How to File U.S. Taxes From Japan

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When I came to Japan after graduating, I was excited to be an adult. (Forget the fact that the JET program holds your hand all the way over to Japan.) I had my own apartment. I was getting paid a decent wage. I was a car owner. I was making omelettes for dinner every night. But with adulthood come great burdens. One of these, which I was somewhat excited to take on, is filing taxes.

Fortunately, the process is relatively simple for foreigners living abroad, and I found Shana West’s great website which explains everything. That page is here. It is extremely detailed and helpful, so I recommend using it, but I’ve summarized the process below and added a couple of details.

1. CHECK YOUR FINAL PAYCHECK OF THE YEAR!

In Japan, your final paycheck of the year will include your 源泉徴収票 (げんせんちょうしゅうひょう). This is proof of how much you earned and were taxed that year – the Japanese equivalent of a W-2. It’s a small piece of paper and easy to lose track of, so keep an eye out for it. If you do lose it, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get another copy printed at your local town/ward/city office. (On a side note, that word is so much fun to say. 源泉徴収票, heh.)

2. File Form 4868 by April 15.

In order to meet the requirements for exemption from U.S. taxes, you need to have lived in Japan for 330 days. JETs generally arrive at the end of July/beginning of August. Foreigners abroad automatically have a two month extension, but that isn’t always enough for first year expats. Filing Form 4868 gives you until October 15. So submit this form, and then just wait.

3. Turn your 源泉徴収票 into an English W-2.

Because the 源泉徴収票 is in Japanese, you need to translate it for the IRS. I always copy it and then mark up the copy exactly as Shana says. At the top I write “FOREIGN INCOME STATEMENT.” I point out the Japanese calendar year “HEISEI 21 (JAPANESE CALENDAR YEAR) = 2009.” I show them my name in Japanese (although this year and last my name has been printed in English). And then I show them the amount paid: “AMOUNT PAID = X YEN x 1USD/93.68YEN = $Y.” I don’t notate the after taxes income, although it couldn’t hurt to point out that and then the amount you were taxed. That would kind of say “Shove it, you IRS tax monkeys. I’ve been paying my dues.”

At the bottom of the page I write (straight from Shana’s page): “Note: I used the 2009 average yen/USD exchange rate as reported by the Federal Reserve to calculate my income. That rate was 93.68 yen = $1.”

The Federal Reserve releases its annual exchange rates on January 1 every year. You can find them on their website.

4. Fill out Form 2555EZ and 1040 and send them along with your “translated” 源泉徴収票 to the IRS by October 15.

Form 2555EZ

This is the foreign income exemption form. The easiest residency test to pass is the “physical presence test.” Write the day you arrived in Japan and then a year from that date. From your second year onward these dates will always be 1/1 and 12/31. On the second page, note all the days that you were back in the U.S. (Remember, this is just the time back in the U.S., not the time you spent outside of Japan, so you don’t have to include that trip to Thailand – you JETs are all so predictable.)

Form 1040

This is the most annoying form. It’s only tricky if you have any earned income from the U.S. Follow Shana’s advice and fill out the form as you normally would, but include your Japanese income. This becomes significantly more simple your second year onward (at least it did for me) because you should have no earned income from the U.S.

I’m still not sure I’m filling it out properly. The one thing I do know is that I make significantly less than the $91,400 that you are allowed to claim as an exemption. My strategy is to just write “0” for any category I’m unsure of and then my Japanese income in parentheses for the “Other income” line.

And you’re done! Send that shit in and crack the beers!

A couple of notes:

– I didn’t fill out Form 8802 that Shana lists on her site. I was a CIR and was technically not able to get exemption from the Japanese taxes. Or so I thought. It was my understanding that the taxes would be deducted from my check and then given back to me in the form of a slightly higher salary. Wrong. I think I could’ve filed these forms if I tried. Oh well. Definitely get on that if you’re a JET.

– Some of my friends haven’t filed for several years and are worried that this will affect them somehow. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Yes, you’re supposed to be filing them, but it’s not like you’re making a huge amount of money and embezzling it. And you actually are paying taxes. That said, if you are going to be moving home anytime soon (especially if you’re going for school), I’d try to at least get at least the most recent year filed. The good news is that you can ignore Step 2 if you’ve been here for over a year.

No excuses this year! You’ve got two sets of detailed instructions – the ones here and then Shana’s site – to help you through the process. がんばれ！

新発売のビールを買ってきた

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File this one under “I should’ve known better.” Sapporo’s 新発売 collaboration with famous Hokkaido chocolatier ROYCE’. (I’ve always wondered if that is pronounced “ROYCE Prime.”) It’s far too sweet and not very roasty or bitter at all, probably because of all the sugar they added to cover the bitterness of the cocoa nibs listed in the ingredients. I prefer Kirin’s Beer Chocolat which didn’t use any actual chocolate.

As you can tell from the title of this post, I have a small point to add about the Japanese てくる form, which I addressed here and here. Treyvaud sent me a link to a paper titled “Acquisition of the Japanese Errand Construction in Japanese as a Foreign Language.” I dig the “base construction” theory of てくる on page 14 (all our base are belong to us, as it were), but the real point of the article is to examine why “the use of kuru ‘come’ in the [Japanese errand] construction especially seems to puzzle many of the students.”

One of the most interesting parts of the article to me was learning that there are times when it is ungrammatical not to use てくる or ていく. (In other words, the -masu form is at times incorrect.) Treyvaud explains:

The graph on page 29 really interested me, because it seems to show that even beginners can recognize a correct sentence — they’re just more likely not to realize that the incorrect ones are incorrect (because of English leaking in, L1 transfer). I guess since most courses aren’t going to teach you a list of incorrect forms, the only way to overcome this is endless practice until you have a big bag of Japanese-specific knowledge to compare new sentences to (so that unusual forms are suspicious because you know that similar sentences would usually be said differently), rather than relying on “can I understand it?” or “would it make sense in English?” as your standard as beginners more or less have to.

Conversely, in my own high school English classes, I remember spending a significant amount of time on incorrect grammar patterns. Run-on sentences, comma splices, split infinitives. (Although, I guess this is because native students can already “do” English and just need to be shown what not to do.) The author doesn’t seem to offer any suggestions to improve the status quo, but I wonder if highlighting incorrect usage wouldn’t help non-native students.

And finally, the sad truth: “only five percent of L2 learners can reach a native speaker’s level.” Sigh.

Cool Compound – 気分転換

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Another quick vacation-related word before more serious content begins.

気分転換 is a great Japanese phrase that has a lot of possible English translations. Break it down and you get change (転換, てんかん) in mood/humor/spirits (気分, きぶん), which is essentially what it means – when you’re in a rut or bored, you do something to pep yourself up. More natural translations include “change of pace,” “diversion,” and “distraction.”

An easy way to use this word is 気分転換として〜する – “Do something for/as a change of pace.” For example, 気分転換として、まだ降りていない山手線の駅で降りて、ちょっと散歩してきた。

This is another word where Google Images is useful. It reveals a number of possible 気分転換 activities – travel, going out to look at flowers, getting your nails done, buying a different style of dress from what you normally wear, or just checking out some pornography!

Cool Kanji – 通路

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When I checked in at Narita on my way to New York, I realized that I’d been assigned a middle seat. Great. I guess that’s what you get when you book a ticket yourself rather than through a travel agent, I thought. I pressed the button to try and change it, but all the seats were full. Twenty minutes before my flight, I decided to try and ask one of the ladies at the gate – 空いている通路席(つうろせき)はありませんか。Are there any aisle seats available? Miraculously one was free. She tore up my old boarding pass and handed me a new one. Don’t ask me how it happened, I’m just glad I had the leg space and easy access to the bathroom. Maybe she was so surprised someone wasn’t asking for an upgrade to business class that she was happy to oblige me.

If you’re looking for a window seat, the word you want is 窓席(まどせき). I’m not sure why you would request a middle seat, but I believe the word is 中央席(ちゅうおうせき).

Cool Onomatopoeia – どえ〜

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My flight home to Tokyo yesterday was cancelled because the shitters on the plane were broken. Two of ’em. They had to fix at least one of them for us to go (pun intended), and apparently it couldn’t be done. I let my roommates know I’d be getting home a day late, and one of them responded with:

どえ〜。そんな、いきなりキャンセルって、あるんだ！！

Love the onomatopoeia at the beginning. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard どえ〜 used, but it seems to me something like an even more exasperated version of the typical sound of surprise – げ.

Now I’m off to try and score a meal voucher or some other kind of restitution. This cancellation shit was exciting at first, but now it just sucks.

Happy New Beer!

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Er, I mean year. 2010 is almost a week old now, but How to Japonese will be taking another week of vacation before resuming new posts. I’m heading back to the U.S. tomorrow for a quick trip. Rest assured that there is awesome content on the way. (I just need a chance to finish editing/writing it.)

For now, enjoy this picture of one of a few dozen pints of Schlenkerla Helles poured in Japan:

Jha in Kanda opened a keg of the beer on the 4th and 5th. Schlenkerla is legendary for it’s smokey rauchbier, generally a dark beer. They brew the Helles in the same kettles, but without the smoked malt, so it only has a trace of the flavor. (I’ve had the bottle version too and swear it tastes smokier.) It’s still crisp and infinitely drinkable – one of the beers perfected by hundreds of years of German beer brilliance. I was fortunate to catch a pint today after work. If you hurry you might still be able to get one. They still have the Urbock on tap at Jha and Coopers (it’s sister bar) in Shimbashi, with far more reserves than the Helles. It packs a punch far mightier than its 6.5% abv might suggest. You have been warned.

JR Station Pub Crawl – Yamanote – Director’s Commentary

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The last of my director’s commentary pieces! Thanks for tuning in this far. I can’t believe I haven’t put out a new video in over four months. Travesty. I’ve been taking footage for two new videos recently. I should be able to release them by early February.

For now, here’s my commentary on the Yamanote Line Pub Crawl:

JR Station Pub Crawl – Yamanote from Daniel Morales on Vimeo.

00:27 A live version of “Gimme Some More” from The J.B.’s anthology Funky Good Time. Pretty good collection of their best stuff.

00:42 I still can’t believe they don’t have Guiness on tap. What a disappointment. The machine they use to froth up the beer is hilarious. The lady couldn’t even get it to work when I was there.

00:47 For most of these I used actual footage in between the stations. I got drunk and forgot to film at one point (toward the end) and had to double up one of the clips.

00:52 Gotta love Tamachi. Nice clean station. Decent beer and restaurant representation within the gates.

00:58 Arguably the best beer clip from the video. Very nice looking.

01:10 My Japan departure tradition is usually to pick up beer at either Seijo Ishii or Queen’s Isetan in Shinagawa and then get a bento to take with me on the Narita Express. The food at Paul is so good that I may have to reconsider the bento the next time. Hmm…I could also pick up a doughnut at Doughnut Plant upstairs in the eCute shopping center. Mmm.

01:44 You can see the billboard for QB Cut, a quick haircut place right next to this noodle joint. This is the 1000 yen haircut place that cleans your head afterward with a vacuum. Yes, I have had my hair cut at QB Cut before, but not in a station. I find it really relaxing to get a quick haircut at lunch sometimes.

01:59 The front of the train is definitely the place to be. The trainscape of Tokyo is something that definitely needs to be beheld. Very impressive. I love it when the path suddenly expands into a huge number of tracks outside a major station. That’s cool.

02:07 Sara-udon – a highly underrated Japanese food, even though it’s Chinese. Anyone know the Chinese name for this stuff? The key is to just douse the plate with vinegar. I love the kick it gives the dish.

02:16 In retrospect, I probably should have had a beer at the Italian place across the way from this ramen place. This video needed some pizza in it.

02:21 By far the coldest glass of the crawl.

02:43 I wonder if this place is still around. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it had closed and been replaced with a konbini already.

02:54 This clip is definitely tilted, heh. Drunk.

Original post here.

Thanks again for sticking with me this month. I’m on break except for 号外 posts until the beginning of January. I’m excited to begin the year of the tiger with aggressive new posts about learning Japanese.

Good Eats – Musashi – Director’s Commentary

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Good Eats – Musashi from Daniel Morales on Vimeo.

00:28 The music is “Yakiniku” by Papa Grows Funk. They are a New Orleans-based Funk band with a Japanese guitarist named June Yamagishi. He hails from Kyoto but moved to New Orleans in 1995. I know he played with the Wild Magnolias for a while and probably some other local bands, but around 2000, Papa Grows Funk grew out of a group of musicians who would jam on Monday nights. There’s a nice set of interviews with with the Papa Grows Funk members on YouTube, including a three part interview with Yamagishi in Japanese. If I remember correctly, the saxophone player wrote the song “Yakiniku,” but it has a great guitar lick and is inspired by Yamagishi’s cooking.

If you’re looking to pick up some of their music, I’d recommend their second album Shakin’. They occasionally tour in Japan, and I’ve seen them once, but the tickets were about twice as expensive as back home.

00:39 I love the combination of old and new you get from the SL Hiroba. The old, crowded neighborhoods on the Shimbashi side and then the shiny, new glass buildings on the Shiodome side.

00:42 The New Shimbashi Building (that big, kind of white-checkered one), however, is just terrible. It must have been some architect’s vision of “the future” seen from the 1970s. It’s a giant mistake because this vision turned out to be the perfect pigeon roost, forcing them to cover the awfulness in mesh wiring.

01:19 I can’t believe these guys sit in 正座 the whole time.

02:20 I was running low on either battery or tape when I took this footage. I never got the perfect shot of the guy serving with the paddle. I was hoping to get a nice angle of him swinging it around widely, but didn’t have good enough timing.

02:40 I hate it when Americans have a laugh at tofu’s expense. It always seems to be the butt of the joke when it comes to flavorless foods. I’d argue 1) that their palettes aren’t experienced enough to appreciate the subtle flavor of plain tofu (the stereotypical tofu) and 2) that they haven’t tried enough different tofu dishes. Ageatsu are so coddamn tasty.

Original post here.

Natto Experiments – Director’s Commentary

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Natto Experiments from Daniel Morales on Vimeo.

00:27 The music is AudioBody’s “You Gotta Tap” from the YouTube video “The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments.”

00:36 The cumin seeds I brought back to Japan from New Orleans. They’ve lasted me quite a while as I only use them in one lentil dish I make occasionally. In that dish, they get stir fried with garlic and red pepper, so I thought that might work here, too.

00:42 The knife shots work really well with this music. I think I was playing the song in my mind as I was chopping.

01:06 Yarg. Could use some lighting here.

01:26 When I was living up in Fukushima, there was a weekly men’s cooking class at the Town Hall called 男エプロン. It was only around for about half a year, but I learned this avocado-seed-removal trick from the lady who taught the course. Very effective.

01:57 Mmmm. This is the only of the three recipes that I actually eat regularly. I wait until avocados are on sale for 98 yen and use the natto and avocado to supplement my meal (generally a bento).

02:17 This is the cheapest cheese in Japan. They have both cheddar and mozzarella in this size at Seijo Ishii stores, and it’s only 299 yen. As I’ve mentioned before, probably the best value in the whole store.

02:43 The schools in my town in Fukushima used to eat natto like this. It was good, but they used a really weak cheese. The sharper you get, the better, in my opinion.

Original post here.

My New Orleans – Director’s Commentary

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My New Orleans from Daniel Morales on Vimeo.

00:02 Allen Toussaint’s “Tipitina and Me,” a striking minor-chord variation of the legendary New Orleans song. Apparently Elvis Costello wrote lyrics for this version of the song, and I’m sure they’re great, but I can’t imagine anything other than the instrumental version.

00:04 The neighborhood where I grew up has these tiles in all of the streets. I took my senior yearbook photo next to one of them.

I took all this video when I was back in New Orleans in April/May 2009. A few days before I flew home from Tokyo, I jammed the door of my camcorder and it stopped working. I was totally bummed out during the start of my trip and had given up hope of taking any footage, but eventually I snapped out of the funk and borrowed my buddy Vasu’s camera.

00:09 This is the neighborhood where I grew up. The street used to be in disrepair, and there was a big dip right in front of this blue house on the corner. It was a lot of fun to ride down it on a bike, and it filled up during floods.

00:15 612 Webster St. My memories of this house include: feeding our first cat (a black cat named Mr. Cat) in our little backyard, my parents sweating to the oldies, riding little plastic cars and motorcycles around, my mom bringing my little brother home from the hospital.

I’m not sure if the tree in front was there or not. If it was, it has grown quite a bit.

00:23 600 Webster St. Two doors down from the first house. Memories: playing basketball in the backyard, shooting off fireworks on the corner, carving pumpkins, watching the Gulf War on CNN, leaving apple empanadas out for Santa at Christmas, eating vegetarian food like “spinach balls,” waiting out a hurricane in one of the bedrooms upstairs, old computers (Commodores, Amigas, and all the awesome games that my Dad bought or pirated from friends), running my forehead into our shed and splitting it (my forehead) open, snow in New Orleans, eating all the snacks my Mom’s friends brought when she hosted “Quilt Group.”

00:30 Eleonore is only a few blocks over from Webster, but the street tiles cut out at some point.

00:34 This is Eleonore. We lived on this street briefly after living in Texas for sixth months. The filmed some commercial for a bank on the street one time and you could see my brother way in the background.

00:41 A curious house. The kitchen was on the second floor (“flood-proof” you might call it), and there were two distinct second floors with separate stairways that met. I had my own room for the first time. Memories: listening to the Top 10 songs on the radio every night (Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” comes to mind, as does that terrible “Big Bad Wolf” song), listening to Weird Al Yankovic tapes, watching constellations move at night for a science project, eating pizza and root beer with friends, rooting for Charles Barkley and the Suns in the ’94 NBA finals, Easter Egg hunting, drinking powdered tea (and probably becoming addicted to caffeine).

00:49 The front of Audobon Park from the streetcar tracks. We have always lived close to the park, and I used to bike around it quite often. My mom used to walk around the park at five in the morning, and I would ride ahead a bit and then wait for her to catch up.

00:56 A close up of the fountain. That’s all I got.

01:02 This used to be a pond with two bridges on the ends. There was a track that went around the pond, and it was fun to ride around real fast and then zoom up and down the bridges. That was a long time ago. During middle school and high school we used to play ultimate frisbee here. It was the perfect size for us back then. Probably a little small now. In the distance you can see a little hut that sits on the edge of the golf course.

01:09 This is a shot of the pond closest to our old houses. We used to feed bread to the ducks here, and one time my babysitter took us to this area and we were unknowingly included in a photo that was included in a volume of park photos. We were tiny in the photo, but it’s still pretty cool. You can see the cypress trees with cypress knees.

01:16 The Audobon Zoo, from The Meter’s legendary song, “They All Ask’d For You.”

01:23 The elephant exhibit has been there forever. It’s exactly how I remember it from when I was little.

01:30 The fountain and oaks in the area between the reptile exhibit and the sea lions (?). Nice, quiet area perfect for picnicking.

01:38 This shot might be my favorite serendipitous shot. Run, you crazy looking chicken, there’s a lady with a camera after you!

01:50 Camp St. This is where we live now.

01:54 Here’s Camp looking from State toward Webster. It’s only three blocks from the other houses where I’ve lived. It’s a pleasant little neighborhood.

02:01 A relatively new New Orleans house. I think the newest of any we’ve lived in.

02:08 The back house. It used to be a garage, but we converted into a little house – my Mom’s pet project to tempt us home more often. It works – she stocks the freezer with frozen pizza and the fridge with beer.

02:17 The yard. Nice little garden, which is where all of our late-cats rest in peace.

02:23 This is Butthead. No joke. That’s his real name. He had a brother named Beavis, but he ran away. Butthead is still really skittish and hasn’t warmed up to me yet, so I try to spoil him. I gave him kitty treats two to three times a day when I was back home, but he still wouldn’t let me approach him. He looks far sweeter than he actually is.

02:27 Bill is the big, fat, orange cat. He might be our nicest cat yet. He loves attention, especially early in the morning. For some strange reason, whenever Butthead is on the couch, he’ll let you pet him if you’re sneaky about it.

02:36 My firm belief. I have lived a rambling, cat-less life for the past nine years. I think my resolution for 2010 may be to acquire a cat.

Original post here.