Local Tax Act

When a municipality intends to collect individual municipal inhabitant tax by the method of special collection pursuant to the preceding Article, it must designate, by Municipal Ordinance of the municipality, as a special collection agent, from among persons who, as of the first day of the fiscal year, pay salary to a person liable for tax referred to in that Article (including a person who pays salary within another municipality), a person who is obligated, when paying salary, to collect and pay income tax under Article 183 of the Income Tax Act, and have that agent collect the tax. In this case, the mayor of the municipality must notify that special collection agent, and through that agent the person liable for tax, to the effect that the total of the income levy amount and the per capita levy amount relating to salary income to be collected by the method of special collection under the main clause of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, or the amount obtained by adding to that total the income levy amount relating to income other than salary income to be collected by the method of special collection under the main clause of paragraph (2) of that Article (in the case prescribed in paragraph (4) of that Article, the income levy amount relating to income other than salary income and income relating to public pension, etc. to be collected by the method of special collection under the main clause of paragraph (2) of that Article as applied with terms replaced pursuant to paragraph (4) of that Article) (hereinafter in this Article through Article 321-7 referred to as the "amount of tax specially collected on salary income"), is to be collected by the method of special collection (referred to as "notified matters" in paragraphs (7) through (11)).

The notification that the mayor of a municipality gives to the special collection agent, and through the special collection agent to the person liable for tax, under the second sentence of the preceding paragraph must be given by May 31 of the year that includes the first day of the fiscal year.

Where the mayor of a municipality has been unable to give the notification under the second sentence of paragraph (1) by the date prescribed in the preceding paragraph because, for example, a salary payment report that is to be submitted under Article 317-6, paragraph (1) was not submitted by the deadline for filing under that paragraph, or for other unavoidable reasons, this does not preclude giving that notification after that date; provided, however, that this does not apply where it is found inappropriate to collect the amount of tax specially collected on salary income, under paragraph (1) of the following Article, during the period from the month following the month that includes the day on which that notification was given through May of the following year.

In the case of paragraph (1), where there are two or more persons who pay salary to the same person liable for tax, a municipality must designate, by Municipal Ordinance of the municipality, all or some of those persons who make payments as special collection agents. In this case, where two or more persons have been designated as special collection agents, the municipality may have them collect the amount of tax specially collected on salary income by apportioning it according to the amounts of salary that they are respectively to pay during the fiscal year.

Where there is a change, during the period from the day following the first day of the fiscal year through April 30 of the following year, in the person who pays salary to a salary earner who is a person liable for tax, and that salary earner has made a request, through the person who has newly become the person paying salary to that salary earner (limited to a person obligated, when paying salary, to collect and pay income tax under Article 183 of the Income Tax Act; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph), by the 10th of the month following the month that includes the day on which the salary earner ceased to receive salary from the former payer due to that change (April 30, if the day on which the salary earner ceased to receive salary falls in April of the following year), that the total of the income levy amount and the per capita levy amount relating to salary income for the previous year that is to be collected by the method of special collection under the main clause of paragraph (1) of the preceding Article (the amount remaining after deducting the amount, if any, already collected by the method of special collection) be collected by the method of special collection, the municipality is to designate, by Municipal Ordinance of the municipality, the person who has newly become the person paying salary to that salary earner as a special collection agent and have that agent collect it. However, this does not apply where that request was made in April of the following year and the mayor of the municipality finds it difficult to designate the person who has newly become the person paying salary to that salary earner as a special collection agent and have that agent collect it.

The second sentence of paragraph (1) applies mutatis mutandis to the case under the main clause of the preceding paragraph.

Where a special collection agent designated by the mayor of a municipality pursuant to paragraph (1) or (5) (limited to a person who has provided the matters to be stated in the salary payment report prescribed in Article 317-6, paragraph (1) pursuant to paragraph (5) of that Article (limited to the part relating to item (i)), or a person who has submitted a salary payment report under paragraph (1) of that Article pursuant to Article 747-2, paragraph (1); hereinafter in this paragraph through paragraph (9) and paragraph (11) referred to as a "specified special collection agent") has made a request to the effect that the agent wishes to be provided by electronic or magnetic means with the notified matters that are to be notified to that specified special collection agent under the second sentence of paragraph (1) (including as applied mutatis mutandis in the preceding paragraph; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph, the following paragraph and paragraph (10)), the mayor must, in place of the notification to that specified special collection agent under the second sentence of paragraph (1), provide those notified matters to that specified special collection agent, as provided by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, by a method of using the electronic data processing system for local tax procedures and passing through the Organization.

Where a specified special collection agent (limited to a person for whom a system has been put in place for providing to the person liable for tax, by electronic or magnetic means, the notified matters that are to be notified to the person liable for tax through that specified special collection agent under the second sentence of paragraph (1)) has made a request to the effect that the agent wishes to be sent those notified matters by electronic or magnetic means, the mayor of the municipality must, in place of the notification to that person liable for tax under the second sentence of that paragraph, send those notified matters to that specified special collection agent, as provided by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, by a method of using the electronic data processing system for local tax procedures and passing through the Organization, and provide them to that person liable for tax through that agent.

In the case of the preceding paragraph, a specified special collection agent that has been sent the notified matters under that paragraph is to provide those notified matters to the person liable for tax by electronic or magnetic means (by a method specified by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, for a person liable for tax for whom it is found difficult to do so).

With regard to the provision of notified matters made pursuant to paragraph (7) or (8), paragraph (1) of the following Article and Article 321-6, paragraph (1) apply by deeming that notification was given under the second sentence of paragraph (1).

The provision of notified matters made pursuant to paragraph (7) and the sending of notified matters made pursuant to paragraph (8) are deemed to have reached the specified special collection agent prescribed in those provisions at the time when, after they have been recorded in a file kept on a computer used by the Organization referred to in Article 762, item (i), the matters concerning that record that the mayor of the municipality prescribed in paragraph (7) or (8) has notified by a method specified by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications have reached that specified special collection agent.

The special collection agent under the preceding Article is obliged, in the case where it has received the notice under the second sentence of paragraph (1) of that Article (including as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to paragraph (6) of that Article) by the date prescribed in paragraph (2) of that Article, to collect one-twelfth of the amount of tax specially collected on salary income pertaining to that notice every month when paying salary from June to May of the following year, and in the case where it has received that notice after that date, to collect the amount obtained by dividing the amount of tax specially collected on salary income pertaining to that notice by the number of months from the month following the month containing the day of the notice through May of the following year every month when paying salary from the month following the month containing the day of the notice through May of the following year, respectively, and to remit it to the municipality concerned by the 10th of the month following the month of collection; provided, however, that if the amount of tax specially collected on salary income pertaining to that notice is equal to or less than the amount equivalent to the per capita levy amount, the special collection agent must collect the entire amount when paying salary in the first month in which it should be collected, and must remit it to the municipality concerned by the 10th of the month following the month of collection.

The special collection agent under the preceding paragraph is not obliged to collect and remit the monthly instalment (meaning the amount to be collected every month when the special collection agent pays salary pursuant to the preceding paragraph; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph, the following paragraph and Article 321-6, paragraph (3)) for the month following the month containing the day on which the cause arose and thereafter, if the person liable for tax for the individual municipal inhabitant tax pertaining to the amount of tax specially collected on salary income that the person is to collect pursuant to the preceding Article ceases to receive payment of salary from that special collection agent; provided, however, that in the case where the cause arises between June 1 and December 31 of the year containing the first day of the fiscal year concerned and there has been an application from the person liable for tax, made in accordance with the provisions of a Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, that the monthly instalment for the month following the month containing the day on which the cause arose and thereafter be collected by the method of special collection, and in the case where the cause arises between January 1 and April 30 of the following year, only where there is salary or severance pay or other such compensation to be paid to that person liable for tax by May 31 of that year that exceeds the amount equivalent to the full amount of that monthly instalment, the agent must collect the full amount of that monthly instalment (or, where payment of all or part of that salary or severance pay or other such compensation is not to be made by that date, the amount that can be collected from the amount of that salary or severance pay or other such compensation paid by that date) when paying the salary or severance pay or other such compensation to be paid to that person, and must remit it to the municipality concerned by the 10th of the month following the month of collection.

In the case referred to in the preceding paragraph, the special collection agent must, in accordance with the provisions of a Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, submit a written notification stating the name of the person liable for tax who has ceased to receive payment of salary, the total amount of the monthly instalments already collected out of the amount of tax specially collected on salary income pertaining to that person, and other necessary matters, to the mayor of the municipality to which the remittance pertaining to that special collection is to be remitted.

If, pursuant to the preceding Article, a person who pays salary within another municipality is designated as a special collection agent, that special collection agent is to pay the remittance that it is to remit into a bank or other financial institution located within that other municipality which the municipality concerned has designated and notified to that special collection agent. In this case, the remittance is deemed to have been remitted to the municipality concerned at the time when that special collection agent pays it into the financial institution pertaining to that notice.

With regard to the application of Article 326, paragraph (1) in the case where the special collection agent designated by a municipality is an organ of the State, the remittance is deemed to have been remitted to the municipality concerned at the time when that special collection agent has delivered funds in an amount equivalent to the remittance pertaining to the amount of tax specially collected on salary income to the Bank of Japan and paid in the remittance.

If the special collection agent under Article 321-4 has obtained the approval of the mayor of the municipality to which the remittance pertaining to that special collection is to be remitted with respect to its office, place of business or other similar place that handles the payment of salary (limited to those at which the persons receiving payment of salary are regularly fewer than 10; hereinafter in this paragraph referred to as an "office or similar place"), it may, notwithstanding paragraph (1) of the preceding Article, remit the amount of tax specially collected on salary income collected pursuant to that paragraph on the salary paid at that office or similar place in each period from June to November and from December to May of the following year (for the period containing the day on which the approval was obtained among those periods, the period from the month containing that day to the last month of that period) to the municipality concerned by the 10th of the month following the last month belonging to each such period. The same applies to the amount of tax specially collected on salary income collected pursuant to the proviso to paragraph (2) of the preceding Article.

Beyond what is provided for in the preceding paragraph, the rescission of the approval under the preceding paragraph, the special provisions for the payment period in the case of that rescission, and other matters necessary with respect to the special provisions for the payment period of the amount of tax specially collected on salary income are specified by Cabinet Order.