I recently received my Citizen Tax request in the mail.  This is the tax you have to start paying after approximately a year of living in Japan (depending on when you came). People have been telling me it is expensive for awhile now but I couldn’t believe until I saw it and HOLY MOLY are they right.  For me, in my city and my income bracket, it is 1,600,000 yen a year (four payments of $400 each every other month).

However, that’s not what I’m griping about.  It’s expensive but it’s tax.  It’s supposed to be expensive (well, always more expensive than we’d like).  My gripe is with the fact that they sent me this information yesterday and the first payment of $400.00 is due on the 30th.  Umm…. Can I get some time, please?  They sent it so suddenly.  Just like the average person can just throw down $400.00 with no warning at all.

My irritation is compounded by the fact that I knew it should be coming so I went to the City Office in February and asked about it (when will it start? how much will it be?) and the guy told me in perfect English (no lost in translation on my part) that in fact I DID NOT have to pay the city tax.  I sort of suspected he was wrong but figured they would give me some warning…. I’ve been pretty good with a budget for the past year so I have the money but at the same time, I have already done my budget for this month and I have a trip coming up in August that I’m saving for.

If I would have been given a bit more information about it beforehand, I would have been able to adjust my spending accordingly.

So I suppose all you unsuspecting souls out there, take this as a warning!  Early June, the tax man is coming!