Qualifications for “dependent family members residing outside Japan” redefined.

If a householder financially support his/her family member over 16 years old earning less than 480,000 yen, that can be declared as a “dependent family*” and qualified for dependency exemption.” When the “dependency exemption” is applied, the householder is eligible for tax reduction. Typically, dependent family members are full time college students on thier parents' residence registration but it is possible to include a family member living away from the householder as being financially supported. Furthermore, family members residing outside of Japan are also eligible as a dependent. For example, cases where a child has entered an overseas university.
 
The dependency exemption scheme is not limited to Japanese nationals, and most foreign nationals living in Japan are also eligible. It is worth noting that the dependent does not have to be the householder’s child and there is no upper limit of age of the dependents. So, if you are a foreign national working in Japan and sending money to cover your parents' living expenses in home country, you can apply for the dependency exemption.
 
The purpose of the exemption is to financially relieve through tax reduction for someone who have to support other family members who are not capable of earning  living cost in the same household. It can, however, be easily misunderstood that this is simply a way to pay less tax even when there is no family member who need financial support. While there are issues with the application system itself, cases of misuse such as declaring parents to be dependents despite their having a good income, or claiming to be financially supporting while sending insufficient amount of money for covering living expenses, are occasionally found.
 
As a measure to prevent such misuse, clearer requirements for qualifying as a dependent family member residing abroad have been established as of January 2023. Specifically, in order to declare someone aged between 30 and 69 as a dependent relative, the householder must show an evidence of 380,000 yen or more money transfer each year to indivisual dependent family member.
 
An exception is applied to those who have deregistered their residence registration prior to leaving to study abroad or those who have a disability. In these cases, there is no such minimum amount of money transfer in a year is required (instead, relevant documents need to be submitted).
 
If a declaration of dependent relatives has been made but the remittance records are not submitted by the end of year, the amount of municipal, income, and other taxes may be recalculated and adjustment is made to the amounts before the dependency exemption was applied and the difference could be added as an overdue tax.
 
Overdue tax incapacitates renewwing visa for some type of residency status such as Tokutei Ginou (特定技能 とくていぎのう). Also, it gives a negative impact for Permanent Residency （永住　えいじゅう）application and Naturalisation applications. Hence a careful provision is need before applying for the dependent exemption scheme by declaring dependent family residing outside Japan.