A nationally certified professional specializing in tax matters, providing services such as preparing and filing tax returns, tax consultation, representing clients during tax audits, and bookkeeping. Beyond supporting tax affairs for sole proprietors and small businesses, they also offer tax-saving strategies and business advice. Under the Tax Accountant Act, non-certified individuals are prohibited from performing tax representation.
When to Hire a Tax Accountant and Fee Guidelines
Cases where you should consider hiring a tax accountant include: business income exceeding 5 million yen annually, incorporating a business, having real estate income, inheritance or gift tax situations, and receiving notice of a tax audit. Even salaried employees may benefit from consulting a tax accountant when side business scale grows or when combining multiple deductions makes filing complex.
Fee guidelines are approximately 50,000-150,000 yen for individual final tax return preparation, and 20,000-50,000 yen monthly for corporate advisory contracts (with separate year-end settlement fees of 100,000-300,000 yen). Costs vary significantly depending on whether bookkeeping services are included. The "self-accounting" approach - where you enter data into accounting software yourself and have the tax accountant only review and file - can reduce costs. Many tax accountant offices offer free initial consultations, so it is wise to start with a consultation to assess the cost-effectiveness.
How to Choose and Work with a Good Tax Accountant
The most important factor in choosing a tax accountant is whether they are well-versed in your industry or situation. Tax accountants specializing in IT/freelance, real estate, or inheritance vary by firm. Using tax accountant matching services (Tax Accountant Dot Com, Meetsmore, etc.) allows you to efficiently find one matching your criteria. During the initial meeting, check their response speed, clarity of explanations, and compatibility with cloud accounting software.
The most important aspect of working with a tax accountant is regular information sharing. Rather than only contacting them once a year during tax filing season, consulting before major transactions or capital investments allows optimal tax-saving measures to be implemented in advance. Making efforts to improve the tax accountant's work efficiency - such as organizing receipts and invoices before handing them over, and consolidating questions before reaching out - ultimately prevents advisory fee increases and leads to higher quality advice.
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