Can international students buy things in Japan tax-free?

Can international students buy things in Japan tax-free?

Can international students buy things in Japan tax-free? Japanese government officials said recently that the relevant tax laws will be revised in 2022, when international students will no longer enjoy the 10% consumption tax rebate policy. Can international students buy things in Japan tax-free?

Can international students buy things in Japan tax-free? 1 According to the news agency, the Japanese government finalized the policy of excluding long-term residents such as foreign students from the tax exemption system on the 5th.

According to the current system, long-term resident foreign students are allowed to shop duty-free within six months of their entry, except those who work. The Japanese government will revise the tax system, and reduce the condition of duty-free shopping as long as it is a "non-resident" stipulated in the current Foreign Exchange Law to tourists who stay for a short time within 90 days.

Recently, the behavior of a group of China students has attracted the attention of Japanese media, but this time it is not a good thing.

According to Japanese media reports, in a department store in Tokyo a few days ago, a person who claimed to be a China student "snapped up" a dozen times, including brand-name bags, watches and high-end cosmetics, and * * * about 6.5438 billion yen of goods; I also bought 10 cosmetics, and the shopping quota was close to 500,000 yen each time.

The price of goods in Japanese duty-free shops is much cheaper than other channels, and it is also common for international students and tourists to patronize and consume. However, according to Japanese law, foreigners can buy duty-free goods within six months after entering Japan, provided that they must take them out of the country for use and cannot resell them to others. If the tax authorities find that they resell duty-free goods, they will levy consumption tax. In addition, the purchase of duty-free "consumables" such as cosmetics and food can only reach 500,000 yen at a time.

Reselling storm

According to the news report, the clerk quickly discovered the abnormality of China students who bought frequently.

According to a staff member, international students said that these goods were "all for personal use". However, the staff found that the international student often handed over the purchased goods to unknown men and women near the duty-free shop after shopping, and there were cash transactions on the spot.

Therefore, the staff member suspects that there are individuals or organizations behind this, using the tax-free status of new international students to pay the handling fees for foreign students to buy duty-free goods, and then resell the goods.

In fact, because the tax-free policy is too favorable and "non-resident" overseas Japanese can also be tax-free, in addition to international students using tax exemption, Japanese people also buy frequently.

According to previous reports, a 50-year-old Japanese woman living in Southeast Asia has bought about 654.38 billion yen of high-end watches and a lot of cosmetics in department stores in Tokyo since April last year. It is also found that more than 10 Japanese people buy tens of millions of yen duty-free goods a year.

Simply put, it is to use the six-month tax-free period to go abroad, return to China after the expiration, and continue to buy duty-free goods repeatedly.

If overseas Japanese repeatedly enjoy tax-free preferential treatment through the six-month tax-free period, leaving the IRS at a loss, then the behavior of China students in news reports is obviously illegal, and once caught, they will face extremely serious consequences.

Can international students buy things in Japan tax-free? 12 On February 5th, the Japanese government announced the policy of excluding foreign students from tax-free objects and limiting them to "short-term residents" such as tourists, and wrote it into the outline of the tax reform of the ruling party in 2022, with the aim of preventing foreign students from earning the difference by reselling duty-free goods.

According to the new regulations, long-term foreign students are allowed to shop duty-free within six months of their entry, except for those who work. The Japanese government will revise the tax system, and reduce the conditions stipulated in the current Foreign Exchange Law that anyone who is a "non-resident" can shop duty-free to tourists and diplomats who stay for a short time within 90 days.

Many netizens expressed their support for the Japanese government's move. After all, it is fairer to ordinary Japanese.

Earlier, many media reported that many drugstores in Japan were often out of stock. One of the reasons is that Japanese purchasing often empties some popular goods, which affects the lives of ordinary people.

Japanese duty-free shops usually refer to duty-free shops that are approved by the Japanese government and located at international airports and are qualified to operate duty-free goods. In principle, the goods operated by such duty-free shops are exempt from import duties and consumption taxes, and all of them sell some luxury goods such as duty-free cigarettes, alcohol and cosmetics. Most of them are imported goods, and the overall price is relatively high.

In recent years, with the increase of foreign tourists, duty-free shops have appeared in cities all over Japan. These duty-free shops mainly deal in household appliances, cosmetics and gifts. Foreign tourists with short-term tourist visas are exempt from consumption tax, and besides tax exemption, there are often some preferential discount services, and the overall price is cheaper than the airport duty-free shops. However, it should be noted that not all goods in duty-free shops in the city are duty-free. Generally, all shops start from 1 10,000 yen, and purchases exceeding 1 10,000 yen are tax-free.

Can international students buy things in Japan tax-free? Students studying in Japan will no longer enjoy the tax exemption policy next year. A Japanese government official said recently that the relevant tax laws will be revised in 2022, when international students will no longer enjoy the 10% consumption tax rebate policy. People who can get tax refund for shopping are limited to overseas tourists and diplomats.

It is reported that according to the current Japanese laws and regulations, international students enjoy the duty-free shopping policy within six months after entering Japan. The loophole of this policy is that many trade and export companies temporarily let overseas students help with shopping and tax avoidance.

According to Japanese media reports, as of June this year, there were more than 30,000 duty-free shops in Japan, and the tax refund records were sent to the National Tax Agency. The shopping record involved 26,000 people and the consumption amount was about 40 billion yen. Among them, 1, 837 people bought 1 10,000 yen duty-free goods, of which 80% were international students from China and other countries; Another 69 people bought more than 654.38 billion yen of duty-free goods. One of them came from China and bought as many as 32,000 duty-free goods, amounting to 654.38+02 billion yen.

It is reported that the national tax agency found from the shopping records sent by duty-free shops that many people's purchase records are very strange. For example, there are two international students from China, and the total amount of duty-free goods purchased each time is between 490,000 yen and 500,000 yen. One of the 2 1 year-old male students bought150,000 yen duty-free goods within one month after he entered Japan last autumn. When he bought cosmetics, he paid 495,000 yen each time, * * * paid 10 times.

According to relevant sources, it is precisely because of the endless situation of the above-mentioned "evil use" tax exemption system, and the duty-free shops think that the procedures for confirming the entry time of international students are cumbersome, so the Japanese government decided to put an end to such "tax evasion" shopping from the root. After the revision of the tax law, only overseas tourists and diplomats can enjoy the duty-free shopping policy (the visa period does not exceed 90 days). As many as 280,000 (as of May last year) international students, technical students, enterprise trainees and other people with long-term visas no longer enjoy the duty-free shopping policy.