住民税通知書 Explained: Every Line, Decoded | MyKyoten

Last verified: 2026. This guide is based on Immigration Bureau regulations, Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare guidelines, and standard Japanese administrative practice. It is informational only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed immigration attorney or official government sources for case-specific guidance.

Most foreigners file this notice away without reading it. Then they discover months later they were overtaxed, underpaid the wrong amount, or missed a correction window that cannot be reopened. This guide is here to prevent that.

So What Actually Is This Document and Why Does It Exist?

The 特別徴収税額通知書 (tokubetsu chōshū zeigaku tsūchisho) is the official notice from your local municipal government that tells your employer exactly how much resident tax (住民税, *jūminzei*) to deduct from your paycheck each month. It is not optional. It is not a suggestion.

Basically, Japan's resident tax system operates one year in arrears. The tax you pay in 2025 is based on your income from January to December 2024. The municipality calculates your tax in spring, issues this notice to your employer in late May or early June, and your employer begins deducting the new amount from your June paycheck. That timing matters. The year resets in June, not January.

Two copies of this notice exist: one goes to your employer, one goes to you. The employer copy arrives at the company's payroll department. Your copy should be handed to you. Reports from foreign residents suggest that some employers never pass the employee copy along, which is how the confusion starts.

If you never received yours, ask your HR or payroll department directly. The document you are looking for is printed on A4 paper, usually with your name, your municipality name, and a table of monthly deduction amounts broken across 12 rows.

What if you changed jobs in May or June? Your previous employer received the notice, not your new one. Your new employer will need to apply for a transfer of the special collection (特別徴収義務者の変更). If this is not handled correctly, your tax billing may default to the self-payment method (普通徴収), where you receive a quarterly bill at home instead. Missing those quarterly bills has consequences: a surcharge of 14.6% annually applies to unpaid amounts after the deadline, based on standard late payment penalty rules under Japanese tax law.

→ Use the Document Decoder to translate and understand your Japanese administrative documents.

What Does Every Line on the Notice Actually Mean?

The notice is dense. Here is a field-by-field breakdown in plain language.

前年の所得金額 (Prior Year Income): This is the gross income your employer reported to the municipality. It should match the 支払金額 box on your 源泉徴収票 (withholding slip) from the prior year. If these numbers differ, stop and investigate.

所得控除額 (Income Deductions): This includes your basic deduction (基礎控除), spouse deductions, dependent deductions, social insurance deductions, and any other qualifying amounts. Foreigners frequently miss deductions they were entitled to because their employer submitted incorrect dependent information, or because a dependent living overseas was not properly registered.

課税標準額 (Taxable Base): This is what remains after deductions. Your resident tax is calculated against this figure, not your gross income.

税率と税額 (Tax Rate and Amount): Japan's resident tax is split into two parts. The 市区町村民税 (municipal tax) is typically 6% of the taxable base. The 都道府県民税 (prefectural tax) is typically 4%. Combined, the standard rate is 10%. There is also a flat per-capita levy (均等割) of approximately 5,000 yen per year, split between the municipal and prefectural portions, though exact amounts vary by municipality.

月割額 (Monthly Installment): This is the number your employer actually deducts each month, June through May. It is the annual total divided into 12 payments. The June payment sometimes differs slightly from the other 11 months due to rounding adjustments.

Numeric example: If your taxable base is 3,200,000 yen, your resident tax would be approximately 320,000 yen (3,200,000 x 10%) plus the per-capita levy, for a rough total of around 325,000 yen. Divided across 12 months, your monthly deduction would be approximately 27,083 yen. If your payslip shows 18,000 yen for months without explanation, that gap needs to be investigated.

You can use the Resident Tax Notice Decoder to walk through each field of your actual notice with plain English explanations matched to the printed Japanese.

[Warning Box] The most common error foreigners make: assuming the 源泉徴収票 income figure and the resident tax notice income figure will always match exactly. They often do not, because each document is generated under different rules. Social insurance deductions, year-end adjustments (年末調整), and reporting timing can cause small discrepancies. A difference of a few thousand yen is usually normal. A difference of 500,000 yen or more needs an explanation in writing.

How Do You Actually Verify the Number Is Correct?

Pull out your 源泉徴収票 from the previous calendar year. This is your withholding slip, issued by your employer in January or February. If you cannot find it, your employer is legally required to reissue it upon request.

Cross-reference these three numbers:

1. 支払金額 (Total Payment) on the 源泉徴収票 should roughly match 前年の所得金額 on the resident tax notice. 2. 社会保険料等の金額 (Social Insurance Deductions) should appear under 所得控除額 in the notice. 3. The final 課税標準額 on the notice should reflect those deductions subtracted from your income.

For 2024 tax year (payable in 2025): The basic deduction (基礎控除) is 430,000 yen for most taxpayers under 2,400 万 yen income. The employment income deduction (給与所得控除) table was last revised in 2020 and has not changed materially since.

For 2025 tax year (payable in 2026): The government passed an income tax and resident tax reduction in late 2024. A temporary reduction of 30,000 yen per person (and 30,000 yen per dependent) was applied to the 2024 income tax return. Resident tax for 2025 collection should reflect an additional 10,000 yen per capita reduction under that same package. Check your notice total against these revised figures.

The calculation foreigners most often get wrong: Not accounting for overseas dependents. If you have a spouse or parent living abroad who qualifies as a dependent under Japanese tax law, you were required to claim them during year-end adjustment or in your tax return by March 15. If your employer never asked, and you never submitted the documentation, the deduction was not applied. You cannot retroactively apply it after the resident tax notice has been issued for that year without filing an amended return (更正の請求) with your tax office.

*What if you were not resident in Japan for the full prior year?* The municipality calculates resident tax based on whether you held residency (住民登録) on January 1 of the tax year. If you arrived in Japan mid-year but registered your address before January 1, you owe a full year. If you arrived after January 1, you owe nothing for that collection year. Reports from foreign residents indicate this rule surprises people who assume a partial year means partial tax.

[Reality Check] A Vietnamese IT engineer on a Highly Skilled Professional visa (高度専門職) arrived in Japan in February 2023. He registered his address in March 2023. Because he was not a resident as of January 1, 2023, he received no resident tax bill in June 2023. His first notice arrived in June 2024, covering his full 2023 income. The total was approximately 280,000 yen. He had budgeted nothing for it because nobody at his company told him this was coming. This is sometimes called the "second year shock" and it is very common. There is a dedicated micro-guide on this exact scenario worth reading before June.

What Do You Do When the Number Is Wrong?

The formal process is called 異議申立 (igi mōshitate), or an objection filing. The catch is: you have a strict 3-month window from the date the notice was issued (not from when you received it, and not from when you first looked at it). Missing this window means the number is locked. The municipality will not reopen it.

Here is the step-by-step process:

Step 1: Confirm the issuance date printed on your notice. It is usually in the upper right or lower section of the document.

Step 2: Go to the 市民税課 (Citizens' Tax Division) or 課税課 (Tax Assessment Division) of the city hall (市役所) or ward office (区役所) where you are registered. Do not go to the tax office (税務署), which handles national income tax, not resident tax.

Step 3: Bring: your resident tax notice, your 源泉徴収票 from the prior year, your residence card, your My Number card or notification, and any supporting documents for disputed deductions (dependent registration documents, overseas remittance records, etc.).

Step 4: Request the 異議申立書 form. You fill it out on-site or take it home. Some municipalities accept written explanations in lieu of the formal form at the initial inquiry stage, but do not rely on that.

Step 5: Submit within the 3-month window. If you are close to the deadline, submit a written request immediately and follow up with supporting documents. Getting something on record before the deadline matters more than having a perfect submission.

The municipality will review and respond in writing, typically within 30 to 60 days. There is no fee to file.

What if the error was on your employer's side? If your employer reported incorrect income or deductions to the municipality, the fix starts with your employer, not the city hall. Request a corrected 給与支払報告書 (salary payment report) from your employer's payroll team. They must submit the correction to the municipality, which then recalculates and reissues your notice.

[Step-by-Step Checklist]

Before Filing an Objection:

• Confirm notice issuance date and calculate your 3-month deadline
• Retrieve your 源泉徴収票 from the relevant year
• Compare income figures line by line
• Identify the specific discrepancy (wrong income, missing deduction, wrong dependent count)
• Determine whether the error originated with the municipality or your employer
• Gather supporting documents before visiting the office
• Go in person; phone inquiries do not stop the clock on the 3-month deadline

How to Read Your Payslip and Confirm Your Employer Is Actually Paying

Your monthly resident tax deduction appears on your payslip (給与明細書) under the deductions column (控除). The label is typically 住民税 or 市民税・県民税. The amount should match the monthly installment (月割額) on your resident tax notice exactly.

Here is the part nobody tells you: your employer collects this money from your salary and is legally required to remit it to the municipality by the 10th of the following month (or January 10 for the December deduction). You have no way to confirm this happened from your payslip alone. What you can do is request a 特別徴収税額の納付確認 (confirmation of remittance) from your city hall by providing your name and address. Some municipalities allow this inquiry at the counter; others require a written request.

You can also decode your payslip line by line using the Payslip Decoder, which explains each deduction field in plain English and flags amounts that look inconsistent with your income bracket.

Red flag signs your employer may not be remitting:

• Your payslip shows a deduction labeled 住民税, but city hall has no record of payment when you inquire
• You receive a direct payment notice (普通徴収) at home despite being employed full-time (this can indicate your employer failed to apply for special collection on your behalf)
• The monthly deduction amount on your payslip does not match your resident tax notice at all, with no explanation from HR

Honestly, unreported non-remittance is rare at large companies but has been reported at smaller employers. If city hall tells you your account shows unpaid balances, the municipality will pursue you for the unpaid amount, not just your employer. You then have a separate civil claim against your employer, but the city's demand is still your responsibility to resolve.

This matters beyond money. If you are applying for permanent residency, unpaid or delinquent resident tax will appear in your tax payment certificate (納税証明書) and can directly affect your PR application outcome. For more on how tax compliance intersects with long-term residency goals, see the Japan PR 2026 guide.

Your next step: pull out your most recent resident tax notice and your 源泉徴収票 from the prior year, place them side by side, and check whether the income figures match within a reasonable range. If you cannot find either document, request copies today, before the 3-month objection window closes on this year's notice.

My company HR says they "handle everything." Do I still need to check this notice? Yes. HR handles remittance, not verification of the underlying calculation. The municipality calculated your tax based on what your employer reported. If that report contained errors, HR may not know. The notice is your only document showing the municipality's figures. Checking it yourself takes 10 minutes.

I left my previous job in April. What happens to my resident tax for the remaining months? Your employer is required to either deduct the remaining unpaid months from your final paycheck in a lump sum, or transfer the billing to you as direct (普通徴収) payments by mail. If you are starting a new job quickly, the new employer can also take over the deductions. Confirm this with both companies' HR departments in writing.

Does resident tax affect my visa renewal or PR application? Yes, directly. Immigration reviews your 納税証明書 (tax payment certificate) during renewals and PR applications. Delinquent resident tax is a documented basis for application denial or scrutiny. Paying arrears before submitting is critical, but late payment is still visible on the certificate for a period. See the permanent residency guide for full details.

If you are staring at your payslip and cannot tell whether your resident tax deduction is correct, the Payslip Decoder at mykyoten.com breaks down each line of a Japanese payslip into plain English, including the 住民税 deduction, so you can compare what is being withheld against what your notice actually says you owe.