Michael Cash wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 20:09:12 +1000, "thegoons" <thegoons@bigpond.com>
> brought down from the Mount tablets inscribed:
> 
> 
>>"necoandjeff" <spam@schrepfer.com> wrote in message
>>news:F%egd.14870$6q2.9893@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...
>>
>>
>>>What sorts of benefits or perks do you suppose there are in Japan?
>>
>>Everybody
>>
>>>gets a house or something?
>>
>>Sorry I worded that differently. Is the rate of taxation and similar type
>>things the same as if you are Japanese?
> 
> 
> For the first year, your employer will most likely hold out tax at the
> confiscatory gaigin rate (20%). Mine did. Fortunately, at the end of
> the year I had been back in Japan for over a year, so they figured my
> tax obligation at the normal rate and I got a humongous refund. Other
> guys were getting envelopes containing three or four thousand yen, and
> I got 394,000 in mine.
> 
> It was a hell of a struggle to make my coworkers understand that my
> getting so much refunded was a direct result of having had far far too
> much withheld each month. That was strictly a one-time thing, though. 

Shit. What percentage is your income tax rate now? 20% would be a step 
down for me.

- Kevin