Local Tax Act

Where a taxpayer for hunting tax pays the tax after the due date for payment under Article 700-53 (where the due date for payment has been extended, that extended due date for payment; the same applies hereinafter to hunting tax), the taxpayer must pay it with an amount of delinquency charge, equivalent to the amount calculated by multiplying the tax amount by a rate of 14.6 percent per annum (7.3 percent per annum for the period until the day on which one month has elapsed from the day following that due date for payment) according to the number of days in the period from the day following that due date for payment to the date of payment, added to it.

Where a prefectural governor finds that there were unavoidable grounds for a taxpayer's failure to pay the tax by the due date for payment under Article 700-53, the governor may reduce or exempt the amount of delinquency charge referred to in the preceding paragraph.

Where a taxpayer has not paid in full the local government levies relating to hunting tax by the due date for payment, a prefectural tax collection official must issue a demand letter within 20 days after the due date for payment; provided, however, that this does not apply where advance collection is carried out.

A prefecture in special circumstances may, by a Prefectural Ordinance of that prefecture, provide for a period different from the period prescribed in the preceding paragraph.

Where a prefectural tax collection official has issued a demand letter, the official may collect a fee in accordance with the Prefectural Ordinance of the prefecture concerned.

When a person delinquent in payment of hunting tax falls under any of the following items, a prefectural tax collection official must seize the property of the person delinquent in payment with respect to the local government levies relating to that hunting tax:

When a person delinquent in payment has received a demand and has not paid in full the local government levies relating to the hunting tax that are the subject of the demand by the day on which 10 days have elapsed, counted from the day on which the demand letter was issued; or

When a person delinquent in payment has not paid in full the local government levies relating to hunting tax by the due date for payment specified by the notice relating to advance collection.

When the preceding paragraph is applied to a secondary taxpayer or guarantor, the term "demand letter" in item (i) of that paragraph is to read "written reminder to pay".

Where, during the period after the due date for payment of local government levies relating to hunting tax until the day on which the 10 days prescribed in paragraph (1), item (i) have elapsed, facts falling under any of the items of Article 13-2, paragraph (1) have arisen with respect to a person delinquent in payment who has received a demand, a prefectural tax collection official may seize that person's property immediately.

Where compulsory liquidation procedures have been carried out with respect to the property of a person delinquent in payment, a prefectural tax collection official must make a request for share distribution to the enforcement agency (in the case of making a request for share distribution of local government levies relating to hunting tax that are based on a claim set forth in Article 114, item (i) of the Bankruptcy Act, the court handling the bankruptcy case relating to that request for share distribution), with respect to the delinquent local government levies relating to hunting tax.

When a prefectural tax collection official is able to make a seizure under paragraphs (1) through (3), and property of a person delinquent in payment set out in the items of Article 86, paragraph (1) of the National Tax Collection Act has already been seized in a delinquent tax collection procedure for other local government levies or national taxes, or by a disposition governed by the rules of those delinquent tax collection procedures, the request for share distribution for that property may be made by participatory seizure.

Delinquent tax collection procedures for local government levies relating to hunting tax, other than what is provided for in the preceding paragraphs, are carried out in accordance with the rules for the delinquent tax collection procedure under the National Tax Collection Act.

Dispositions under the preceding paragraphs may also be carried out outside the area of the prefecture concerned.

Where a taxpayer for hunting tax, for the purpose of evading the execution of delinquent tax collection procedures, conceals, damages or disposes of property to the detriment of the prefecture, falsely increases the encumbrances on the property, or alters the current state of the property so as to reduce its value or increase the expenses for the delinquent tax collection procedure relating to it, that person is to be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen, or both.

The same applies where a third party in possession of the property of a taxpayer commits an act referred to in the preceding paragraph for the purpose of enabling the taxpayer to evade the execution of a delinquent tax collection procedure.

If a person, knowing the circumstances, becomes the counterparty of the taxpayer or of the third party in possession of the property in an act referred to in the preceding two paragraphs, the person who committed the violation as the counterparty is to be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years or a fine of not more than 1,500,000 yen, or both.

Where a representative of a corporation, or an agent, employee or other worker of a corporation or person, has committed the violation set forth in the preceding two paragraphs in connection with the business, hunting or property of that corporation or person, not only is the offender to be punished, but that corporation or person is also to be subject to the fine prescribed in the respective paragraph.

In the case falling under any of the following items, the person who committed the violation is punished by a fine of not more than 300,000 yen:

In the case referred to in Article 700-66, paragraph (6), when a person fails to answer, or makes a false statement in response to, questions put by a prefectural tax collection official in accordance with the rules of the provisions of Article 141 of the National Tax Collection Act;

In the case referred to in Article 700-66, paragraph (6), when a person refuses, obstructs or evades the inspection by a prefectural tax collection official, carried out in accordance with the rules of the provisions of Article 141 of the National Tax Collection Act, of books and documents (meaning the books and documents prescribed in that Article; the same applies in the following item) or other articles; or

In the case referred to in Article 700-66, paragraph (6), when a person, in response to a demand by a prefectural tax collection official for the presentation or submission of articles, made in accordance with the rules of the provisions of Article 141 of the National Tax Collection Act, fails to comply without justifiable grounds, or presents or submits books and documents or other articles (including copies thereof) containing false entries or records.

Where a representative of a corporation, or an agent, employee or other worker of a corporation or person, has committed the violation set forth in the preceding paragraph in connection with the business, hunting or property of that corporation or person, not only is the offender to be punished, but that corporation or person is also to be subject to the penalty prescribed in that paragraph.

In the case referred to in Article 700-66, paragraph (6), a person who makes a false statement on a matter that is to be stated to the prefectural governor in accordance with the rules of the provisions of Article 99-2 of the National Tax Collection Act (including as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 109, paragraph (4) of that Act) is to be punished by imprisonment for not more than six months or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.

Where a prefecture intends to collect hunting tax by collection by stamps, it must have the taxpayer pay the tax with stamps issued by the prefecture. In this case, the prefecture may substitute for stamps either having stamps affixed to a document certifying that an obligation to pay hunting tax has arisen, or affixing a tax-paid seal after receiving payment in cash equivalent to the face value of the stamps.

Where a taxpayer has affixed stamps, a prefecture must clearly cancel them with the seal of that prefecture across the paper on which the stamps are affixed and the pattern of the stamps.

The handling of the stamps referred to in paragraph (1) must be provided for by the Prefectural Ordinance of the prefecture concerned.