Quote:
Originally Posted by Columbine
So one of my old university pals is currently working in Japan as a JET and obviously she's being paid wages. But what we're wondering about is what tax she should be paying. The kicker is that she got some forms in the post being asking her to pay taxes from Sept 2007-May 2008 when she was a student at university in Japan. Her supervisor says it was only optional but then the Japanese Collections Agency called also asking for the money.
Is this legal or possible? She's being asked for about $2000, and was in Japan on a student visa. She wasn't earning at that time, and she's an American citizen. This is her first year working JET.
Basically, we understand why she might be asked to pay tax for ~THIS~ year, but why from the year before last? There are others from the same Uni out there as JETS already, and others applying to go out next year, and we're all now understandably worried that we're going to get lumped with an unexpected fee from our uni. days, or else that this is some kind of scam.
Thoughts?
|
Sounds like a scam. What are they basing the $2000 on what hours worked? This your friend can surely defeat their premise. I'm sure scammers will even get collection agencies to do their work for them, unless the collection agency is the scammer. My sister-in-law gets "tax collection" scams every so often... its very popular.
I'm trying to think what government agency this person would have to start with to confirm its either a scam or a mistake. I imagine the prefecture Tax office (depending on the prefecture size) or perhaps City Hall (they can refer you). The easiest thing to do is contact the consulate general. Since tax systems are very complex, it is recommended that they contact their consulate general for assistance in this regard.