Regarding the Tax Payment Certificate (Taxes) in a Permanent Residence Application

What Is the Tax Payment Certificate (Taxes) in a Permanent Residence Application?

To obtain Permanent Residence, you must submit a tax payment certificate. The tax payment certificate required for a Permanent Residence application is for resident tax. (Pension and health insurance premiums are explained on a separate page.) Here, we explain the tax payment certificate for obtaining Permanent Residence.

Regarding Tax Payment

To obtain Permanent Residence, submission of a resident tax payment certificate is required. The period for which submission is required is, as a general rule, 5 years. In a Permanent Residence application, it is not enough simply to have paid; you must have paid resident tax at the appropriate times.

If there are unpaid amounts, obtaining Permanent Residence is difficult, but even when amounts have been paid, if there have been delays past the payment deadlines, it is difficult to obtain approval for a Permanent Residence application. A Permanent Residence application requires that the appropriate taxes have been paid at the appropriate times.

In addition, those who have had periods within the most recent 5 years during which resident tax was not collected through special collection (withheld from salary) must submit, for those periods, documents proving that resident tax was paid at the appropriate times (copies of bankbooks, payment receipts, etc.). In other words, caution is required if you have had periods of changing jobs or being unemployed.

This is because during periods of changing jobs or unemployment, resident tax is not deducted from salary, so you need to pay it yourself. Basically, a payment slip is mailed to you by the municipality, so there is no problem as long as you pay by that deadline. If you inadvertently forget to pay, it becomes difficult to obtain Permission for Permanent Residence at that point. Those who are concerned would do well to go to the municipal office after leaving their job and complete the payment, to be safe. In the unlikely event of a late payment, it becomes difficult to obtain approval for a Permanent Residence application for 5 years from that point.

Regarding How to Obtain the Tax Payment Certificate

The resident tax payment certificate can be obtained from the municipality where you had your certificate of residence as of January 1 of the year being obtained. For those who have moved within the most recent 5 years, please note that even for the same tax payment certificate, the municipality you request it from differs. Also, depending on the municipality, there are cases where tax payment certificates can only be issued for up to the most recent 3 years. In that case, you need to submit the longest available period that can be issued. The contents of a tax payment certificate rarely change depending on when it is obtained, but when submitting it to the Immigration Bureau, it must be issued within 3 months. Aim to obtain it in line with your application timing.

Summary: The Tax Payment Certificate (Taxes) in a Permanent Residence Application

We have explained taxes for obtaining Permanent Residence. The key point is that resident tax payment requires not merely the absence of unpaid amounts but also payment at the appropriate times. Of course, that period is the same as the submission period for the resident tax payment certificate. In other words, those who need to submit 5 years of tax payment certificates must have paid for those 5 years and have no delays in payment.

This may appear strict at first glance, but if you have had no job changes or the like within the most recent 5 years and resident tax has consistently been deducted from your salary, you can satisfy this requirement without issue. If a delay in payment has unfortunately arisen due to a job change or the like, we recommend continuing resident tax payments with no delays to satisfy the requirement before applying. If you have concerns about tax payments, please contact our office.