Choose your filing route
One-Stop Exception
For people who do not otherwise file a final income-tax return and donated to no more than five municipalities. Apply separately to every recipient municipality.
Final tax return
Use this if you file for any reason, donated to more than five municipalities, missed One-Stop, or prefer to claim through your return.
The routes should not be combined. A final tax return invalidates the One-Stop applications for that year, so the return must include all eligible donations again.
Records to keep
Save the donation receipt (寄附金受領証明書) issued by each local government. Since the 2021 return year, the National Tax Agency also permits an annual “certificate concerning the deduction for donations” issued by a designated portal operator to replace the individual receipts in qualifying cases.
Eligible certificate data may be available through the portal or My Number Portal integration and can be attached through e-Tax. The NTA requires its specified electronic data format; a normal PDF is not the same thing as the official electronic certificate.
If you use a final tax return
- Collect the receipts or eligible annual certificate.
- Enter the donations in the donation-deduction section of the NTA return-preparation service.
- Make sure the local-government donations are also reflected in the resident-tax section for designated prefectural and municipal donations.
- Attach or retain the required evidence and submit the return.
Use the National Tax Agency’s live instructions for the relevant filing year. The labels and screens can change, and the “resident tax” entries are important to the local-tax portion of the benefit.
When the benefit appears
With a final tax return, the income-tax portion is reflected through the income-tax filing and the resident-tax portion reduces the following year’s resident tax. With One-Stop, the income-tax-equivalent portion is handled through resident tax as well, so there is no separate income-tax refund.
Check the following year’s resident-tax determination notice (住民税決定通知書), usually issued around June. Look for a donation tax credit (寄附金税額控除) or the relevant tax-credit detail. Presentation differs by municipality and payroll format.
Common filing mistakes
- Assuming a portal checkout automatically completes One-Stop.
- Counting donations instead of distinct municipalities.
- Filing a tax return but omitting donations already sent to One-Stop.
- Discarding receipts before the credit is confirmed.
- Entering the donation deduction but missing the resident-tax entry.
- Expecting the whole benefit as an immediate cash refund.
Before filing, compare your total certificates with your payment history. Before donating, estimate your 2026 limit.