9 Influencers in Japan Slapped with 85 M. Yen in Back Taxes

Tokyo, March 8 (Jiji Press)--Japanese tax authorities have imposed a total of some 85 million yen in back taxes, including penalty, on nine female social media influencers over their income from affiliate marketing, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The nine influencers, mostly in their 30s, failed to declare about 300 million yen in total in taxable income in the six years through 2021, the people said.

They have thousands to hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube and Instagram, earning money by recommending cosmetics and other products from specific companies on social media.

Some of the influencers hid income, according to the people familiar with the investigation by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau.

The back taxes ranged from slightly over 1 million yen to about 30 million yen, the people said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]