Hometown Tax: Crab for 2,000 Yen, and the Other Column — Epoche B1
Memo To: All households, Sakura Danchi residents' association From: Living Information Group Date: 10 November Subject: Furusato nōzei — how it works, and what it costs 1. The scheme. “Hometown tax” (furusato nōzei), national since 2008, lets a taxpayer donate money to any municipality in Japan — birthplace or not — and get almost all of it back off the next year's income and residence tax. Up to a ceiling set by income, the donor's real cost is a flat 2,000 yen, however much is given. 2. The gifts. Towns compete for these donations with thank-you gifts of local produce: rice, beef, crab, fruit. The rules cap the gift at thirty per cent of the donation and require genuinely local products. So a 30,000-yen donation, real cost 2,000 yen, may bring around 9,000 yen of a fishing town's crab. Salaried employees donating to five municipalities or fewer can file a simple “one-stop” form instead of a tax return. Donations count for this year until 31 December. 3. The other column. The redirected money is not new money: it is residence tax that leaves the city where the donor actually lives. Yokohama alone loses tens of billions of yen a year this way — revenue that would have paid for the donor's own streetlights, rubbish collection and nursery places. A household using the scheme is, in effect, trading a slice of its own city's budget for another town's beef. The association takes no position; residents should simply see both columns before deciding. 4. Help. Mrs Ogawa will demonstrate the donation portals on Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon, in the meeting room. Bring a phone and last year's income figure. References Japan Consumer Affairs Agency (2022). Consumer White Paper. Government of Japan. Nihon Keizai Shimbun (2023). The rise of digital point cards in Japan. Nikkei, November 15.