Local Tax Act

If a taxpayer filing returns or a taxpayer does not pay in full the local government levies on tobacco tax by the due date for payment (where a reassessment or determination under Article 480, paragraphs (1) to (3) has been made, the due date for payment under Article 481, paragraph (1); the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph and Article 485-3, paragraph (3)), a municipal tax collection official must issue a demand letter within 20 days after the due date for payment; provided, however, that this does not apply in the case of advance collection.

In a municipality with special circumstances, a period different from the period prescribed in the preceding paragraph may be provided for by a Municipal Ordinance of that municipality.

When a municipal tax collection official has issued a demand letter, the official may collect a fee in accordance with the Municipal Ordinance of that municipality.

When a person delinquent in payment of tobacco tax falls under any one of the following items, a municipal tax collection official must seize the property of the person delinquent in payment with respect to the local government levies on that tobacco tax.

When the person delinquent in payment has received a demand and does not pay in full the local government levies on tobacco tax relating to the demand by the day on which 10 days elapse counting from the date on which the demand letter was issued.

When the person delinquent in payment does not pay in full the local government levies on tobacco tax by the due date for payment designated by the notice relating to advance collection.

Where the provisions of the preceding paragraph are applied to a secondary taxpayer or a guarantor, the phrase "demand letter" in item (i) of that paragraph is deemed to be replaced with "written reminder to pay".

If, by the day on which the 10 days prescribed in paragraph (1), item (i) elapse after the due date for payment of local government levies on tobacco tax, a fact falling under any item of Article 13-2, paragraph (1) arises with respect to a person delinquent in payment who has received a demand, a municipal tax collection official may immediately seize that person's property.

When a compulsory liquidation procedure has been conducted with respect to the property of a person delinquent in payment, a municipal tax collection official must make a request for share distribution, with respect to the delinquent local government levies on tobacco tax, to the enforcement agency (where the request for share distribution is made for local government levies on tobacco tax relating to a claim listed in Article 114, item (i) of the Bankruptcy Act, the court handling the bankruptcy case relating to that request for share distribution).

When a municipal 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.

In addition to what is provided for in the preceding paragraphs, delinquent tax collection procedures for local government levies on tobacco tax are to be carried out in accordance with the rules for the delinquent tax collection procedure under the National Tax Collection Act.

A disposition under the preceding paragraphs may also be carried out outside the area of the municipality concerned.

When a taxpayer filing returns or a taxpayer of tobacco tax, for the purpose of evading the execution of delinquent tax collection procedures, conceals or damages his or her property, disposes of it to the detriment of the municipality, falsely increases the encumbrances on it, or alters its present state, thereby reducing the value of the property or increasing 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 as in the preceding paragraph where a third party in possession of the property of a taxpayer filing returns or a taxpayer commits the act referred to in that paragraph for the purpose of enabling the taxpayer filing returns or taxpayer to evade the execution of delinquent tax collection procedures.

A person who, knowing the circumstances, becomes the counterparty of a taxpayer filing returns or a taxpayer, or of a third party in possession of his or her property, in an act referred to in the preceding two paragraphs, and commits the violation as that 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.

If a representative of a corporation, or an agent, employee or other worker of a corporation or a person, commits a violation prescribed in the preceding three paragraphs in connection with the business or property of that corporation or person, then in addition to punishing the offender, the fine prescribed in the relevant paragraphs is imposed on that corporation or person.

In the case of Article 485-3, paragraph (6), where a person violates, without justifiable grounds, an order of a municipal tax collection official issued in accordance with the rules of the proviso to Article 72-2, paragraph (1) of the National Tax Collection Act, the person who committed the violation 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.

If the representative of a corporation, or an agent, employee or other worker of a corporation or individual, has committed a violation referred to in the preceding paragraph in connection with the business or property of that corporation or individual, in addition to punishing the offender, the fine prescribed in that paragraph is to be imposed on that corporation or individual.

In a case that falls under any of the following items, the person who committed the violation is to be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen:

In the case referred to in Article 485-3, paragraph (6), when a person fails to answer, or makes a false statement in answer to, questions put by a municipal tax collection official in accordance with the example of the provisions of Article 141 of the National Tax Collection Act.

In the case referred to in Article 485-3, paragraph (6), when a person refuses, obstructs or evades an inspection by a municipal tax collection official, conducted in accordance with the example of the provisions of Article 141 of the National Tax Collection Act, of books and documents (meaning the books and documents prescribed in Article 141 of the National Tax Collection Act; the same applies in the following item) or other articles.

In the case referred to in Article 485-3, paragraph (6), when a person, without justifiable grounds, fails to comply with a request by a municipal tax collection official, made in accordance with the example of the provisions of Article 141 of the National Tax Collection Act, for the presentation or submission of articles, 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 a violation set forth in the preceding paragraph in connection with the business or property of that corporation or person, in addition to punishing the offender, the fine prescribed in that paragraph is to be imposed on that corporation or person.

In the case referred to in Article 485-3, paragraph (6), a person who makes a false statement on matters to be stated to the mayor of the municipality in accordance with the example of the provisions of Article 99-2 of the National Tax Collection Act (including as applied mutatis mutandis under Article 109, paragraph (4) of the National Tax Collection Act) is to be punished by imprisonment for not more than six months or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.

Where the amount equivalent to the tobacco tax paid to a municipality (including special wards; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph) for the relevant fiscal year (including special ward tobacco tax; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph) exceeds the amount obtained by multiplying the total amount of tobacco tax nationwide for the fiscal year two years before the relevant fiscal year by the proportion obtained by dividing the number obtained by multiplying the tobacco consumption base population of the municipality (meaning the total of the population aged 20 or over of the municipality according to the results of the most recent published national census and the population aged 20 or over of persons who reside in a municipality other than that municipality and who are employed in, or attend school in, that municipality; the same applies hereinafter in this Article) by two by the total of the tobacco consumption base population nationwide (referred to as the "fixed tobacco tax amount" in the following paragraph), the amount equivalent to the excess is to be distributed, as provided by Cabinet Order, to the prefecture encompassing that municipality in the fiscal year following the relevant fiscal year.

Matters necessary for calculating the tobacco consumption base population and the fixed tobacco tax amount are specified by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

A municipality must not provide subsidies, interest subsidies or other payments for which no appropriate consideration is received, or make loans, to a tobacco retailer, on the condition that the amount of tobacco tax paid, or to be paid, to that municipality, as the tobacco tax on the manufactured tobacco sold to that tobacco retailer, by a wholesale seller, etc. that sells manufactured tobacco to that tobacco retailer, or the estimated amount of tobacco tax expected to be paid, is a certain amount or more.