Local Tax Act

The right of a local government aimed at collecting local government levies (hereinafter in this Subsection referred to as the "right to collect local taxes") is extinguished by prescription if it is not exercised for five years counting from the day following the statutory payment due date (for the local government levies set forth in the following items, the day specified in each of those items).

Local taxes or additional charges to which Article 17-5, paragraph (2), or Article 17-6, paragraph (1), item (i), (ii) or (iv) or paragraph (3) applies, or delinquency charges relating to those local taxes: the day on which the reassessment or determination under Article 17-5, paragraph (2) was made, the day on which the determination, etc. under Article 17-6, paragraph (1), item (i) was made, the day on which the decision, ruling or judgment under Article 17-6, paragraph (1), item (ii) was made, the day on which the reassessment or determination under Article 17-6, paragraph (1), item (iv) was made, or the day specified in the items of Article 17-6, paragraph (3);

Additional charges for failure to file to which Article 17-5, paragraph (6) applies: the day on which the determination under that paragraph was made;

Demand fees or expenses for the delinquent tax collection procedure: the day on which the right to collect that local tax can be exercised.

In the case of the preceding paragraph, it is not necessary to invoke prescription, and the benefit of it may not be waived.

The provisions of the Civil Code apply mutatis mutandis to prescription of the right to collect local taxes, except as otherwise provided in this Subsection.

As for prescription of the right to collect local taxes, with respect to local government levies for the part relating to a disposition set forth in one of the following items, prescription is not completed during the period specified in that item, and begins to run anew from the time that period has elapsed.

Notice of payment or remittance: the period up to the deadline for payment or remittance designated in that notice;

Demand: the period up to the day on which 10 days have elapsed counting from the day on which a demand letter or a written reminder for payment or remittance for the purpose of demand was issued (where seizure has been carried out in a case where a fact falling under any one of the items of Article 13-2, paragraph (1) has arisen before that day, the day on which it was carried out);

Request for share distribution: the period during which that request for share distribution is being made (where there is a period during which no notification has been given under Article 82, paragraph (2) of the National Tax Collection Act, the rules of which apply under this Act, excluding that period).

Even where the compulsory liquidation procedure relating to a request for share distribution set forth in item (iii) of the preceding paragraph is cancelled, the effect of the suspension of completion and renewal of prescription under that paragraph is not impeded.

Prescription of the right to collect local taxes relating to a local tax (including delinquency charges and additional charges relating to that local tax; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph) for which the whole or part of the tax amount has been evaded, or for which a refund of the whole or part of the tax amount has been received, by deception or other wrongful acts does not run for two years counting from the day following the statutory payment due date prescribed in Article 18, paragraph (1) for that local tax; provided, however, that where a disposition or act set forth in one of the following items has been carried out during the period from the day following that statutory payment due date to the day on which two years have elapsed from that day, prescription runs, for each local tax for the part relating to that disposition or act, according to the category of disposition or act set forth in those items, from the day following the day specified in the relevant item, and where that disposition or act has been carried out by that statutory payment due date, it runs, for each local tax for the part relating to that disposition or act, from the day following that statutory payment due date.

Notice of payment or remittance (excluding that relating to delinquency charges and additional charges): the day on which the document relating to that notice was issued;

Filing of a local tax return relating to filing and payment or filing and payment-in: the day on which that return was filed.

Prescription of the right to collect local taxes does not run, for local government levies for the part relating to deferral of collection, ex officio suspension of realization or suspension of realization upon application, during the period in which that deferral or suspension is in effect.

When prescription of the right to collect local taxes with respect to a local tax is not completed or begins to run anew, prescription of the right to collect local taxes with respect to the delinquency charges relating to the part of the local tax for which prescription is not completed or begins to run anew is likewise not completed or begins to run anew.

When a local tax has been paid, prescription of the right to collect local taxes with respect to the delinquency charges relating to the part of the local tax so paid begins to run anew from the time of that payment.

A claim against a local government arising from an overpayment or payment by mistake of local government levies and a claim against a local government relating to a refund under the provisions of this Act (hereinafter in Article 20-9 referred to as a "claim for a refund") are extinguished by prescription when five years have elapsed from the day on which the claim can be made.

The provisions of Article 18, paragraphs (2) and (3) apply mutatis mutandis to the case of the preceding paragraph.