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2026-09-26

How to read the fixed asset tax statement of details ― why the valuation and the taxable base differ, and land that does not appear on the statement

The fixed asset tax notice that arrives every spring comes with a \"statement of tax details\" listing each parcel of land and each building. Why the price (valuation) and the taxable base differ, what the columns for residential land, the previous year's taxable base and reductions mean, and how the tax is calculated. And the trap in inheritance: some land, such as a tax-exempt private road, does not appear on the statement. This article uses the figures of a woman who brought in her mother's statement.

About this translation ― This page is an English translation of an article originally written in Japanese by KuraLab's operator, a licensed real-estate transaction specialist (宅地建物取引士) and administrative scrivener (行政書士) in Japan. The Japanese original is the authoritative text; where the two differ, the Japanese version prevails. The article explains Japanese law and procedure in general terms as of the date shown. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice for your situation ― please confirm with a licensed professional in Japan. Japanese terms are kept in parentheses so you can search for them. Read the Japanese original

"My mother's house is this one plot of land and one building." The woman in her forties spread out the fixed asset tax notice that had arrived addressed to her late mother. She wanted to do the inheritance registration herself, and had come to count up the property before getting the certificates of registered matters. The statement of tax details (課税明細書) showed one parcel of land and one building. I asked about the road in front of the house. "It's a narrow dead-end lane; the four houses at the end use it." When she got the name-based property list (名寄帳) at the city office that same day, a piece of land that was not on the statement turned up: a quarter share of the 42-square-metre lane in front of the house.

Fixed asset tax is a tax that the municipality (in Tokyo's 23 wards, the Metropolitan Government) charges on the owner as of 1 January each year. The tax notice arrives around April to June, with a statement of tax details listing each parcel of land and each building. The Local Tax Act requires municipalities to give taxpayers the statement of tax details. The format differs from one municipality to another, but the items shown are almost the same.

The land section lists the location and lot number, land category (地目), area (地積), price and taxable base. Category and area often come in two versions, "registered" and "actual" (現況), and the tax is calculated on the actual one. Discrepancies such as registered as a field but actually residential land are not unusual, as described in the article on land categories. The price is what is generally called the fixed asset tax valuation. It is the same figure as on the certificate described in the article on the fixed asset tax valuation certificate, and the registration and licence tax for inheritance registration is also calculated from this price.

The price and the taxable base differ because of the residential land special rule. For land with a house on it, the part up to 200 square metres per dwelling (small-scale residential land) has a taxable base for fixed asset tax of one sixth of the price, and the part above that (general residential land) one third. For city planning tax, they are one third and two thirds respectively. The statement has columns for the areas of small-scale and general residential land, and if there are figures in them, the special rule is applied. What happens if you demolish the house is described in the article on the residential land special rule.

How the figures on the statement flow, from price to tax (this article's land of 165 square metres). Fixed asset tax: price (valuation) 19,800,000 yen × 1/6 under the residential land special rule = taxable base 3,300,000 yen; × 1.4% = 46,200 yen. City planning tax: price 19,800,000 yen × 1/3 = taxable base 6,600,000 yen; × 0.3% = 19,800 yen. This is small-scale residential land up to 200 square metres. For the building, the price is the taxable base as it is. The standard rate of fixed asset tax is 1.4%, and city planning tax is capped at 0.3% and varies by municipality (as of September 2026).

The "previous year's taxable base" column is for spotting land whose tax rises a little every year. In areas where land prices have risen, some land has a taxable base that has not yet reached its proper level, and in that case it rises in stages every year, up to the previous year's taxable base plus a fixed amount (the burden adjustment measure, 負担調整措置). If this year's and last year's taxable bases differ, assume the land is partway through this process. The price is set at the revaluation every three years, and the fiscal 2024 price is in principle held through fiscal 2026. The next revaluation is in fiscal 2027.

The building section lists the building number, type (dwelling and so on), structure (wooden and so on), floor area, year built, price and taxable base. The residential land special rule applies only to land, so for the building the price is the taxable base as it is. New homes, under certain conditions, have a reduction halving the tax on the part up to 120 square metres for three fiscal years (five fiscal years for fire-resistant or quasi-fire-resistant homes of three or more storeys and so on), shown in the "reduction in tax" column of the statement. This is why, in the year this period ends, the tax on the building seems to have nearly doubled.

The tax is calculated by multiplying the taxable base by the tax rate. The standard rate of fixed asset tax is 1.4%, and city planning tax is capped at 0.3%, varying by municipality. If the total taxable base of land a person owns within the same municipality is under 300,000 yen, or of buildings under 200,000 yen, no fixed asset tax is charged (the exemption threshold).

Payment is generally split into four instalments a year, on dates set by the municipality, such as April, July, December and February of the following year. A year's tax is charged on the owner on 1 January, so when a house is sold during the year it is customary to settle pro rata by day in the sale contract, but the person who pays the municipality is the owner on 1 January. In the year of an inheritance, the notice addressed to the deceased arrives as it is, and the heirs pay in their place. For a home whose inheritance registration has not yet been done, the municipality may send a request for a declaration from "the person who actually owns it," and many municipalities set a deadline for this by by-law.

From here on are the points to be careful about in inheritance. The statement of tax details shows only the land and buildings within that municipality on which fixed asset tax is charged. Land that is tax-exempt as a public road, such as the private lane in front of a house, may not appear on the statement. Small plots below the exemption threshold, and land in other municipalities, do not appear either. If you count the property from the statement alone, land that should be registered gets missed. The municipality's "name-based property list" is a list of the real estate the person owns within that municipality, and many municipalities include even tax-exempt land, so in an inheritance, get this instead. In February 2026, the "certification of real estate owned" system (所有不動産記録証明制度) also began, which lists real estate registered in the person's name from the registers of Legal Affairs Bureaus nationwide.

One more thing: for co-owned land or buildings, the tax notice is sent to one representative. If the mother co-owned the house with the father, the statement may have been sent in the father's name and not appear on the notice addressed to the mother. Shares in private roads are easily missed because, on top of being tax-exempt, this co-ownership mechanism also comes into play.

Let us read the statement for the woman's mother's house. The land was 165 square metres, all small-scale residential land. The price was 19,800,000 yen (120,000 yen per square metre); the taxable base for fixed asset tax was one sixth of that, 3,300,000 yen, and for city planning tax one third, 6,600,000 yen. The previous year's taxable base was the same, so it was not partway through burden adjustment. The building was a two-storey wooden house built in 2004, priced at 5,400,000 yen. The reduction for new homes had long since ended.

The tax: fixed asset tax on the land, 3,300,000 yen × 1.4% = 46,200 yen; city planning tax, 6,600,000 yen × 0.3% = 19,800 yen. Fixed asset tax on the building, 5,400,000 yen × 1.4% = 75,600 yen; city planning tax, 5,400,000 yen × 0.3% = 16,200 yen. A total of 157,800 yen, matching the annual tax on the notice. If you follow the figures one at a time, you can usually reproduce the amount on the notice from the statement. If it does not match, there is a route for checking the valuation through the procedure described in the article on inspection of the tax register.

The mother's house: the statement of tax details and the annual tax worked out from it (this article's example). Land (fixed asset tax): price 19,800,000 yen; taxable base 3,300,000 yen (one sixth); tax 46,200 yen. Land (city planning tax): price 19,800,000 yen; taxable base 6,600,000 yen (one third); tax 19,800 yen. Building (fixed asset tax): price 5,400,000 yen; taxable base 5,400,000 yen; tax 75,600 yen. Building (city planning tax): price 5,400,000 yen; taxable base 5,400,000 yen; tax 16,200 yen. A quarter share of the private road: not on the statement; tax-exempt; 0 yen. Total: 157,800 yen.

The private road that appeared on the name-based property list had the land category public road (公衆用道路), and the taxable base column said tax-exempt. In the inheritance registration, this quarter share is registered together with the house and land. Since a tax-exempt private road has no price on the statement, the usual practice for calculating the registration and licence tax is to use a valuation based on the price of nearby residential land. Check with the Legal Affairs Bureau you are applying to which price to use. The woman drafted an application including the share of the private road, and then booked a registration consultation at the Legal Affairs Bureau.

When copying figures from the statement onto the inheritance registration application, the one most easily mixed up is the area. If the statement shows both "registered area" and "actual area," what you write on the application is the registered area, matching the certificate of registered matters character for character. I once saw someone write the statement's actual area of 168 square metres straight onto the application and be asked by the Legal Affairs Bureau for a correction (補正, rewriting). The registered area was 165.28 square metres. Conversely, what you use to calculate the registration and licence tax is the "price" on the statement or the valuation certificate. In this house, 19,800,000 yen for the land and 5,400,000 yen for the building, 25,200,000 yen in total, and 0.4% of that is 100,800 yen (the share of the private road is calculated separately). It is usual to submit to the Legal Affairs Bureau with the fixed asset tax valuation certificate attached.

There are easily missed signals in the building section too. In another consultation, the floor area on the statement for the father's house was 112.62 square metres, while the floor area on the certificate of registered matters was 96.06 square metres. The difference of 16.56 square metres was a Japanese-style room added in 1999. Municipalities inspect buildings on site and tax them, so the statement shows the current figure including any extension, while the register remains as it was when built. Sometimes the building on the statement is split over two lines, one of which has no building number. That is because unregistered buildings are entered in the municipality's "supplementary building tax register" (家屋補充課税台帳) and taxed. How to find such differences is described in the article on building drawings and floor plans.

The figures to copy from the statement of tax details and the certificate of registered matters onto the inheritance registration application. From the statement, copy the price (valuation), used to calculate the registration and licence tax. From the certificate of registered matters, copy the lot number, area, building number and floor area. Do not copy the actual area from the statement onto the application. If the floor area on the statement is larger than on the register, suspect an unregistered extension. This house: land 19,800,000 yen + building 5,400,000 yen = 25,200,000 yen × 0.4% = 100,800 yen. The registration and licence tax for inheritance registration is 0.4% of the valuation (rounded down to the nearest 1,000 yen), with amounts under 100 yen rounded down (as of October 2026).

Either kind of discrepancy is little trouble if you notice it before the inheritance registration. For a floor area difference, if you ask a land and house investigator (土地家屋調査士) to register a change to the heading section and then do the inheritance registration, the documents to hand to a buyer when you sell will be complete in one go. When you receive the statement, put it side by side with the certificate of registered matters and compare three things: area, floor area and building number. Those five minutes prevent later corrections and delays in putting the house on the market.

The statement of tax details is a sheet showing the basis for the tax, and at the same time a draft inventory of the household's property. But it is only a draft. Suspect once that there may be land not on it, and get the name-based property list. All the more so if the road in front of the house is a private one.

Written by: 長澤 湊（licensed real-estate transaction specialist, administrative scrivener, assistant surveyor）　Content checked on: 2026-10-24

This article is a general explanation of Japanese rules and procedures, not advice on an individual case. Figures and rules are as of the date shown. For your own situation, consult a lawyer, judicial scrivener, tax accountant or administrative scrivener in Japan.

Official sources

The rules and figures in this article can be checked against the following official pages (in Japanese).

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