Whether you need to file a tax return on offshore forex depends not on the amount you withdrew, but on your income: that year's profit minus necessary expenses. For a salaried employee who receives salary from one employer, an income tax return is generally required when income other than salary totals more than JPY 200,000 a year (National Tax Agency (NTA) Tax Answer No. 1900).
This article sets out the JPY 200,000 and basic deduction thresholds that cause the most confusion, then explains in order the documents you need, how to export your trade history from MT4/MT5, how to think about deductible expenses, and the steps from preparing the return to paying the tax. Tax rates and the taxation system itself are covered in a separate article. For your own situation, confirm with your tax office or a tax accountant.
When is a tax return required on offshore forex? Thresholds for employees, unemployed people and sole proprietors
Whether you must file depends on how you work, and the yardstick changes accordingly. What is common is that you look at that year's offshore forex income (the total of profit and loss realised by closing positions, minus necessary expenses), not the amount withdrawn from the account or the account balance. Floating gains do not become income until the position is closed.
| Category | Guideline for when a return is required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Salaried employee with salary from one employer (year-end adjustment done) | Total income other than employment and retirement income exceeds JPY 200,000 a year | NTA Tax Answer No. 1900. With salary from two or more employers, judge including salary not covered by year-end adjustment |
| Part-time and other workers with salary | Same as above (judgment varies with how salary is received) | If salary is paid by several payers, check the NTA guidance or your tax office |
| People without salary (unemployed, full-time homemakers, sole proprietors, pensioners and so on) | Total income exceeds income deductions such as the basic deduction, so that tax is payable | Judged together with income other than offshore forex. Deduction amounts differ by person |
| People with an offshore forex loss for the year | Generally no obligation to file | Losses on miscellaneous income cannot be offset against other income or carried forward |
※ Income is the revenue (realised profit) minus necessary expenses. JPY 200,000 is an income tax threshold; resident tax declarations are treated separately.
The JPY 200,000 threshold applies to the total of income other than employment and retirement income. Even if realised offshore forex profit exceeds JPY 200,000, when necessary expenses can be deducted and the income is JPY 200,000 or less, an income tax return may not be required. However, if you have side jobs or other miscellaneous income (flea-market profits, crypto assets and so on), these are added together when judging.
JPY 200,000 or less does not always mean you can do nothing
The NTA Tax Answer covers only whether an income tax return is required. Even when no income tax return is needed, some municipalities require a resident tax declaration, so check your local municipality's guidance. Also, if you file a return anyway to claim a refund, for example for medical expense deduction, you must include your offshore forex income.
Offshore forex tax: aggregate taxation, miscellaneous income and rates explained →
What is 480,000 yen? The basic deduction and who must file
If you have no salary, you may have heard the figure of JPY 480,000. This is the amount of the basic deduction. For tax year 2024 (Reiwa 6) and earlier, the basic deduction was JPY 480,000 for people with total income of JPY 24 million or less (NTA Tax Answer No. 1199). It was therefore explained that if offshore forex income was within this amount, there was no taxable income and no need to file.
The basic deduction has, however, been revised in tax reform. NTA Tax Answer No. 1199 (verified on 10 October 2026) shows that for people with total income of JPY 1.32 million or less, the basic deduction is JPY 950,000 for tax year 2025 and JPY 1.04 million for tax year 2026 (the same for tax year 2027). The amounts for brackets above JPY 1.32 million differ by tax year, so check the table on the official page. From tax year 2028, the bracket of JPY 1.32 million or less is shown as JPY 990,000.
| Tax year | People with total income of JPY 1.32 million or less | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tax year 2024 and earlier | JPY 480,000 (total income of JPY 24 million or less) | The previous standard. The JPY 480,000 figure comes from here |
| Tax year 2025 | JPY 950,000 | Applies to the return filed in spring 2026 for 2025 income |
| Tax years 2026 and 2027 | JPY 1.04 million | The revised provision for tax year 2026 takes effect on 1 December 2026 (see the note on the official page) |
| Tax year 2028 onward | JPY 990,000 | According to the table in NTA Tax Answer No. 1199 |
※ The amounts for brackets above JPY 1.32 million are not shown in this article because the correspondence with tax years is hard to read from the official page's table. Check NTA Tax Answer No. 1199.
Deductions other than the basic deduction, such as social insurance premium deduction, life insurance premium deduction and dependant deduction, are also used in calculating tax. Conversely, salaried employees add offshore forex income to employment income after the basic deduction and others have been applied in the year-end adjustment, so it cannot simply be said that a return is unnecessary because you are within the basic deduction. As a rule, salaried employees should use the JPY 200,000 criterion in the previous section, and people without salary should think in terms of their total income deductions.
The basic deduction is a system that changes in steps according to total income, and the higher your income, the smaller the deduction. If you do not know which bracket you fall in, entering the amounts on the NTA's online tax return preparation site calculates it automatically.
Documents and preparation needed for an offshore forex tax return
Under NTA Tax Answer No. 1521, offshore forex that is not a transaction with a Japan-registered operator (exchange-traded derivatives or over-the-counter derivatives) is generally considered miscellaneous income subject to aggregate taxation rather than separate self-assessment taxation (confirm individual transactions with your tax office or a tax accountant). There is also no withholding or simplified filing system like a specified account. You therefore have to total your profit and loss yourself and keep the records that support it; that is the starting point for the return.
| Document or data | Where to get it | When it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Trade history (annual realised profit and loss) | MT4/MT5 account history, the broker's annual trading report (where provided) | The basis for totalling annual realised profit and loss. Total including swaps and commissions |
| Deposit and withdrawal records | The broker's client area history, bank and e-wallet statements | To separate them from profit and loss. Deposits and withdrawals themselves are not income |
| Receipts and invoices for expenses | Records of books, seminars, tools, communications costs and so on | The basis for deducting necessary expenses |
| My Number Card, or number verification documents plus identity documents | Documents you already hold | For entering on the return and for e-Tax submission |
| Withholding slip and deduction certificates | Your employer, insurers, local governments and so on | When a salaried employee enters employment income and deductions on the return |
※ Whether an annual trading report is provided, its format and the period it covers differ by broker. To be safe in case none is provided, save your history yourself from MT4/MT5.
- Organise realised profit and loss for the tax year (1 January to 31 December) by account and by account currency
- If you use several brokers or accounts, combine them all (a loss-making account is netted against another broker's profit when calculating income)
- Record deposits, withdrawals, bonuses and transfers between accounts separately from profit and loss
- For foreign-currency accounts (such as USD accounts), confirm the yen conversion method with your tax office or a tax accountant
- Keep trade history and expense records in case you are asked to produce them later
This site has not been able to directly confirm, on any published NTA page, how to apply exchange rates when reporting profit and loss on a USD or other foreign-currency account in yen (trade-date rates, or a simplified conversion of the annual total). Calculating by the wrong method can lead to under-reporting, so confirm in advance with your local tax office or a tax accountant and keep a record of the conversion method you adopt.
How to export MT4/MT5 trade history (account history, set period, save report)
If there is no annual trading report, or it lacks items, you can save a report from the MT4/MT5 account history. Screen names differ somewhat by terminal and version, but the general steps are as follows. See also the beginner's guide for the basics of the platform.
- 01Open Account History in the terminal
In MT4, open the Account History tab of the Terminal (Ctrl+T); in MT5, open the History tab of the Toolbox (names vary by version) to show the list of closed trades.
- 02Set the period
Right-click on the list and choose from options such as All History, Last 3 Months or Custom Period. To target a tax year, set the custom period to 1 January to 31 December.
- 03Save the report
Right-click again and choose Save as Report (Report in MT5), then save in HTML or a spreadsheet-compatible format, whichever is offered. Keeping a separate folder for each year makes the files easier to find later.
- 04Check profit and loss, swaps and commissions
In the saved report, check the columns for realised profit and loss, swap (interest adjustment) and commission. If your account number changed during the year or you hold several accounts, save a report for each account using the same steps.
- 05Compile a summary sheet
Import the data into spreadsheet software and total close date, currency pair, profit and loss, swap and commission. Record deposits, withdrawals and bonuses on a separate sheet.
MT4/MT5 reports are shown in the account currency (yen, USD and so on). Some brokers also let you download trade history or annual reports in the client area, so check each broker's help centre and cross-check against the MT4/MT5 history to catch totalling errors more easily.
MT4 and MT5 basics: beginner's guide →
A broker's bonus treatment and records by deposit method are items that easily get mixed up with profit and loss when totalling. This site has not been able to confirm the tax treatment of bonuses from official information. If you are unsure whether something counts as income, confirm with your tax office or a tax accountant.
What can and cannot be claimed as an offshore forex expense
Offshore forex income is generally miscellaneous income under aggregate taxation (NTA Tax Answer No. 1521), and miscellaneous income is calculated by deducting necessary expenses from total revenue (NTA Tax Answer No. 1500). The NTA Tax Answers do not give individual criteria for which spending counts as an expense. In practice, you organise your records with receipts, using as the test whether the spending was directly necessary to earn the offshore forex revenue.
| Item | Examples easily treated as expenses | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Costs directly incurred in trading | Trading commissions, remittance fees on deposits and withdrawals (actual costs paid to brokers and banks) | Record swaps within profit and loss, separately from expenses. Separate commissions and remittance fees in amounts you can confirm from statements |
| Information-gathering costs | Specialist forex books, paid information and tools for trade analysis | Keep receipts that make clear they are separate from private use |
| Communications and PC-related costs | The connection used for trading, VPS (virtual private server) fees | Where shared with private use, there is a view that they should be apportioned by the share used for the business |
| Items likely not to qualify as expenses | Living costs, the full rent, entertainment, the deposit amount itself | Deposit does not equal expense. The principal you deposited is not an expense |
※ Depending on the scale of revenue, other calculation methods such as the cash-basis special provision are available. For treatment where revenue from miscellaneous income from business two years earlier was JPY 3 million or less, check NTA Tax Answer No. 1500.
Even if deducting expenses leaves negative income, a miscellaneous income loss cannot be offset against other income such as employment income. Expenses matter only to the extent they can be deducted from that year's offshore forex revenue. The test of whether income is JPY 200,000 or less is likewise made on income after deducting necessary expenses.
Can offshore forex losses be carried forward? Why they cannot be offset →
How to file an offshore forex tax return: from preparing the return to payment
The income tax return period is, as a rule, 16 February to 15 March of the following year (NTA Tax Answer No. 2020). For tax year 2026 (income from January to December 2026), the guideline is 16 February to 15 March 2027. You submit to the tax office with jurisdiction, and you can prepare and submit the return from home using the NTA's online tax return preparation site.
- 01Finalise annual profit and loss and expenses
Using the steps in the previous sections, total annual realised profit and loss (including swaps and commissions) and expenses, and work out income (revenue minus expenses).
- 02Prepare the return on the NTA's online tax return preparation site
On the NTA site, salaried employees enter the contents of their withholding slip. Enter offshore forex income under miscellaneous income, with revenue and necessary expenses (check the NTA guidance or your tax office for the business or other classification).
- 03Enter deductions
Enter any applicable income deductions, such as social insurance premium deduction and medical expense deduction. The basic deduction is applied automatically. Depending on what you enter, the tax payable or refund is displayed.
- 04Submit the return
Submit by e-Tax, by printing and mailing it, or by taking it to the tax office. Check the NTA guidance for conditions for each method, such as use of a My Number Card.
- 05Pay by the deadline
The payment deadline is, as a rule, 15 March. You can choose from account transfer, Direct Payment, internet banking, credit card payment, smartphone app payment, convenience store payment (QR code) and cash payment (payment slip).
- 06Check the resident tax declaration
The NTA Tax Answers cover income tax and do not describe whether a resident tax declaration is required or how to make one. Check with your local municipality how the contents of your tax return are reflected in resident tax, and whether a separate declaration is needed if you do not file a tax return.
| Taxable income | Rate | Deduction |
|---|---|---|
| Under JPY 1.95 million | 5% | JPY 0 |
| JPY 1.95 million to under JPY 3.3 million | 10% | JPY 97,500 |
| JPY 3.3 million to under JPY 6.95 million | 20% | JPY 427,500 |
| JPY 6.95 million to under JPY 9 million | 23% | JPY 636,000 |
| JPY 9 million to under JPY 18 million | 33% | JPY 1,536,000 |
| JPY 18 million to under JPY 40 million | 40% | JPY 2,796,000 |
| JPY 40 million or more | 45% | JPY 4,796,000 |
※ Tax is calculated as taxable income x rate - deduction. Special reconstruction income tax (as a rule 2.1% of the base income tax amount for a tax return) and resident tax are charged in addition. The special reconstruction income tax rate is being revised from tax year 2027, so check NTA Tax Answer No. 2260.
If a return is required but you do not file by the deadline, delinquent tax and penalty taxes may be charged later. If you are unsure, organise your records and consult your tax office or a tax accountant early. What you need to do varies with individual circumstances.
Frequently asked questions
Q. When is a tax return required on offshore forex?
A. For a salaried employee who receives salary from one employer and has had a year-end adjustment, an income tax return is generally required when income other than employment and retirement income exceeds JPY 200,000 a year (NTA Tax Answer No. 1900). The criterion is income, meaning realised profit minus expenses, not the amount withdrawn. People without salary judge by whether total income exceeds income deductions so that tax is payable.
Q. What is the difference between JPY 200,000 and JPY 480,000 for an offshore forex tax return?
A. JPY 200,000 is the criterion a salaried employee uses to decide whether a return is required for income other than salary. JPY 480,000 was the basic deduction up to tax year 2024 (Reiwa 6) for total income of JPY 24 million or less, and has been used by people without salary to think about whether any taxable income arises. It has been revised to JPY 950,000 for tax year 2025 and JPY 1.04 million for tax year 2026 (where total income is JPY 1.32 million or less), so check the official page.
Q. If offshore forex income is JPY 200,000 or less, is a resident tax declaration unnecessary?
A. Even when an income tax return is not required, a resident tax declaration may be needed. The NTA Tax Answers cover income tax only, so how resident tax is handled must be confirmed in your municipality's guidance. Check at your local municipality's office or website.
Q. What should I bring for an offshore forex tax return?
A. The basics are your annual trade history (an MT4/MT5 report or the broker's annual trading report), deposit and withdrawal records, receipts for expenses, your My Number and identity documents, and, for employees, your withholding slip. You can prepare the return from home with e-Tax or the NTA's online tax return preparation site.
Q. What happens if I do not file a tax return on offshore forex?
A. If you have income that requires a return but do not file by the deadline, delinquent tax and penalty taxes may be charged later. If you are unsure whether you need to file, confirm with your tax office or a tax accountant.
Q. Do I need to file a tax return in a year when offshore forex made a loss?
A. Offshore forex income is miscellaneous income, and a loss cannot be offset against other income such as employment income or carried forward to the next year. A loss alone therefore generally creates no obligation to file. However, if you file a return for another reason, such as medical expense deduction, the offshore forex loss is also subject to being entered.
Sources and conditions
- NTA Tax Answer No. 1900: Salaried employees who must file a tax return (verified on 10 October 2026) →
- NTA Tax Answer No. 1199: Basic deduction (verified on 10 October 2026) →
- NTA Tax Answer No. 1500: Miscellaneous income (verified on 10 October 2026) →
- NTA Tax Answer No. 1521: Taxation of foreign exchange margin trading (FX) (verified on 10 October 2026) →
- NTA Tax Answer No. 2020: Tax returns (verified on 10 October 2026) →
- NTA Tax Answer No. 2260: Income tax rates (verified on 10 October 2026) →
- MT4 and MT5 basics (beginner's guide) →
- Offshore forex tax (column) →
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