How can my spouse be tax dependent?

Eligibility to declare your spouse for tax exemption will depend not only on your spouse’s income, but also your own income. Please read the contents below carefully and determine for yourself whether or not you qualify to declare your spouse for exemption. If you determine that you do qualify, please proceed with filling in your spouse information.

For 2020 (Reiwa 02), qualification to declare your spouse for tax exemption is determined by not only your spouse’s total income, but also the total income of the taxpayer. Notables changes to the qualification are as follows:

①　Dependent Spouse Exemption (配偶者控除)

　　The taxpayer, YOU, are entitled to Dependent Spouse Exemption for national income tax purposes ONLY WHEN your total income is less than 10 million yen (or 11.95 million if salary is your single source of income) for this year. Please be sure to check ③ below as well.

②　Special Spouse Exemption (配偶者特別控除)
　　The taxpayer, YOU, are entitled to Special Spouse Exemption for national income tax purposes IF 　　your spouse’s total income is more than 480,000 yen but less than 1.33 million yen for this year.

③　Spouse as dependent family
　　Your spouse will be counted as your dependent to calculate your monthly income tax deduction ONLY WHEN your total (expected) income is less than 9.0 million yen AND your spouse’s total (expected) income is less than 950,000 yen for this year.

<From: 2022 Application for exemption for dependents of employment income earner – Use below chart as reference to determine if your spouse qualifies to declare as dependent>

Remarks:
 ♦ If you fall within the red bracket (exemption for spouse of employment income),  your monthly income tax
    is calculated based on your spouse as a dependent.
♦ If your spouse sharing common living expenses (spouse who earns less than 480,000 of total expected
    income)  is a person with disabilities, your monthly income tax is calculated based on having one  (1)
    dependent family  member (same as before the tax law update).
♦ Exemption amount shown in chart is for year-end tax adjustment / individual tax return filing for 2022.
♦ If your spouse is a tax exemption dependent or a person with disabilities sharing common living expenses
   and is living outside of Japan, you will need to attach evidence proving relationship when submitting
   the declaration form.
♦ If there was change to your or your spouse’s total (expected) income during the year which altered
    the status of your spouse as a tax dependent, you are to submit “Application for change in exemption 
    for dependents of employment income earner” form to your salary payer prior to the day of being paid
    the new salary amount.

For other information, please refer to the National Tax Agency website.
   For individual income tax: https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/individual/index.htm
   For withholding tax: https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/withholing/index.htm

Reference below flow chart to determine if you qualify to list your spouse as exemption
for dependent. If you do qualify, be sure to enter details of your spouse.

Remarks:
If there was change to your or your spouse’s total (expected) income during the year which altered
the status of your spouse as a tax dependent, you are to resubmit “Application for change in exemption
for dependents of employment income earner” form. The length of time that the status of your spouse
for exemption (or non-exemption) is different from actual can affect the tax return by a large amount.

View here for Japanese.