Local Tax Act

Documents relating to the assessment and collection or refund of local government levies are served, by postal service or correspondence delivery or by service by delivery, at the address, residence, office or place of business of the person to be served. However, where there is a tax agent, documents relating to the assessment and collection (excluding delinquent tax collection procedures) or refund of local government levies are served at the address, residence, office or place of business of the tax agent.

Service by delivery is carried out by an employee of a local government delivering the document to the person to be served at the place where service is to be made under the preceding paragraph. However, where that person has no objection, the document may be delivered at another place.

In the cases set forth in the following items, service by delivery may be carried out by the acts set forth in those items in lieu of delivery under the preceding paragraph:

if the person to be served with the document is not met at the place where it is to be served: delivering the document to an employee or other worker of that person, or a person living with that person, who has reasonable discretion with regard to receiving documents;

if the person to be served with the document, or another person prescribed in the preceding item, is not at the place where service is to be made, or if those persons refuse to accept the document without justifiable grounds: leaving the document at the place where service is to be made.

Where a document prescribed in paragraph (1) has been dispatched by ordinary postal service or correspondence delivery, except where this Act makes special provision, the postal item, or the item of correspondence delivery prescribed in Article 2, paragraph (3) of the Act on Correspondence Delivery by Private Business Operators (hereinafter in Article 20-5-3 and Article 22-5 referred to as an "item of correspondence delivery"), is presumed to have been served at the time it would ordinarily have arrived.

In the case prescribed in the preceding paragraph, the head of a local government must prepare a record sufficient to confirm the name of the document, the name and destination of the person to be served, and the date of dispatch.

Where, with regard to a document to be served under the preceding Article, the address, residence, office and place of business of the person to be served are unknown, or where it is found that there are difficult circumstances regarding service to be made in a foreign country, the head of a local government may effect service by publication in lieu of that service.

Service by publication is effected by taking measures to put the information necessary to identify the document to be served, the name of the person to be served, and the statement that the head of the local government keeps the document and will deliver it to the person to be served at any time (hereinafter in this paragraph referred to as the "particulars of the public notice") in a state in which they can be viewed by an unspecified large number of persons, by a method specified by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and by posting a document stating the particulars of the public notice on the bulletin board of the local government, or taking measures to put the particulars of the public notice, displayed on the screen of a computer installed at an office of the local government, in a state in which they can be viewed.

In the case referred to in the preceding paragraph, the document is deemed to have been served when seven days have elapsed counting from the day on which the measures under that paragraph were commenced.

A prefecture must not have a municipality handle the affairs relating to the assessment and collection of prefectural taxes (excluding individual prefectural inhabitant tax; the same applies hereinafter in this Article). However, in the case where any of the following items applies, it may provide that the municipality is to handle them:

when the address, residence, residential premises, office, place of business or property of the person liable for a prefectural tax or the special collection agent of a prefectural tax is located in an area where assessment and collection by the prefectural tax collection officials of that prefecture is exceedingly difficult;

when a municipality has agreed to handle part of the affairs relating to the assessment and collection of prefectural taxes.

Where, pursuant to the proviso to the preceding paragraph, a prefecture has provided that a municipality is to handle part of the affairs relating to the assessment and collection of prefectural taxes, the prefecture must compensate for the expenses required for the municipality to perform those affairs.

The compensation under the preceding paragraph must be made within 30 days at the latest from the day on which the municipality made a request.

Where a person who is to pay or remit local government levies has an address, residence, residential premises, office or place of business outside that local government, or the person's property is located outside it, that local government may entrust the collection to the local government in whose area the person's address, residence, residential premises, office or place of business, or the person's property, is located.

Collection in the case referred to in the preceding paragraph is carried out in the same manner as collection by the local government that has received the entrustment.

Where collection has been entrusted under paragraph (1), the expenses required for the affairs relating to the entrustment and for remittance of money are borne by the local government that received the entrustment, and the demand fees and expenses for the delinquent tax collection procedure accompanying the affairs relating to the entrustment constitute revenue of the local government that received the entrustment.

When calculating the amount of the tax base of a local tax, if that amount includes a fractional amount of less than 1,000 yen, or if the whole amount is less than 1,000 yen, the fractional amount or the whole amount is to be discarded. However, this does not apply to a local tax specified by Cabinet Order.

When calculating the amount of a delinquency charge or additional charge, if the tax amount forming the basis of the calculation includes a fractional amount of less than 1,000 yen, or if the whole of that tax amount is less than 2,000 yen, the fractional amount or the whole amount is to be discarded.

If the finalized amount of a local tax includes a fractional amount of less than 100 yen, or if the whole amount is less than 100 yen, the fractional amount or the whole amount is to be discarded. However, with regard to the finalized amount of a local tax specified by Cabinet Order, if that amount includes a fractional amount of less than one yen, or if the whole amount is less than one yen, the fractional amount or the whole amount is to be discarded.

If the finalized amount of the expenses for the delinquent tax collection procedure includes a fractional amount of less than 100 yen, or if the whole amount is less than 100 yen, the fractional amount or the whole amount is to be discarded.

Where a finalized amount of a delinquency charge or additional charge includes a fractional amount of less than 100 yen, or where the whole of it is less than 1,000 yen, that fractional amount or the whole amount is to be discarded.

Where a finalized amount of a local tax is to be paid or remitted in installments of fixed amounts with two or more due dates for payment set, if the installment amount for each due date for payment includes a fractional amount of less than 1,000 yen, or if the whole of the installment amount is less than 1,000 yen, that fractional amount or the whole amount is to be added in its entirety to the installment amount for the first due date for payment; provided, however, that this does not apply where a local government has provided otherwise by the Prefectural or Municipal Ordinance of that local government.

The provisions of paragraphs (2) and (5) apply mutatis mutandis to interest on refund. In this case, the phrase "tax amount" in paragraph (2) is deemed to be replaced with "amount of the overpayment or payment by mistake or the refund under the provisions of this Act".

For the purpose of applying the provisions of paragraph (2), paragraph (3) (limited to the part providing that, where the whole of the finalized amount of a local tax is less than 100 yen, the whole is to be discarded) and the preceding three paragraphs, individual municipal inhabitant tax, individual prefectural inhabitant tax collected together with it pursuant to Article 41, paragraph (1), and forest environment tax assessed and collected together with these pursuant to Article 7, paragraph (1) of the Act on the Forest Environment Tax and the Forest Environment Transfer Tax, or fixed assets tax and city planning tax collected together with it pursuant to Article 702-8, paragraph (1), are each deemed to be one local tax. In this case, for the application of paragraph (6) to individual municipal inhabitant tax, individual prefectural inhabitant tax and forest environment tax collected by special collection, the phrase "1,000 yen" in that paragraph is deemed to be replaced with "100 yen".

For national health insurance tax collected by special collection, the phrase "1,000 yen" in paragraph (6) is deemed to be replaced with "100 yen".

The computation of periods prescribed in this Act or in a Prefectural or Municipal Ordinance based on it is governed by Articles 139 through 141 and Article 143 of the Civil Code.

Where a time limit determined by the provisions of this Act or a Prefectural or Municipal Ordinance based on it (excluding a time limit specified by Cabinet Order) falls on a holiday prescribed in Article 142 of the Civil Code or on any other day specified by Cabinet Order, the day following that day is deemed to be the time limit, notwithstanding the provisions of this Act or the Prefectural or Municipal Ordinance concerned.