AlwaysAisle

Did little reading on the topic, because there are things which can be applicable to me. The tax exemptions of consumption tax and export tax for non-Japanese are applicable to 「海外から来日している外国人旅行者等の非居住者」, which indicates tax exemption is applicable to non-Japanese visitors who are non-residents of Japan. 居住者, residents, is defined as a person possess an address in Japan and continuously reside in Japan for more than one year. Address is define as a primary location of residence and even National Tax Agency of Japan indicates that the interpretation of a primary location of residence is often done by case by case. Anybody who is not a resident of Japan is define as non-resident and only non-residents are qualified for consumption tax exemption.

So, if you are a resident of Japan then consumption tax exemption does not apply. When it comes to income tax then National Tax Agency of Japan has little different interpretation. One of the core point of income tax is that a person does not end up paying two different income tax at two different countries for same income.

Sure, no system is prefect and there is always a loop hole. I do think it is possible that a resident of Japan who possess non-Japanese passport can go to tax free section of electronic stores at Akihabara and able to buy electronics tax free.

Stores, establishments, have to apply to National Tax Agency of Japan for tax exempt sales for non-resident Japanese. During the application process store employees are supposed to receive an information or take a class at National Tax Agency regarding process of identifying qualification of tax exempt status by documents such as passport and resident card. However, bottom line is that they are store sales people, they are not properly trained agent to identify residency status of non-Japanese passport holders.

Maybe I should add that this resident and non-resident definition is by National Tax Agency of Japan for tax purpose. Ministry of Justice in Japan is the agency which approve and issue permanent residency in Japan. Ministry of Justice in Japan has different definition of resident and non-resident for their own purpose.

NewbieRunner

Store employees look for a sticker like this in the passport and check the date of arrival.

jib71

Right. So ... absence of a temporary visitor sticker means "no tax exemption for you".

NewbieRunner

That's my understanding. They fill out a form which includes passport details and the date/place of arrival IIRC.

SQ319

I thought I would just update this thread on my experiences, since I visited Japan post-tax increase implementation.

The minimum spending required for tax refund remains at 10,000 Yen, not 5,000 Yen as reported earlier in the article in the first post.

The list of products exempted from tax refund remains the same - cosmetics continue to be exempted from the scheme.

Participation rate is still low - Uniqlo and Muji are not participating in this scheme.

So essentially no changes to tax refund scheme. The only thing I like about it is the immediate tax refund without needing to declare the goods at customs upon leaving.

evergrn

So I just bought a bunch of "consumable" goods tax-free at this one store, some of which are liquid items larger than what would be allowed on carry-on. The store puts the receipt on your passport like before, but the difference with the consumable goods is that they put your items in a sealed bag and tell you that you can't open the bag until you're back in your home country. The store person said that I may be asked to demonstrate at NRT that things are still sealed. Well, I can't see how they could ask for something like that at NRT. I could've shipped it home, I could've put it in checked luggage. And it will have to be in checked bags, since some of the stuff can't be carried on. So if I really get asked to show my stuff by the customs officer, then I won't have it at that point.

Again, I'm pretty sure no one's going to be checking for this. But does anyone have firsthand experience flying out with tax-exempt consumables?

What I'd really like to do is to open up this sealed bag and then throw away packaging to save luggage space.

AlwaysAisle

New tax exemption which extend to more consumable items is new thing started this year (I think). I think it is new rule and how the law is interesting point. One condition for this new tax exemption covering consumable items is that items are to be consumed outside of Japan. This is the reason you may be asked to show the proof at international departing point. At international departure at Japanese airport, only check point is passport control and will those officers supposed to check passengers regarding tax exempt purchase?

My guess is that if officials find out that this new tax exemption is being abused by foreign visitors a lot, such that many people are taking advantage of tax exemption but consuming it while they are still in Japan, then the official may come up with the system where they will start checking international departing passengers on regular basis. However, at this moment since it is new tax rule who knows how it is enforced.

I understand that you may not like the idea. But I think keeping tax exempt items in the sealed bag until you are out of Japan is one of the condition for tax exempt purchase. If you open the sealed bag while you are in Japan, then technically at that moment tax exempt status does not apply. Technically officials can collect consumption tax for those purchase.

How they are going to enforce this is another question.

evergrn

Thanks, but it's not that I like it or don't like it. I also understand the what the official rule is, that you can't consume it in Jpn and so forth. I'm just wondering if anyone here has the firsthand experience of flying out of Jpn with tax-exempt consumable purchase and, if so, whether/not they were asked to show the stuff on the spot to the officer. What it boils down to is I've gotta go return this stuff if I'm supposed to have it on my carry-on (for the reason I mentioned above).

Steve M

I don't see how it being a "consumable" or not, or liquid or not, changes anything. It's been the case for many years (20+?) that durable goods purchased by non-residents for export could take advantage of tax refunds at many stores that had signed up for the refund scheme. As is the case now with revisions, the store staples a receipt to your passport on the same page as your landing permission sticker (along with a hanko imprint straddling the receipt and the passport page, so that the departing immigration inspector can tell if a receipt was attached to the passport but removed prior to exit immigration inspection). Ordinarily, the receipt is simply removed by the exit immigration inspector. Just before that point is the Customs counter. Presumably, they could refer you to the Customs agent if there was a question about whether you were truly exporting the goods for which you received the tax refund. But the case as it used to be is the same as it is now: it's possible, if not likely, that you've already checked the durable goods into your checked luggage by the time you get to the Customs counter. I imagine they deal with the newly-eligible consumables/liquids issue just the same as they did before with the previously-eligible goods: rarely inspect, and if they do and you have checked bags and claim the items are in there, usually take your word for it, and if they're really curious or suspicious, they have your checked bags pulled by the airline and conduct an examination.

gnaget

Yeah, the enforcement is quite lax. I suppose that by the time the tax reaches European levels then things might change.

My experience is that the agent sleepily rips out the receipts from your passport and does not even look at it. I sometimes bought things that remained in Japan. Well, they were exported eventually.

It's also true that you need a 90 day tourist visa. If you have an official visa then you can't get the refund even though you are not otherwise a resident.

mapleg

Agent at Haneda seemed to be actually sleeping him--I woke him up and said "Do you need this" pointing to the tax free paper stapled to my passport.

Seems really a pointless exercise.

evergrn

Okay, thanks much. That's good to hear. I won't worry about it.

evergrn

Update on this, as I've now returned. I left those tax-exempt consumable goods intact in sealed bag just in case, but I put it in the checked bag. Went through the departure passport control. I was watching carefully this time, and the officer didn't even bother to take out the tax-exempt purchase slip from my passport. So I pointed it out to the officer (probably shouldn't have bothered), and he detached it. But he also told me that he was doing that as a one-time courtesy, that I have to go run it by the customs counter at the back of the passport control area for this in future visits. If I had gone to the customs counter as I was officially supposed to have done, then I wonder if there's a chance they would've made me prove that I hadn't broken the seal (as the person at the store suggested I may have to do). Of course, that would've been impossible since I'd checked the bag. Steve M's speculation above makes total sense. But I'm still interested to hear about other people's actual experiences on this in the future, and what actually goes on at the customs counter. This consumable goods tax exemption and the keep-things-sealed business is all new to me.

Of course I've purchased non-consumables tax-free in the past, but I never paid close attention before to the related proceedings upon departure. I believe sometimes the passport officer did remove the slip, but I'd remove it myself when it was still there after returning home. I didn't even know about the customs counter, even though I go to Jpn all the time. I must be really oblivious.

swy

This is my experience too. I put the tax-exempt goods (all food) in my checked luggage, and the guy at passport control didn't do anything with the stapled slip. I didn't tell him though, so the slip is still in my passport.

Steve M

I went through NRT last month, and the procedures have changed. There are now signs in the departure immigration hall that say that if you have a tax exempt form stapled in your passport, you must go to the Customs counter before going through exit Immigration. As a result, what used to be a Customs counter with one person staffing it that never seemed to do anything now does a brisk business, with more than one officer and a roped-off area for a queue to form. There were a couple of people in line waiting for their turn when I passed by.