In the middle of my chaos at home, I have now seen my accountant a second time, and I think I have found myself a real gem! He has already organised all my paperwork in differently coloured folders: red company papers, black taxes, yellow salary; and two more for my invoices and receipts, both incoming and outgoing. I think so far he is up to date with all my paperwork and money issues, but he still has some problems getting the accounting software he is using – and wants me to use down the line – to work on my computer. However, he will take it up with his office, so this should be solved the next time he visits me.
What I found extremely encouraging was his concern with respect to my salary. When setting up the company, I had to prepare a document stating my monthly director’s salary, apparently for tax purposes. Technically, I can pay myself as much as I like, but in my case there is the additional constraint that I have to make the immigration office happy, which means I have a lower bound on the amount I can earn.
Now, the first time my accountant saw this document, he called me to him and told me flat-out: “You earn too much!” His concern was not so much the wellbeing of my company, but my personal one. He explained that with this amount of salary, I will be hit with a lot of taxes next year. I tried to explain why I could not go any lower, but in the end he called my lawyer to get the information first hand – and in Japanese.
I found his concern extremely nice and thoughtful, and as I said, I am very happy about this. I think this will be a very pleasant relationship – let’s hope it will be a long-lasting one too!