This is a translation of the Japanese original. The Japanese version is authoritative; figures follow Japanese tax law.
An employee who sent in the one-stop exception applications for furusato nozei (hometown tax donation), and then filed a tax return because medical costs happened to be high that year — this is the classic accident in which the furusato nozei deduction disappears entirely. The moment you file a tax return, the one-stop exception is void for every municipality you donated to, and unless you write the furusato nozei donation deduction into the return yourself, not a single yen is deducted from your residence tax. You get 30,000 yen back from the medical expense deduction and lose 50,000 yen of donations (48,000 yen). Fortunately there is a fix for whenever you notice, and within five years the money comes back. This article sets out the mechanism, how to fill in the return correctly, the recovery steps in order of timing, and how to check the residence tax decision notice in June, using National Tax Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications materials.
The short answer: if you file a tax return, declare everything, one-stop donations included
| Your situation | One-stop exception | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| An employee who files no tax return that year | Valid (five municipalities or fewer, applied for by 10 January of the following year) | Nothing. Deducted from your residence tax the following June |
| You file a tax return for a medical expense deduction, the first year of the mortgage deduction, a side job and so on | Void for every municipality | Enter all your donations in the "donation deduction" and the "items concerning residence tax" on the second page of the return |
| You filed a tax return but left your furusato nozei out | Still void | A corrected return up to 15 March; past that, a request for correction (within five years) |
| You donated to six or more municipalities | Unavailable from the start | Claim the donation deduction on a tax return |
Sources: National Tax Agency, Tax Answer No.1155 "Furusato nozei (donation deduction)"[NTA], Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, "For those who filed a furusato nozei one-stop exception application"[Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau], Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, "How furusato nozei works: about tax deductions"[MIC]
The National Tax Agency writes that "for those who file a tax return, the furusato nozei one-stop exception application becomes void", and asks you to calculate the donation deduction including the donations the exception covered. There is no middle path in which you file only the medical expense deduction and leave your furusato nozei on the one-stop track.
Why "every" donation goes void
The one-stop exception is a scheme for salaried people who do not file a tax return: the municipality you donated to notifies the municipality where you live, which takes the amount off your residence tax. File a tax return and the premise of "someone who does not file" collapses, so it is the scheme itself, not this or that donation, that stops applying. There is no option to put one municipality on the return and leave the rest on one-stop.
Instead, if you claim the donation deduction on the return, the total deduction is the same. Income tax relief (donations less 2,000 yen, as an income deduction) plus residence tax relief (the basic portion and the special portion) together return everything but the 2,000 yen you bear yourself. Because one-stop takes the income tax portion out of residence tax as well, switching to a tax return only changes the shape into "an income tax refund plus a residence tax deduction".
The tax saved by a medical expense deduction is "the deduction amount x your tax rate", while the furusato nozei deduction is the whole of "donations less 2,000 yen". For the same sum, the furusato nozei deduction weighs far more, so what you lose by leaving it out easily outweighs what the medical expense deduction gains. For the arithmetic, see how to calculate the medical expense deduction.
How to fill in the return: two boxes on the second page
- Second page, "Items concerning the donation deduction" — the name of the recipient (with several, "XX City and others" is fine) and the total donated. Include the municipalities covered by your one-stop applications.
- Second page, "Items concerning residence tax", the box for "donations to prefectures and municipalities (eligible for the special deduction)" — the total of your furusato nozei. Leave this out and the special residence tax portion is not deducted. The National Tax Agency singles out this box as one you must complete.
- First page, "Donation deduction" — donations less 2,000 yen (capped at 40% of total income). The online preparation corner works it out for you.
- Certificates — the donation receipt from each municipality, or the "certificate concerning the donation deduction" issued by a portal site (which puts everything on one sheet). Load the portal's certificate data into the preparation corner and the recipients are entered automatically.
In the tax return preparation corner, go to the donation deduction entry and set the type of recipient to "prefectures and municipalities (furusato nozei)": all three places above are then filled in automatically. Box 2 is the one most often missed when preparing a return by hand, so we recommend e-Tax.
Recovery, by when you notice
| When you notice | Where you stand | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Before you file the return | Nothing has gone wrong yet | Put all your furusato nozei on the return (above). Having sent in one-stop applications is no problem |
| After filing, up to 15 March | You have filed a return with the donations missing | A corrected return. File again with the correct contents: within the deadline, the later filing is the valid one. Redo it in the preparation corner and resend |
| 16 March to May | The deadline has passed. Residence tax is not settled yet | A request for correction (income tax) to the tax office. Your income tax refund grows, and the contents pass to your municipality and reach residence tax. Also tell the municipality you have filed one |
| June, on seeing the residence tax decision notice | Residence tax has already been set with no deduction | A request for correction (income tax, within five years of the statutory filing deadline). Your municipality reduces the residence tax on the outcome and refunds the overpayment or credits it against later months |
| A year some way back | An earlier return left the donations out | A request for correction for each year (within five years of that year's statutory filing deadline). Anything older does not come back |
The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau states that where the entry was omitted "it is also possible to deal with it by a subsequent request for correction", and asks you to consult the municipality where you live about the residence tax side[Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau]. The request for correction can be prepared in the preparation corner; attach your donation receipts. For the procedure as a whole, see amended returns and requests for correction.
Check the residence tax decision notice in June
Whether the furusato nozei deduction took effect can be checked on the residence tax decision notice that reaches you through your employer (or at home) every May or June. The place to look is the "tax credit" box (municipal tax and prefectural tax separately), where the donation tax credit (basic portion plus special portion) appears. If the municipal and prefectural figures together come to something close to your donations less 2,000 yen, the deduction has gone through (for anyone who filed an income tax return, the residence tax side is smaller by whatever came back as an income tax refund).
If the tax credit box holds only the few thousand yen of the adjustment credit and nothing matching your donations, the deduction has been lost. The cause is one of these: the one-stop application missed the deadline (10 January of the following year), a change of address was never notified, or the donations were left off a tax return. How to read the notice is set out in how to read the residence tax decision notice.
How to keep the accident from happening
- If there is any chance at all that you will file a tax return, do not send in one-stop applications in the first place. A year with heavy medical costs, the first year of the mortgage deduction, a year with side-job income, a year in which a deduction was left out of the year-end adjustment — every one of these means a tax return. Whether or not you sent in one-stop applications, filing a return leads to the same outcome.
- Do not forget that you sent them in. The accident starts with the thought, when the return comes round the following year, that "I did one-stop, so there is nothing to write". Always look back over your donation history on the portal site while preparing the return.
- The October 2026 reform does not change this mechanism. The standards for thank-you gifts and the review of the amount available for donation projects do change, but the relationship between one-stop and tax returns stays as it is. For what the reform contains, see the October 2026 furusato nozei reform.
Frequently asked questions
If I file a tax return after sending in one-stop applications, won't the donations the exception covered be deducted twice?
They will not. The moment you file a tax return the one-stop exception goes void, and municipalities do not apply the one-stop deduction. Only the donations written on the return are deducted, so leaving them out takes the deduction to zero, while double counting cannot happen.
If I handle the medical expense deduction through a residence tax filing alone, does one-stop survive?
It does not. Filing a residence tax return with your municipality also voids the one-stop exception. The residence tax return has a box for the donation tax credit, so writing your furusato nozei there does secure the residence tax deduction, but the income tax side can only be claimed on a tax return, so putting everything on a tax return is normally better.
Summary
- Filing a tax return invalidates the One-Stop Special Exception for every organization you donated to under furusato nozei.
- On Form B, page 2, list all donations — including the ones you filed under One-Stop — under "Donation deduction" and "Resident tax items."
- If you forget, file an amended return by March 15; after that, file a request for reassessment. You can still claim it within 5 years of the statutory filing deadline.
- Check the June resident tax notice's "tax credit amount" box to confirm the deduction is close to (donation amount minus ¥2,000).
- In a year you might end up filing a tax return, don't use the One-Stop exception from the start.
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This article is based on the materials below. Because tax offices and municipalities handle requests for correction and residence tax reductions in their own ways, please also check at the counter.
Note: this article is general information. The figures in the examples are approximate and move with your income and deductions. For an individual decision, check with your tax office or municipality.