Income Undeclared by Wealthy People in Japan Hits Record High

Tokyo, Nov. 24 (Jiji Press)--Japan’s National Tax Agency said Thursday that tax investigations in the year through June detected a total of 83.9 billion yen of undeclared taxable incomes of wealthy individuals in the country.

The total surged 72.3 pct from the previous year to hit the highest level on record since 2009, while the number of cases investigated rose 3.2 pct to 2,227.

The total amount of penalty taxes on the cases came to 23.8 billion yen, over twofold from the previous year.

The surge in undeclared taxable incomes chiefly reflected cases involving wealthy individuals making investments overseas.

“Our policy of collecting information from the perspective of ensuring fairness in taxation has led to the outcome,” Tetsuya Yamagata, chief of the individual taxation division of the agency, said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]