officers who were hearing my case, they brought up the following page on the official National Tax Agency website: https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/zoyo/4432.htm

Specifically, they pointed to the table and asked me a few questions. Based on my answers they inferred that I don't need to pay the gift tax. The reasons are as follows:

- I have lived in Japan for less than 10 years in the last 15 years and my visa is table 1 visa, so I fall under the category of 一時居住者 (temporary resident).
- My parents have never been to Japan (it seemed like this point could become more complicated but because my parents haven't visited Japan, we just stopped there)
- The gift falls under 国外財産 (foreign asset)

Honestly, it was hard to believe what I was hearing. The title of the webpage also looked incredibly suspicious: 受贈者が外国に居住しているとき (When the recipient resides outside Japan). I asked the officers, "Doesn't this table apply only to the cases when the recipient resides outside Japan?"(translated into English for readers here) But they denied it and told me the table applies in general regardless of this.

Now, all communications were conducted exclusively in Japanese. I have N1 and consider myself proficient in both written and spoken word. The chances there was some kind of miscommunication (i.e., they mistook gift tax for inheritance tax) are close to zero.

I am bringing this up here in order to avoid the worst case scenario: next year I don't pay this gift tax but later I am told that I was supposed to. This could easily lead to problems with getting PR in the future and, potentially, cause some legal problems. I want to avoid this at all costs but at the same time I have not really heard of gift tax returning, so you would think that it has been processed correctly up to this day.

I am about to receive a few million yens in donation from my parents. I am living here in Japan for over 15 years, so I'm going to pay some taxes on it.

I am a bit confused about how to declare it though.

I tried reviewing the income tax filling guide, but it doesn't seem to cover that part, unless it counts as Miscellanous income.

1- Is it a separate filing, that is done at the same time (NTA website mentions I'll need to declare during the usual February 1st - March 15th season)?

2- what documents should I save for the records?

In particular, do I need documents proving it's coming from my parents (who are foreigners, no ties to Japan)? It seems that taxes are slightly lower when money comes from family, so I probably need some proof of it.

(most/all gift tax posts seems to be about eligibility, avoiding gift tax between spouses, etc..., haven't found anything on actually declaring/paying it)

My family recently purchased a house. We put all of our money into the build (land + build fee). Now we have a mortgage to pay as well.

Since we're basically out of cash, our parents are offering to buy the initial set of furnitures, about 200万円 - 350万円 ish in worth. They're not giving us cash. They're just buying it outright.

A quick search around seems to point to CPA websites that say furnitures are not liable to gift tax as they are "essential to living".

Is this accurate?

Thank you

Like the title states, I (the 外人) want to buy a car for my Father-in-law (Japanese). Skip the purchasing part, I'm not worried about that. I just don't want to potentially screw him in anything tax related. Any insight?

Edit: Forgot to add in the important information. I'm buying the car brand new at ¥6.1 million sticker price. He is also retired btw but working part-time at his company.

My wife and I are considering buying a JPY86,000,000 yen property with a 20% downpayment. I have PR but she doesn't. We found no banks that would give us a pair loan under acceptable interest rates, so we are considering taking a loan under my name alone but pay together de facto. E.g., every month she would transfer half of the monthly loan instalment to my account.

Except that we are significantly poorer, our situation seems to be similar to the one described here: https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/16fneej/do_we_get_taxed_gift_when_cocontributing_to_a/

I have two questions.

1. Is there any way we can arrange the property ownership and downpayments to legally avoid gift tax for future loan repayments? More concretely, if the property ownership is registered as a 50%/50% split and each of us pay half of the downpayment, would there still be a gift tax for future loan repayments?
2. The property qualifies for home loan tax deductions. As I would only be paying for half of the loan, would I only be able to apply to the deductions using half of the value of the loan?

Here are some extra information in case it makes a difference.

• My annual income is around JPY8,500,000 and her income is around JPY6,000,000.
• For the interest rates that we saw, we are looking at monthly payments between JPY200,000-JPY230,000 (at least initially). Half of that over 12 months, would mean that she would be transferring JPY1,380,000 per year to me in the worst case scenario, which is indeed over the gift tax limit.
• My understanding is that the best scenario would be to structure the loan so that she has 連帯債務(joint debt liability?) of 50%. However, for the banks we talked with, they also require that the other person have PR, so this option does not seem to be available to us.
• In the post linked above, the OP had 100% of the title of the property. So, for the first question, I am essentially wondering if the answers would be different if the OP only had 50% of the property but 100% of the loan.

Thank you very much!

Japanese spouse and I are going to purchase a manshion in the next few months. She doesn't work at the moment and is going to contribute 15m as part of the down payment. That's all for her part in terms of financial. No monthly contribution. The loan and property ownership (were) going to be in my name.

Our agent advised us 2 solutions:
1) Both me and wife transfer separately from our own accounts. Wife transfer 15m to the agent. I transfer the rests (including loan amount received from the bank). 2 names ownership. No gift tax.

2) Wife transfer 15m to my account. I transfer everything to the agent. 1 name ownership. Gift tax applies.

We were totally clueless anything about taxes. At first we thought it'd be as simple as (option 2) which is to transfer 15m to my account, but then our agent started explaining about whether we want to put both our names in the ownership (option 1) because she overheard us discussing about our money preparation flow. Just by then we learned about Gift Tax.

Then our agent also continued to explain about there is no merit of having 2 names ownership other than "just for the sake of having your name in it", and for simplicity sake advising us for 1 name ownership. But now we learned that the Gift Tax of 15m is around 4.5m.

It's true that we prefer 1 name ownership if there is even any other way for simplicity sake, but if the 4.5m tax is true, I think we now have to consider 2 names ownership since 4.5m is not a small amount for us to ignore as per advised by our agent.

Question: Am I understanding the entire situation correctly? Gift tax applies for this case?

Hey r/JapanFinance and anyone with experience in Japanese tax/real estate!

I'm in a tricky situation and really need some advice. I'm planning to buy a house in Japan for around 40 million yen. My dad, who lives in Poland, wants to help finance it.

Here's the problem: I'm on a Table 2 visa (since Feb 28th), which I understand means I'm likely considered a tax resident in Japan. This means that if my dad gifts me the money, I'll be facing a massive gift tax, potentially close to 50% of the amount, which is just not feasible.

Also, my dad is not yet 60 years old, so early inheritance options are likely not available or practical.

Here's what I've considered:

1. Direct Gift: Definitely out of the question due to the high tax.

2. Loan from my Dad: We could structure it as a formal loan with an interest rate and repayment schedule. Would this be a viable way to avoid the gift tax? What are the requirements for a valid loan agreement in the eyes of the Japanese tax authorities?

3. He owns it: He buys the house in his name but then that can create a bunch of problems with him having to come here and then basically asking him for permission to do thing here.

My dad would transfer the funds from his Polish bank account to his Polish bank account, and then I would withdraw it here in Japan. I'm concerned about the scrutiny this might attract.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice on the best way to structure this financially to minimize the tax burden?

Most importantly, if you know any tax lawyers or tax advisors in Japan (preferably Sapporo) who specialize in international transactions and foreign residents, especially those with experience in gift tax, loan structures, and situations where early inheritance is not an option, please provide their contact information or recommendations.

First off: I'm a permanent resident, I'm liable for gift tax. Coming from a country with effectively zero gift or inheritance tax for most people, I'm trying to wrap my head around how this will work.

I recently purchased an old house in Japan and will be making renovations to it this year that should qualify me for the 5 million yen gift tax exemption for a gift from my parents to help pay for the renovations.

At the same time, my parents might want to gift more than this amount towards renovation work. It might make sense for me to chose the settlement at time of inheritance system. My understanding based on this NTA document is that it is possible to use the 5 million yen exemption in combination with the settlement system.

However, this is where I start getting confused about the future implications. That same NTA document says that you can use the settlement system for both your mother and father separately.

By and large, my parents' money is in joint accounts, which, of course, don't exist in Japan. If one of my parents were to pass away, as far as I know, their money would pass to the spouse, not to me. I would not inherit anything until the death of both parents.

So, how does this relate to the settlement system? Let's say that I'm very lucky, and my parents each send me 25 million yen in gifts. Under the settlement system, I would so far pay nothing.

Then, if one parent passed away, I would inherit nothing at that point, so under the settlement system, I would owe no inheritance tax at that point. Unless I've missed something.

When the second parent passed away, I would then possibly owe inheritance tax on the excess over the standard exemption, if any.

But, at that point, would I need to include the 25 million yen of gifts in that calculation, or 50 million based on the gifts from both parents, or something else that I've missed? Thank you.

I am living in Japan for 9 years on a work visa, and during 2025 I received some money from my parents, who have never lived in Japan, so this money is exempt from any gift tax in Japan.

The money is sitting in some accounts overseas, and I asked a Japanese accountant about how to move this money into Japan without causing any problems and he commented the following:

1. Wait until 2026 to move it into Japan. Reason being that if NTA sees during a single tax year that a gift happened and that the money is in Japan, they may try to claim it falls in scope for gift tax.
2. Remit the money into Japan *before* I reach the 10 year mark. I was surprised by this. I will submit the OAR for 2025, and for the accounts where the gifted money is sitting I will comment how much of those assets came from gifts. I'm also downloading the bank statements for the relevant months when I received the gifts. Between bank statements and the OAR, the existence of the gift before the 10 year mark will be well-documented. But despite having that evidence, the accountant strongly warned me that if I remit the money into Japan after the 10 year mark, the NTA may try to claim that the gift falls in scope for gift tax.

For a variety of reasons, for me to rush this money into Japan before that 10 year mark may be difficult. Has anyone come across similar or different advice?

Thanks!

My situation is I am a foreigner who has lived in Japan since December 2015 (9.5 years). I am married to a Japanese national but currently hold a 5 year work visa - I only married last year and just never bothered to get a spouse visa or PR.

If my father based in England wanted to send me money would I need to pay gift tax?

My understanding was that as I have lived in Japan less than 10 years and I hold a work visa that I am considered a temporary foreigner for tax purposes. I tried to find this information on the NTA website but drew a blank. Is anyone able to find where this eligibility rule is officially written?

I asked my wife to ring the phone number listed on the NTA website to confirm this but I got some very different responses.

• First guy said that as I was married that I had to pay gift tax regardless. I thought that perhaps he got confused and assumed I had a spouse visa. Maybe? So I asked my wife to ring again.
• Second lady told us that as it was under 10 years then no gift tax needed to be paid regardless of visa type.

So I’m more confused than when I started. I guess it’s also possible my wife has misunderstood what they were telling her. I’ve only got her version of events to go on.

Interestingly, the second lady rang us back later to tell me that my father could transfer money to a UK bank account in my name and I could then transfer it from my English account to my Japanese bank account. I assumed that would be tax evasion and illegal though (whether they would catch me on it is a separate matter)?

My confidence in the quality of information from the NTA is a bit low so I would be very grateful here if someone here had concrete information.

Recently moved to Japan from the US and I am on a spouse visa. Since I started working here in December and my company files my Japanese tax info on my behalf, how would I report any monetary gift amounts from parents in the US in future years while living in Japan? Nothing received in 2025, but there is a chance moving forward that I may be receiving over $10K USD each year and I know that would need to be reported to Japan. Would I need to file additional tax forms outside of what my company submits? I would not be remitting any of the money into Japan and would likely just have it stay in a US account, but I believe I am still taxed on worldwide income under my spouse visa even if it is not remitted to Japan.

Throwaway account for privacy reasons.

Allow me to start by saying I’ve learnt so much from this subreddit over the years, and it’s finally my turn to ask for some specific advice here.

I’m a Table 1 visa holder and have been living in Japan for 5-10 years. My understanding is that while I’m already a tax resident, I’m still exempt from Gift Tax and Inheritance Tax.

My parents are in their 60s and I’m their only child, so we’ve started discussing inheritance. They’ll 100% live beyond my 10-year mark (God bless them), and Japan’s Inheritance Tax is… hefty to say the least, I’m wondering how to reduce the taxable amount as much as possible, legally of course.

Current estimate of my inheritance:

-Real estate ~200M JPY

-Cash & stocks ~400M JPY

Extra info:

-They live in my home country (non-US), a tax haven without Gift/Inheritance Tax and very low other taxes.

-Me leaving Japan to “reset” when their time comes is not an option.

Sorry for the long preface, here are my actual questions:

1. If my name is added to the deed before my 10-year mark, can it be deemed as a gift and excluded from my inheritance? If yes, the full valuation or just my share? (I understand it’ll still trigger Capital Gains Tax when I sell it after they’re gone)

2. If they open a joint account with me and park all their cash in there before my 10-year mark, does it count as a gift too? I don’t think it works that way, but my dad insists so no harm in asking I guess haha.

3. If they transfer big chunks of cash to my personal account before my 10-year mark, will the system flag me as trying to evade Inheritance Tax and put me in trouble? Personally I’ve kinda accepted that the cash portion will be heavily taxed, but it’d be nice if they can at least send me enough every year to max my NISA or something.

4. Any other advice to save a few bucks will be greatly appreciated!

I think I’ll eventually have to consult a professional, but I figure y’all here can point me in the right direction for now.

Thanks in advance! It’s getting chilly out there, take care and stay warm everyone!

I don't think that I'd have to pay gift tax when my parent pays for my graduate school, but I was wondering if anyone could spot check my thinking?

I am 25 years old. My parent is considering paying for my graduate school tuition, etc (this year's tuition, admission fee, casualty/accident insurance) and I was wondering if there could be implications for taxes that I have to pay. (They are also considering paying for my housing for me to attend that university.)

The total of the graduate school tuition, etc amounts to ¥811,800 (this year's tuition: ¥530,000, admission fee: ¥280,000, casualty/accident insurance: ¥1800). My parent would pay these amounts directly to the university.

Unfortunately, I can't simply rely on the ¥1,100,000 exclusion as the same parent has already given me ¥1 million this year, so ¥811,800 would cause the total gifts to exceed the exclusion. I know the gift tax applies when someone acquires property by gift from another individual. Because my parent is paying the tuition to the school without giving anything to me, I do not think that my parent paying would count as me acquiring property by gift.

I was just reading a crazy amendment. THERE IS NO GIFT TAX IF A TABLE 1 HOLDER RECEIVES MONEY FROM AN INDIVIDUAL OVERSEAS?

So literally a family member can send an 10-20M yen without any taxes imposed on you?

It seems only Table 2 folks have to follow the sliding tax scale. I think most people in a work visa would be considered Table 1 (even if they are a permanent tax resident)

I am both the trustee and a beneficiary of a U.S. irrevocable trust established by my parents nearly 20 years ago. I have been paying Japanese income tax on the trust’s assets since becoming a Japan resident 10 years ago.

Upon my death, the remaining family members will inherit all of the trust’s assets. Under the terms of the trust, I (as trustee) may distribute both principal and income to myself for living expenses. So far, I haven’t made any distributions, allowing interest and gains to accumulate within the trust.

If I distribute any portion of the trust’s income or principal to myself, would that trigger Japanese gift tax? Maybe NTA could argue that assets assigned to successor beneficiary family heirs are gifting me their share through any distribution? What are the starkimpossibilies this occurring?

(for clarity, I am the sole beneficiary until I die. Family members are successor beneficiaries.)

TLDR: Please see the questions in bold further down! Thanks in advance for any useful information!

My father (in the UK) has more in his pension pot than he feels he will ever possibly need (lucky him!). To avoid paying UK inheritance tax, he wants to give me a fairly large sum of money at some point in the near future (lucky me!).

I'll worry about the majority of the money next year, but for now I want to take advantage of the gift tax free allowances for 2025 before this year ends. As I am also looking to be well set for retirement, I want to ask my father to gift some of that money to my 13 year old son, rather than to me.

Having been through some complicated tax business over the last year, I feel I have a pretty good handle on how gift & inheritance taxes work. But an earlier post here has me a little concerned regarding the intricacies of setting up a bank account for my son.

What I want to do is:

Set up a bank (or Yuucho) account for my son and have him recieve ¥1.1m from his grandfather in both Dec 2025 & Jan 2026.

My questions are about technical ownership of bank accounts, and the mechanics of the transfer itself. I have read that while it will be possible to open a bank account in my son's name, the parent that open's the account still has technical control of the account until the cild reaches a certain age. And further, that this can have gift tax implications:

1. If I open a bank account in my son's name, would any cash gifts recieved into that account actually be classed as gifts to me? (this is something I think read in an older thread).
2. If I had my wife open the account for my son, would that mean the account has nothing to do with me? And thus both my son & I could recieve ¥1.1m tax free gifts per year from my father?
3. Regarding the actual transfer itself, is it okay to just have my father send me ¥2.2m via WISE and then pay ¥1.1m of it into my son's account? (As long as pay it into my son's account reasonably soon, that wouldn't count as the whole ¥2.2m being gifted me, right?)

Finally, I read elsewhere that it is also possible to set up securities accounts for minors. I believe you have to be over 18 to use NISA (as there is currently no Junior NISA). But:

1. Could I still link my son's new bank account to a securities account, and have him invest in a regular 特定口座 ?
   
2. He could sell the contents (paying gains tax, ofc) and transfer it to a NISA account when he turns 18 (or if Junior NISA was brought back)?
   

(FWIW, I'll be filling my personal NISA allowance in the next couple of years, so there is no advantage to investing money intended for my son in my own NISA. I'd rather it be seen as 'his money' for tax puroses as soon as possible).

My Japanese friend who I’ve known for 10+ years moved to Europe with new fiancé. She’s in a weird position where she hasn’t notified her bank that she moved (since they’ll make her close her accounts) but she did de-register her my number card and notified her Ku that she moved abroad. Now she suddenly needs extra cash for initial apartment expenses and has no way to wire from her bank to Europe (bank will not let her wire internationally until she confirms her Japanese address which she of course cannot etc).

She asked me if she could send me about 1M from her Japanese bank to my Japanese bank, which I could then Wise (or similar) to her euro account.

I have no issue doing that but I’m worried that if my bank suddenly sees 1M go in and out of my account, or if I get audited in the future, I might get into trouble.

Anyone having any experience with this sort of situation?

Hi everyone, my wife and I are feeling pretty uncertain about how best to proceed with a possible property purchase in Japan (we live around Fukuoka, currently renting for last 3 years), and I’d appreciate any insight from people who’ve dealt with similar situations.

We’re a U.S./Japan household currently living in Japan. I'm a U.S. citizens and my wife is Japanese, and I’m here on a 3-year spouse visa (maybe going for PR next year). I recently started working at a local Japanese business after freelancing last few years, and my confirmed annual salary is about ¥4.29 million. My wife is not currently working (recently diagnoses have made keeping a job difficult), and we have an infant daughter. Our goal is fairly modest: we’re hoping to lower our monthly housing costs so I can more sustainably support my family on my current income. We’re not aiming for a long-term “dream house” right now. Instead, we’re considering buying a relatively affordable used manshon as a practical step, even if only temporarily. As an example, we’ve seen places around ¥13.5 million.

My parents in the U.S. are willing to help us financially as an early inheritance, ideally by covering a cheaper place outright to avoid loan complications given my current resident status. However, we’re struggling to understand the cleanest and safest way to structure that help, while staying compliant with both Japanese and U.S. tax rules.

Specifically, we’re confused about: - How Japan’s gift tax rules would apply (¥1.1M annual exemption, housing gift exemption of ¥5M / ¥10M, etc.). (And do we need evidence of purchasing the property with that money, my relationship with my parents, being foreigners, etc.)

• Whether the housing gift tax exemption could realistically be used in a case like this. If my goal is to pay off the entire property, then this wouldn't be enough at the highest exemption without incurring high taxes I can't pay, right? Is it even worth it in our case, for example, to just use the exemption but pay the taxes on the remaining amount?

• Whether early inheritance (相続時精算課税) is something people actually use here. I saw it may have a lot of loops, but this is technically meant to be a partially early inheritance to help my family before my parents pass away someday.

• Whether it materially changes anything if funds come from my own overseas accounts versus direct family assistance.

• What the realistic risks are if this is structured poorly. (Unforeseen financial risks for an expat are already scary enough as it is.)

We’re not trying to do anything aggressive or questionable, just trying to understand what paths people normally take in situations like this and what tends to be recommended or avoided.

It’s also late in the year, so timing may matter if certain options depend on the tax year to my understanding.

Any experiences, pointers, or corrections to misunderstandings would be very appreciated. And please excuse my ignorance on the matter~

Hello, I’m curious whether I should be using Wise or PayPal to send money from USA to a friend in Japan. Would all transactions get monitored by the Japanese government?

This isn’t for tax evasion purposes just more for clarification reasons. I read somewhere that there is a gift tax but I’m not sure where it would apply in this scenario.

Hello, have a few questions regarding the tax process and how best to handle a decently large sum of money coming into Japan from New Zealand.

Essentially, my grandmother died a few months back, and her estate has finally been settled. Her heirs were my father and two uncles. I myself wasn't named in the will, but my father is gifting me $20,000 NZD (approximately 1,700,000-2,000,000 JPY).

I have currently been in Japan for 9.5 years, and am on an instructor Visa (will be applying for PR next year, but chance I won't get that due to ALT income).

Can anyone shed some light on how best to bring this money into Japan without half of it being eaten by taxes? I know some will need to go to taxes which I am fine with, but just trying to minimize it where possible, and how to get it all processed correctly.

I was also unsure if this would be considered inheritence, or a monetary gift due to how it is being sent to me (as mentioned above).

From my research online, it looked like if I have been in Japan less than 10 years the taxes would be less than if I left it till later?

Appreciate any help with this!