Leaving Japan: Appoint a Tax Agent (納税管理人) or File a Quasi-Final Return (準確定申告)?

Last reviewed: 2026-09. The dates, form names, and filing paths below were checked in September 2026 against the National Tax Agency pages and the statute text in the source list.

The other two pages on leaving Japan are Japan’s three income-tax statuses in the year you leave and the 20.42% tax on a pension lump-sum withdrawal payment.

What this page will not do

TakoyakiCPA does not act as a tax agent (納税管理人, nōzei kanrinin), does not file a final return (確定申告, kakutei shinkoku), and does not decide which path fits your facts. A tax agent here is the person or company you notify to the tax office. It is a national-tax role. It is a different appointment from a lawyer or a paid representative you might hire on your own.

The choice, in the National Tax Agency’s words

No.12004 states the split for a person who is leaving Japan and must file a return for the year of departure:

What you did before you leave	What No.12004 says you then do
You submit the tax-agent notification before departure	File the return and pay the tax through the tax agent between February 16 and March 15 of the following year
You leave without submitting that notification	File a quasi-final return (準確定申告, jun kakutei shinkoku) and pay the tax before departure

The same page says the tax office is the one for your place for tax payment (納税地, nōzeichi). It is the office for that place. The address of the tax agent does not choose the office.

The English page is short. The 2025 income-tax guide, section 3-10, “Notice to those leaving Japan during 2026,” adds cases the short page does not spell out. Where this article uses a 2026 or 2027 date, that date is the one printed in section 3-10. The standing February 16–March 15 window is the one in No.12004 and in Income Tax Act Article 120.

“Departure” is a defined word

Section 3-10 says “departure” means ceasing to have a domicile or a residence in Japan without appointing a tax agent. Income Tax Act Article 2, item 42, uses the word 出国 (shutsu-koku) the same way for a resident: you come to have neither a domicile nor a residence in Japan, and you have not filed the tax-agent notification under Article 117, paragraph 2, of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes.

A flight out of Japan can be a trip. The defined word is the point at which that notification is missing and the domicile and residence are both gone. For a non-resident who has no residence, section 3-10 also uses “departure” when a permanent establishment in Japan ends, and when a non-resident with no permanent establishment stops a business whose main work is providing personal services.

How domicile and the three tax statuses work in the year you leave is covered in the status article. This page does not decide whether you have a domicile.

A return is required only if you are a person who must file

Section 3-10 applies its two paths to a person who is obliged to file a return for income from before the departure date. It points to page 11 of the same guide, section 1-5, “Who needs to file?”.

Section 1-5 says that for most people the income tax is settled by the employer’s year-end adjustment, so a final return is unnecessary. It then lists cases that do require a return for 2025. Two of the salary rows, as printed there:

The total amount of earnings from salary and similar pay exceeds 20,000,000 yen.
Salary is from one source, all of it is subject to Japanese withholding, and the total amount of income other than employment income and retirement income exceeds 200,000 yen.

The same page has further rows, including salary from more than one source, salary paid abroad, and retirement allowances that are not subject to Japanese withholding. It also prints exceptions. Read that page against the year you are filing. This article does not shorten the table into a yes-or-no for one person.

Path A — appoint a tax agent, then file in the next year’s window

When the statute requires an agent

Article 117, paragraph 1, of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes covers an individual taxpayer who has no domicile and no residence in Japan, or who is about to lose both. Offices and places of business are left out of that “residence” test. If that person needs a national-tax matter handled — the paragraph names filing a return and other national-tax matters — the person appoints a tax agent. The agent is chosen from people who have a domicile or a residence in Japan and who are in a position to handle the matter.

No.12004 puts the same rule in the leaving-Japan setting: if you will lose your domicile or residence for tax purposes and you are still subject to return procedures or other national-tax matters, you appoint a tax agent who is a resident in Japan. You may appoint a Japanese corporation or a person who resides in Japan.

No.1923 (Japanese, laws current as of April 1, 2026) says the agent may be a corporation or an individual. After the notification, documents the tax office sends go to the tax agent. The return itself is still filed with the district director for the non-resident’s place for tax payment.

The form, the office, and the timing

The procedure page A1-7 titles the form 所得税・消費税の納税管理人の選任・解任届出書. The 2025 guide, section 3-11, calls it the “Notification of Appointment and Dismissal of Tax Agent for income tax and consumption tax.” No.12004 uses a shorter English label, “Notification of Tax Agent for income tax / consumption tax.” The procedure page is the form to file.

A1-7 says:

File it when you appoint the agent, or by the date of departure. File a dismissal when you dismiss the agent.
File it with the district director who has jurisdiction over your place for tax payment.
You can prepare it in the e-Tax software and send it by e-Tax, or prepare the paper form and bring it or mail it. This page does not describe e-Tax screens.
Tax office counters are open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and are closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. A mailed form, or a form put in the after-hours box, can still be submitted on a closed day.
If you file on paper and write your Individual Number (the 12-digit My Number), A1-7 asks you to show or attach identity documents each time. An e-Tax filing does not ask for that identity-document copy.

The form instructions say the appointed agent, other than matters of an administrative appeal (不服申立て), prepares and files returns and other national-tax documents, receives documents the tax office issues, pays the national tax, and receives refunds. Section 3-11 tells you to cross out “dismissal” (解任) in the title and in the text when you are appointing, and to write the place for tax payment and a telephone number. It also has a place to circle the type of Japan-source income, or to describe it.

The instructions add these writing rules:

If the agent is a corporation, the address is the head office or principal office, the name line is the corporate name and the representative, and the occupation line is the business.
The line for the place outside Japan is, when you are appointing, the address or residence you will have abroad once you have neither a domicile nor a residence in Japan.
To change agents, dismiss the agent already on file, then appoint the new one.
If you dismiss an agent and the place for tax payment has changed since the appointment, file the dismissal with the district director for each of those places.
On a paper copy you keep, do not leave the Individual Number showing.

What you file, and when, if the notification is in before you leave

For a person who departs in 2026 after appointing a tax agent, and who has income subject to aggregate taxation and must file, section 3-10 says: file a final return and pay the tax through the tax agent during February 16 through March 15, 2027, for income from January 1 through December 31, 2026.

That is the full calendar year. It is the window in No.12004 as well: February 16 to March 15 of the following year, through the agent.

Income Tax Act Article 120 calls the ordinary filing period 第三期 (the third period): February 16 to March 15 of the following year. When that last day falls on a weekend or a holiday, the year’s guide prints the moved day. In this same 2025 guide, section 3-4 prints the payment due date for 2025 tax as March 16, 2026, a Monday. Use the guide for the year you are actually filing.

No.1926 describes a salary earner who leaves mid-year for an overseas post and has appointed a tax agent by then. The return covers all income from January 1 through the departure day, plus Japan-source income from the day after departure through December 31. The filing window it states is February 16 to March 15 of the following year, through the agent. The English section 3-10 states the same full-year return for a 2026 departure after an appointment.

Path B — file before you leave

If you depart in 2026 without appointing a tax agent, and you must file for income subject to aggregate taxation, section 3-10 says you file a final return, which it also calls a quasi-final return, and pay the tax, for income from January 1, 2026, through the date of departure. You do that before the date of departure.

Income Tax Act Article 127 is the provision for a resident who makes a defined departure (出国) partway through the year. If the income from January 1 through the time of departure is income for which Article 120 would require a return, Article 127 requires that return by the time of departure, based on the circumstances at that time. Article 127, paragraph 2, allows a refund return in that same window when the person is someone who could file a refund return under Article 122. Article 130 says that if the Article 127 return shows tax due, that tax is paid by the deadline for the return.

This is a different filing from the return after a death

Article 125 is the return when a resident dies during the year. The heir files it. The heir’s deadline is the day before four months have passed, counting from the day after the heir learned that the succession had started. People also call that heir’s return a quasi-final return. It is Article 125. The departure filing in section 3-10 is Article 127. The deadlines are different.

There is also a form titled 準確定申告書, and it is a third thing

On the National Tax Agency’s income-tax form list, a document titled 準確定申告書 is the return under Income Tax Act Article 172. The list says it is for a non-resident who has Japan-source employment income, retirement income, or income from personal services, and who was not taxed by the 20.42% withholding because the income was paid outside Japan or for a similar reason. Section 3-10 has a matching row: a non-resident who does not conduct business through a fixed location in Japan, and who has income from employment or personal services performed in Japan that is not subject to withholding, files a quasi-final return and pays before departure.

Article 127 says the departure return states the matters listed in Article 120. The current form list does not say which sheets that departure return uses, and it does not say to write 準 on them. The most recent filled-in example the National Tax Agency publishes for a departure return is for the 2020 tax year, so this page does not use it. Ask the tax office for your place for tax payment which sheets to use before you file. The Article 172 form above is for the unpaid-abroad case that form describes. It is not the general departure return.

Leaving between January 1 and March 15

Section 3-10 adds a second filing for a 2026 departure with no tax agent: if you depart from January 1 to March 15, you also file the final return and pay the tax for the preceding year (2025) before you depart.

Article 126 is the statute behind that second filing. A resident who must file an Article 120 return, and who makes a defined departure in the period from January 1 of the following year up to that return’s deadline, files that return by the time of departure.

Article 126 runs from January 1 of the following year through that return’s filing deadline. It does not apply if you file the Article 123 loss return instead. Article 10, paragraph 2, of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes treats a Sunday, national holiday, or other general holiday as the next day, so the deadline for the 2025 return was Monday, March 16, 2026. A departure on that day is inside Article 126. Section 3-10 of the 2025 English guide still prints “January 1 to March 15” and does not mention the Sunday. Section 3-4 prints March 16 (Mon.), 2026, as the payment due date.

Income that arises after the quasi-final return

Section 3-10 says the quasi-final return does not close the year if there is later income. You still file a final return during February 16 through March 15, 2027, for the sum of income from January 1, 2026, through the departure date and income from the following day through December 31, 2026. The tax on that later return is the tax on the later return minus the tax on the quasi-final return. If the later figure is smaller, section 3-10 says the difference is refunded.

No.1926 states the same structure for its mid-year departure with no tax agent: the quasi-final return covers the resident period, and Japan-source income after departure still leads to a February 16–March 15 return through a tax agent, covering both periods.

After 2026, section 3-10 says that Japan-source income can still require a return, filed between February 16 and March 15 of the following year through the tax agent.

Which office receives the return

Section 1-7 of the 2025 guide sets the place for tax payment in this order:

Your domicile in Japan, if you have one.
If you do not, your residence in Japan.
If you are a non-resident with a permanent establishment in Japan, the location of that establishment.
If you once had a domicile or residence in Japan and no longer do, and a relative who meets the guide’s conditions still lives there, that former place.
If you receive consideration for leasing real estate in Japan, the location of the assets that produce it.
If a place was fixed under the earlier steps in the past and then stopped qualifying, the place it was just before that.
If you are filing a return or a claim, a place you select.
Otherwise, a place inside the jurisdictional area of Kojimachi Tax Office.

No.12004’s note matches the top of that list: the office follows your place for tax payment, and the guide is where that place is explained. A1-7 points to the National Tax Agency’s tax-office directory for the street address.

Deductions in the year you leave

The English section 3-10 does not set the timing of deductions. No.1926 does, for the two mid-year patterns it describes. The Japanese page is the source for this table. Amounts and tests change; No.1926 tells readers to check code No.1199 for the basic deduction amount, and this page does not copy a yen figure from somewhere else.

Item, as No.1926 states it	If you appointed a tax agent before leaving	If you made a defined departure with no tax agent
Medical-expense deduction, social-insurance deduction, small-business mutual-aid deduction, life-insurance deduction, earthquake-insurance deduction	Computed from amounts paid during the resident period (January 1 through the departure day)	Same: amounts paid during the resident period
The personal deductions No.1926 names for this test: spouse deduction, including the special spouse deduction (配偶者（特別）控除), dependent deduction (扶養控除), specified-relative special deduction (特定親族特別控除), disability deduction (障害者控除), widow deduction (寡婦控除), single-parent deduction (ひとり親控除), and working-student deduction (勤労学生控除). The English glosses follow the Japanese labels on that page	Judged as of December 31 of that year	Judged as of the departure date
Casualty-loss deduction, donation deduction, basic deduction	Available. A casualty loss in the non-resident period counts only if the asset is in Japan	Same

No.1926 also says the housing-loan credit generally requires that you continue to live in the home, and that an unavoidable job transfer can still qualify when further conditions are met. It points to code No.1234 for those conditions. This page does not restate them.

Resident tax is a different office

Income tax in this article is a national tax. Resident tax (住民税, jūminzei) is paid to the municipality. The National Tax Agency’s English guide calls this local tax an inhabitant tax on the return. The rules below are from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which also links an English leaflet.

The ministry’s page says resident tax is due to the municipality where you live if you have an address in Japan on January 1 and your pay or similar income is above a certain amount. It says the same applies if you leave Japan on or after January 2. The amount depends on pay and similar income from January 1 through December 31 of the previous year. The page does not print the “certain amount” in yen. This article does not supply one.

If you cannot pay the resident tax before you leave, the page says you choose a person who lives in Japan to handle the tax procedures for you, and you notify the municipality where you live, before departure. The English leaflet says who may be that local agent, and which documents to file, differ by municipality, and it tells you to ask that office. There is no single national form number on the ministry page. The income-tax notification in section 3-11 does not replace this municipal notice.

The ministry’s page also says that if resident tax that should have been paid is unpaid, permission to renew a period of stay may be refused. The sentence is “may.” It is the ministry’s statement about immigration permission. It is a consequence printed on that page.

If the return or the tax is late

Section 3-10 says that a person who has not paid the tax or filed the return by the specified due date may be charged additional tax (加算税) and delinquent tax (延滞税). Section 3-4 says delinquent tax is imposed if the tax is not paid by the due date, and if a transfer from a bank account fails for lack of funds. It tells you to pay the delinquent tax together with the principal at a financial institution or the tax office. The rate table is on that guide page. This article does not copy the rates.

Article 117, paragraphs 3 to 5, is a separate consequence of filing no tax-agent notification. The regional commissioner or the district director for the place for tax payment may ask, in writing, that you file the notification by a date they set. That date has to fall within a period that does not exceed 60 days, taking account of the time preparation ordinarily takes. If you do not file by that date, they may designate a tax agent from people in Japan whom the statute lists, including an adult relative who shares your livelihood, a person with a close contract tied to the facts of the tax, or a business that provides a platform for transactions you carry on repeatedly. They notify you and that person in writing.

A different regime: tax on unrealized gains when you leave

The National Tax Agency’s exit-tax page describes a separate rule. From July 1, 2015, a specified resident who leaves Japan holding target assets of 100 million yen or more can be taxed on the unrealized gain. The page also describes a grace of payment if a tax agent is notified and security is provided. That regime is outside this article. Read that page if the asset figure might apply. This page does not apply the 100 million yen test to anyone.

Checklist

Use this only as a map of the official steps. It is a general scenario for a person who leaves in the middle of a year and still has a Japanese filing duty. It is not a determination.

Read section 1-5 for the year in question and see whether a return is required at all.
Read the status article for how resident, non-permanent resident, and non-resident are defined. This page does not pick one for you.
If national-tax matters will continue, prepare the tax-agent notification and file it with the office for your place for tax payment, by the time you appoint the agent or by departure.
If that notification is in before departure, section 3-10 puts the year’s return in the February 16–March 15 window of the following year, through the agent. For a 2026 departure, the guide prints February 16 through March 15, 2027.
If you leave without it, section 3-10 puts a quasi-final return and payment before the departure date, for income from January 1 through that date. Check the January 1–March 15 row if you are leaving in that part of the year.
If Japan-source income continues after you leave, plan on the later return section 3-10 describes. The quasi-final return does not replace it.
Ask the municipality about resident tax and its own tax-agent notice. The national form does not do that job.
If a pension lump-sum withdrawal payment is part of the story, the withholding and the optional refund return are in the lump-sum article.

Official sources

The Primary sources list below is the set this page relies on. A rule in the text is tied to one of those pages or to the statute linked there.