Does anybody know about this? We are looking at the possibliblity of buying a house and we are debating whether of not to take out a loan. My wife seems to think that the tax credit would essentially wipe out my income tax over the next ten years but I can't really find any information on the income tax guide so I can't calculate whether or not this would be financially advantageous for us.

Thanks

Yep, juicy tax credits.

The amounts are unknown (loan and your income) so whether or not it's wiped clean, dunno.

It depends if the house is "wooden" or not. Seriously, this is a real tax law involving wooden houses. Perhaps one of the finance guys on this board to explain it.

The rules regarding the tax breaks are changing each year right now -- basically each year it becomes a bit less.

I think I got about 200,000 last year on a 40mil yen house. I would assume that the amount depends both on the value of the house and the location, but it could be the same for all locales nationally.

Oh, and you still have to pay tax on the land and building...!

The best thing to do would be to get your wife to go to the local city/ward office and ask. They should have all the relevant information on hand.