Changing Jobs Mid-Year: Who Does the Year-End Adjustment

This is a translation of the Japanese original. The Japanese version is authoritative; figures follow Japanese tax law.

If you changed jobs partway through the year, hand your former employer's withholding tax statement (源泉徴収票) to your new employer and the new employer will run the year-end tax adjustment (年末調整) over both jobs. You do not have to file a return yourself. But if that statement does not arrive before the year-end adjustment, your new employer cannot do it, and you file a final tax return (確定申告) instead. If you did not take another job within the year, you can claim a refund (還付申告) any time from 1 January of the following year for up to five years, and the income tax you overpaid comes back. This article sorts out, pattern by pattern, who settles your tax, what you have to submit and by when, using National Tax Agency materials. It also covers retirement allowances, a former job taxed under Column B (乙欄), and holding two jobs at once.

The short answer: who settles your tax, by job-change pattern

Your situation	Who settles it	What you do
You changed jobs within the year and are still employed in December	Your new employer runs the year-end adjustment	Give your former employer's withholding tax statement to the new employer
You changed jobs, but the former employer's statement misses the year-end adjustment	You file a final tax return	File between 16 February and 15 March with both statements
You left mid-year and took no other job that year	You claim a refund yourself	Any time from 1 January of the next year, for up to five years. Usually money comes back
You had not filed a Dependent Deduction Application at the former job (Column B, 乙欄)	The new employer cannot add the former job in	Year-end adjustment at the new employer, plus your own return for the former job
You reached the year end holding two jobs	The main employer runs the year-end adjustment; the second job is on you	File a return covering the secondary employment income
You received a retirement allowance	Settled by the withholding at the time of payment (if you filed the application)	Leave it out of the year-end adjustment and out of your return

Sources: National Tax Agency No.2674 "Year-end adjustment for someone who joined mid-year"[NTA], No.2668 "Pay covered by the year-end adjustment"[NTA], No.2030 "Refund claims"[NTA]

If you changed jobs within the year: the former employer's statement is the key

For someone who took up employment partway through the year, the National Tax Agency states that "where the person has received pay from another employer to which a Dependent Deduction (Change) Application for Employment Income Earners was submitted, the year-end adjustment must be carried out including that pay"[NTA No.2674]. Your new employer checks the former job's pay and withheld tax on the withholding tax statement and adds them in.

Get the withholding tax statement from your former employer. It must be issued to someone who has left within one month of the leaving date[NTA, guide to statutory records]. If it does not arrive, ask the former employer for it.
File the Dependent Deduction Application with your new employer. The deadline is the day before your first pay day there. This puts you in Column A (甲欄), the lower withholding rate.
Submit the former employer's statement together with your year-end adjustment paperwork. The back of the Dependent Deduction Application itself says to "attach the withholding tax statement issued by your former employer".

Joining in April does not cut your deductions to nine twelfths. The basic deduction, the social insurance premium deduction and the rest are allowed in full for the whole year. The social insurance premiums from the former job are also added in, from the "social insurance premiums" box on the statement.

When the statement is late, or the former employer will not issue one

The National Tax Agency is explicit: "where this cannot be confirmed, the year-end adjustment cannot be carried out, and the person settles the tax through a final tax return"[NTA No.2674]. If the former job's figures do not arrive by your employer's internal deadline, which is usually somewhere between November and early December, the new employer either adjusts only its own pay or skips the adjustment.

If it arrives after the year-end adjustment: some employers can still fit it into the recalculation up to the end of January. If not, you combine both jobs in a final tax return.
If the former employer will not issue one: submit a "Notification of non-issuance of a withholding tax statement" to the tax office, and the tax office will instruct the employer[NTA F5-4]. If the company has gone under, use your payslips instead and file the return.
The filing window: 16 February to 15 March of the following year. If you are due a refund, you can file from 1 January. For the 2026 tax year dates, see the filing period and the penalties for filing late.

If you did not take another job that year: a refund claim gets it back

Someone who left mid-year and did not work through to the year end is, as a rule, outside the year-end adjustment. It is done only in limited cases: death in service, a transfer abroad, leaving after receiving December pay, or part-time pay of 1.36 million yen or less for the year[NTA No.2665].

Monthly withholding is calculated on the assumption that you work all twelve months, so anyone whose income stopped partway through the year has almost certainly overpaid. Claim the refund any time from 1 January of the following year, for up to five years[NTA No.2030].

Worked example: 300,000 yen a month, left at the end of June, no work for the rest of the year (our own estimate)

Pay for January to June of 1.8 million yen, no bonus. Withholding of about 6,300 yen a month for 6 months means about 38,000 yen already taken
Employment income for the year of 1.8 million yen minus the 740,000 yen employment income deduction (2026 tax year) = 1.06 million yen. Take off the 1.04 million yen basic deduction and the social insurance premium deduction (about 270,000 yen) and taxable income is zero
The refund claim brings the whole 38,000 yen back. The National Pension and National Health Insurance premiums you paid yourself after leaving can be added to the deductions too

The National Pension and National Health Insurance premiums you paid after leaving, and life insurance premiums, all go on the return. The steps are set out in refund claims for people who left mid-year and stayed out of work.

If the former job was Column B, or you hold two jobs

Your new employer can only add in pay for which you had filed a Dependent Deduction Application with the former employer[NTA No.2668]. If you filed no application there and were withheld under Column B (乙欄), that pay sits outside the year-end adjustment and you file for it yourself. Column B carries a higher rate, so most people in this position get money back by filing.

If you reach the year end holding two jobs, the main employer, the one holding your Dependent Deduction Application, runs the year-end adjustment, and you combine the second job (secondary employment income) in a final tax return. Filing is compulsory once pay not covered by a year-end adjustment plus non-employment income exceeds 200,000 yen[NTA No.1900].

If you moved your Dependent Deduction Application from employer A to employer B during the year, the year-end adjustment covers all of the pay from A up to the change plus all of the pay from B (from the 2026 guide to the year-end adjustment).

A retirement allowance is separate: keep it out of both

A retirement allowance is taxed as retirement income, apart from your pay. If you filed the "Application concerning the receipt of retirement income" with the employer when you left, tax applies to half of what is left after the retirement income deduction (400,000 yen per year of service for the first 20 years, with a floor of 800,000 yen), and the withholding settles it[NTA No.1420]. It goes neither into the new employer's year-end adjustment nor into the 200,000 yen test for filing.

If you did not file that application and were withheld at 20.42%, filing a return brings the difference back. For the arithmetic, see tax on retirement allowances.

A 2026 catch: anyone adjusted before the end of November gains by filing a return

The 2026 tax reform raised the basic deduction to a maximum of 1.04 million yen and the floor of the employment income deduction to 740,000 yen. It takes effect on 1 December 2026 and applies to year-end adjustments carried out on or after that date[NTA Q&A, Q1-1 and Q1-3].

So anyone whose final pay came on or before 30 November 2026 and who was adjusted then, such as a part-timer who left in November and fell inside the year-end adjustment, was calculated on the old deductions. Filing a return applies the new ones, and tax may come back. This is worth checking even in a year when you did not change jobs. For the detail, see the 1.04 million yen basic deduction runs to the 2027 tax year.

Frequently asked questions

I do not want to give my former employer's withholding tax statement to my new employer.

Without it your new employer cannot run the year-end adjustment, and you file a final tax return yourself. If you would rather your new employer did not see what you used to earn, tell them you will file your own return and they will process their own pay only. Do still follow their instructions on handing in the year-end adjustment paperwork.

Can the National Health Insurance premiums I paid after leaving be deducted in my new employer's year-end adjustment?

Yes. Enter the National Pension and National Health Insurance premiums you paid yourself in the social insurance premium box of the insurance premium deduction form. The National Pension needs a certificate attached; the National Health Insurance does not.

Summary

If you changed jobs within the year and are still employed in December, submitting your previous employer's withholding slip lets your new employer do the year-end adjustment for both companies' income.
If the withholding slip isn't ready in time, file your own final tax return instead, reporting both companies' income between February 16 and March 15 of the following year.
Those who don't find a new job within the year can get overpaid income tax refunded by filing a refund claim anytime within five years starting January 1 of the following year.
Income taxed at the secondary (otsu) rate, or from holding two jobs, must be combined via a final tax return. A retirement allowance is included in neither the year-end adjustment nor the final tax return.
Those whose year-end adjustment was completed on or before November 30, Reiwa 8 (2026), may get money back by filing a final tax return that reflects the revised deductions.

Reference links (sources)

NTA No.2674, Year-end adjustment for someone who joined mid-year — adding in the former job, filing a return when it cannot be confirmed, deductions allowed in full
NTA No.2668, Pay covered by the year-end adjustment — only pay covered by a Dependent Deduction Application is added in
NTA No.2665, People covered by the year-end adjustment — the exceptions for those who leave mid-year
NTA No.2030, Refund claims / No.1900, Employees who must file a return / No.1420, Retirement income
NTA, Guide to preparing and filing statutory records — the deadline for issuing a statement to someone who has left
NTA, 2026 tax reform Q&A — effective 1 December, and adjustments made on or before 30 November

Note: the refund estimate applies the 2026 employment income deduction, basic deduction and withholding tax table ourselves. Actual amounts vary with dependants and insurance premiums.