National Tax Collection Act

• A tax collection official (徴収職員) must seize (差押え) the property of a delinquent taxpayer (滞納者) who was sent a demand for payment (督促) and has not paid the tax in full by the day 10 days after the demand was sent, counting the day it was sent, or of a taxpayer who has not paid in full by the due date one of the taxes the Act on General Rules for National Taxes (国税通則法), a separate Act, lists in Article 37(1). If, before those 10 days are over, grounds arise for demanding early payment (繰上請求) under that Act, the official may seize the property at once. Property beyond what is needed to collect the tax cannot be seized, nor property whose value is not expected to exceed the costs of the procedure (滞納処分費) and the other taxes and debts that rank ahead of the tax.(Art. 47(1), Art. 47(1)(i), Art. 47(1)(ii), Art. 47(2), Art. 48(1), Art. 48(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Some property cannot be seized at all, including the clothes, bedding, furniture and kitchen things that the delinquent taxpayer and the relatives who share their living (生計を一にする親族) cannot live without, three months' food and fuel, the tools that a farmer, fisher, craftsman or other person working mainly by their own labour cannot do the work without, items needed for worship, and the other items Article 75 lists. Of wages, salaries, retirement pensions and similar pay (給料等), the part up to the total of the income tax, the prefectural and municipal inhabitants' taxes and the forest environment tax (森林環境税) collected from it, the social insurance premiums deducted from it, an amount a Cabinet Order sets with regard to the standard of the public assistance living allowance (生活扶助) for the taxpayer and that family, and 20% of what remains (no more than twice that Cabinet Order amount) cannot be seized. Pensions paid under employees' pension insurance (厚生年金保険), the national pension (国民年金) and the other social insurance schemes Article 77 lists are treated as pay, and lump sums under them as retirement allowances (退職手当等).(Art. 75(1), Art. 76(1), Art. 77(1), Art. 77(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where carrying out the delinquent tax collection procedure (滞納処分) on the delinquent taxpayer's own property still leaves the tax short, others named in Articles 33 to 41 must pay it under a secondary tax liability (第二次納税義務), among them: the partners of a general partnership company (合名会社) and similar firms (only the unlimited partners of a limited partnership company), jointly and without limit; the liquidator of a dissolved corporation that distributed its remaining assets without paying its tax, up to what was distributed, and those who received them, up to what they received; a family company (同族会社) whose shares the taxpayer holds, where those shares found no buyer when put up for realization again or cannot readily be transferred, up to the value of the shares other than any acquired a year or more before the tax's statutory due date; and anyone who received the taxpayer's property free or for a markedly low price, or a debt waiver or other benefit, on or after the day one year before that due date, where that disposal is found to be what leaves the tax short, up to the benefit still in their hands (or the whole benefit, for a relative or other specially related person). The district director of a tax office (税務署長) must notify each of them by a payment notice (納付通知書) stating the amount and the deadline for paying it. Their property can be realized (換価) only after the taxpayer's property has been put up for realization, unless its value is likely to fall sharply.(Art. 2(1)(vii), Art. 32(1), Art. 32(4), Art. 33(1), Art. 34(1), Art. 35(1), Art. 39(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The district director of a tax office may give a delinquent taxpayer who has a sincere intention to pay a grace period for realization (換価の猶予) of up to one year, during which their property is not realized, where realizing it at once would make it hard to carry on their business or maintain their living, or where waiting is better for collecting the tax; tax already under a payment deferral (納税の猶予) under the Act on General Rules for National Taxes is left out. A taxpayer can also apply within six months of the tax's due date where paying it all at once would make carrying on business or living hard, and the director may then grant up to one year if they have a sincere intention to pay, unless they have other delinquent national tax that is neither under, nor the subject of an application for, a grace period or a payment deferral. The amount under a grace period that is hard to pay is paid in instalments over the months of the period, or in months the director designates where that is unavoidable.(Art. 151(1), Art. 151-2(1), Art. 151-2(2), Art. 152(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The district director of a tax office may suspend the delinquent tax collection procedure (滞納処分の停止) where the delinquent taxpayer has no property it can reach, where carrying it out would leave them in severe hardship, or where both their whereabouts and their property are unknown; where the suspension is for hardship, any seizure for that tax must be released. If the suspension lasts three years, the duty to pay the tax is extinguished, and where it was suspended for lack of property and the tax plainly cannot be collected, as with tax tied to an inheritance accepted only up to the assets inherited (限定承認), the director may extinguish that duty at once. The director must cancel the suspension if, within those three years, the grounds for it no longer exist.(Art. 153(1), Art. 153(3), Art. 153(4), Art. 153(5), Art. 154(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 25 May 2026

  The text on this site

  Act on the Promotion of Business Financing, etc.

  事業性融資の推進等に関する法律

  Act No. 52 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 21 May 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 12 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 21 May 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 8 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 12 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 13 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 October 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts to Promote the Use of Information and Communications Technology in Civil Procedures, etc.

  民事関係手続等における情報通信技術の活用等の推進を図るための関係法律の整備に関する法律

  Act No. 53 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 June 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc. (extract)

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律　抄

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 13 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 January 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 8 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 14 June 2024

  Act on the Promotion of Business Financing, etc.

  事業性融資の推進等に関する法律

  Act No. 52 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 37 amendments already in force

• Money already received as pay is protected, up to the Cabinet Order amount and the 20% part, in proportion to the days from the seizure to the next payday, and a bonus is treated as pay for one month. Retirement allowances (退職手当等) cannot be seized up to the total of the income tax, the inhabitants' taxes and forest environment tax, and the social insurance premiums taken from them, three times the monthly Cabinet Order amount, and a further 20% of that tripled amount for each year of service beyond five. None of these limits on seizing pay (給料等) and retirement allowances applies where the delinquent taxpayer consents.(Art. 76(2), Art. 76(3), Art. 76(4), Art. 76(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Machinery, tools, livestock, farmland, fishing boats, raw materials, stock and similar property needed for farming, fishing or carrying on a job or business is not seized if the delinquent taxpayer chooses to offer instead other property that would cover the whole tax, is not hard to sell and is free of third parties' rights.(Art. 78(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Movables or securities of the delinquent taxpayer held by a third party other than a relative or specially related person cannot be seized if that third party refuses to hand them over. The district director can then order them handed over by a set deadline, but only where the taxpayer has no other easily sold property that would cover the whole tax, and they can be seized once handed over or once the deadline passes.(Art. 58(1), Art. 58(2), Art. 58(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The tax cannot be collected from property a taxpayer transferred as security (譲渡担保財産) where the transfer for security was registered on or before the tax's statutory due date, or where the holder proves, by the day before the sale decision, that the property became security on or before that date.(Art. 24(8)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A third party whose pledge, mortgage, lease or other right is on seized property can ask the district director, by the day of the public auction notice (or of a sale by private contract), to seize instead other easily sold property of the taxpayer free of others' rights that would cover the whole tax.(Art. 50(1), Art. 50(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• When giving a grace period for realization (換価の猶予), the district director may, where needed, defer or release the seizure of property whose seizure would make it hard for the taxpayer to carry on business or maintain their living.(Art. 152(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• While a person with a secondary tax liability has a lawsuit pending against the payment notice, the demand to pay or the collection procedure for that tax, their property cannot be realized for it; the same holds while a guarantor has such a lawsuit pending.(Art. 90(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A seizure must be released when the whole tax it was for has been extinguished, by payment, set-off against a refund (充当), cancellation of an assessment or otherwise, or when the seized property is no longer expected to be worth more than the procedure costs and the claims ranking ahead of the tax. It may be released, in whole or in part, when the property's value comes to exceed by far the tax and the claims ahead of it, when the taxpayer offers other suitable property and that is seized, or when three public auctions have drawn no bid, no buyer is likely and no private sale is in prospect.This is the rule until 31 March 2027.(Art. 79(1), Art. 79(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A seizure must be released when the whole tax it was for has been extinguished, by payment, set-off against a refund (充当), cancellation of an assessment or otherwise, or when the seized property is no longer expected to be worth more than the procedure costs and the claims ranking ahead of the tax. It may be released, in whole or in part, when the property's value comes to exceed by far the tax and the claims ahead of it, when the taxpayer offers other suitable property and that is seized, or when three public auctions have drawn no bid, no buyer is likely and no private sale is in prospect. It may also be released where seized real estate is sold and the delinquent taxpayer applies as a Ministry of Finance Order sets, if the taxpayer has paid tax equal to the sale price (or a value that Order sets where the price is lower) less the claims ranking ahead of the tax, up to the tax the seizure is for, and collection is not hindered.This is the rule from 1 April 2027.(Art. 79(1), Art. 79(2), Art. 79(2)(iv), Art. 79(2)(iv)(a), Art. 79(2)(iv)(b)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The district director of a tax office (税務署長) or the Regional Commissioner of a Regional Taxation Bureau (国税局長) has the tax collection officials (徴収職員) of their office carry out the delinquent tax collection procedure (滞納処分), and a Director-General of Customs (税関長) has those of the customs office do so. Where the property is outside their area, they can hand the procedure over to the office where it is.(Art. 2(1)(xi), Art. 182(1), Art. 182(2), Art. 183(1), Art. 183(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Movables and securities are seized when the official takes possession of them; a debt owed to the delinquent taxpayer, when a seizure notice reaches the person who owes it, who is barred from paying the taxpayer; and real estate, when a seizure document is served on the taxpayer or, if earlier, when the seizure is registered — and a seizure of wages, pensions or other continuing income covers what becomes payable after it, up to the tax to be collected. The delinquent taxpayer may keep using seized real estate in the ordinary way, unless the district director restricts it because acts that would markedly reduce its value are found to be taking place.This is the rule until 31 March 2027.(Art. 56(1), Art. 56(2), Art. 62(1), Art. 62(2), Art. 62(3), Art. 68(1), Art. 68(2), Art. 68(4), Art. 66(1), Art. 69(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Movables and securities are seized when the official takes possession of them; a debt owed to the delinquent taxpayer, when a seizure notice reaches the person who owes it, who is barred from paying the taxpayer; and real estate, when a seizure document is served on the taxpayer or, if earlier, when the seizure is registered — and a seizure of wages, pensions or other continuing income covers what becomes payable after it, up to the tax to be collected. The delinquent taxpayer may keep using seized real estate in the ordinary way, unless the district director restricts it because acts that would markedly reduce its value are found to be taking place. A right transferred using an electronic data processing system (特定電子移転財産権), other than one whose transfer must be registered, is seized by moving it into the official's control or, where that is difficult, by ordering a holder able to move it to do so, and disobeying that order without just cause is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine (罰金) of up to 2.5 million yen, or both.This is the rule from 1 April 2027.(Art. 56(1), Art. 56(2), Art. 62(1), Art. 62(2), Art. 62(3), Art. 68(1), Art. 68(2), Art. 68(4), Art. 66(1), Art. 69(1), Art. 72(1), Art. 72-2(1), Art. 72-2(2), Art. 187-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where needed for the procedure, a tax collection official may search the delinquent taxpayer's belongings, home and other places and open doors, safes and other containers; a third party's only where they hold the taxpayer's property and will not hand it over, or where a relative or other specially related person (親族その他の特殊関係者) is reasonably thought to hold it and will not hand it over. No search may be made between sunset and sunrise, unless it began before sunset, or it is of an inn, restaurant or other place the public can enter at night, during its opening hours, where it is unavoidably needed. The person searched, a relative living with them or a sensible employee must be present (failing them, two or more adults, or a local government official or police officer), and the official must carry identification and show it on request.(Art. 142(1), Art. 142(2), Art. 142(3), Art. 143(1), Art. 143(2), Art. 144(1), Art. 147(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where needed to investigate the delinquent taxpayer's property, a tax collection official may question, inspect the books, documents and electronic records of, and ask for items to be shown or submitted by: the delinquent taxpayer; anyone holding, or reasonably thought to hold, their property; anyone with debts or claims between them and the taxpayer, or reasonably thought to have acquired property from them; and any company in which the taxpayer holds shares or a stake. Refusing to answer or answering falsely, refusing or obstructing an inspection, failing without just reason to show or submit items, or showing or submitting false books is punishable by up to one year's imprisonment (拘禁刑) or a fine (罰金) of up to 500,000 yen. These powers are not to be read as given for criminal investigation.(Art. 141(1), Art. 188(1), Art. 147(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Seized property other than money, claims and the securities whose claims are collected is realized (換価), as may be a seized claim of which all or part falls due more than six months after collection is to begin, or which is found significantly difficult to collect: by public auction (公売), by tender or by auction, announced as a rule at least 10 days before and notified to the delinquent taxpayer and the known holders of rights over it; where no bid comes, or in the other cases Article 109 lists, it may be sold by private contract (随意契約) instead. Neither the delinquent taxpayer nor officials handling national tax at the National Tax Agency, a Regional Taxation Bureau, a tax office or customs may buy it, and the buyer acquires it on paying the price. The proceeds are distributed (配当) to the tax, to the taxes and public charges for which a share was requested and to secured creditors, in the order this Act, the Civil Code (民法) and other Acts set, and any surplus goes to the delinquent taxpayer.(Art. 89(1), Art. 89(2), Art. 94(1), Art. 94(2), Art. 95(1), Art. 96(1), Art. 109(1), Art. 92(1), Art. 116(1), Art. 129(1), Art. 129(3), Art. 129(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a court enforcement, an auction to enforce a security interest, bankruptcy or another compulsory realization procedure (強制換価手続) is under way on a delinquent taxpayer's property, the district director of a tax office must ask the body conducting it for a share of the proceeds for the delinquent tax — a request for share distribution (交付要求) — and tell the taxpayer, unless the taxpayer has other easily sold property, free of others' rights, that would cover the whole tax. Where the director could seize under Article 47, and movables, real estate or the other property Article 86 lists is already seized in another delinquent tax collection procedure, the request can take the form of a participatory seizure (参加差押え), which takes effect as a seizure, from an earlier time Article 87 sets, if that seizure is released.(Art. 2(1)(xii), Art. 82(1), Art. 82(2), Art. 83(1), Art. 86(1), Art. 87(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a person thought to owe tax has been subject to a seizure, arrest or other step under the Act on General Rules for National Taxes (国税通則法) or the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), separate Acts, on suspicion of evading tax or obtaining a refund wrongfully, and the tax could not be secured once its amount is fixed, the district director of a tax office may, with the Regional Commissioner's approval, set a preservation seizure amount (保全差押金額) before the tax is fixed and notify the person of it in writing, and officials may seize the person's property up to it at once. If the person offers security for that amount and asks, the seizure cannot be made, or must be released; it must also be released if the tax is not fixed by the day one year after the notice, and the property cannot be realized before the tax is fixed. If the tax fixed is less than the amount set, the State compensates the loss the seizure ordinarily caused.(Art. 159(1), Art. 159(2), Art. 159(3), Art. 159(4), Art. 159(5), Art. 159(8), Art. 159(11)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A taxpayer, or a third party holding their property, who hides, damages or disposes of property to the State's detriment, falsely increases its burdens, or alters it to cut its value or raise the costs, in order to escape the delinquent tax collection procedure or collection Japan has asked a tax treaty partner to make, can be punished by up to three years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine (罰金) of up to 2.5 million yen, or both; a person who knowingly takes the other side of such a deal, by up to two years' imprisonment, a fine of up to 1.5 million yen, or both. Making a false declaration about membership of an organized crime group (暴力団員) when bidding for, or buying, real estate in the procedure is punishable by up to six months' imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. Where a company's or person's representative or employee commits the offences in Articles 187 and 188 in the course of its business or about its property, the company or person is fined as well.This is the rule until 31 March 2027.(Art. 187(1), Art. 187(2), Art. 187(3), Art. 189(1), Art. 190(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A taxpayer, or a third party holding their property, who hides, damages or disposes of property to the State's detriment, falsely increases its burdens, or alters it to cut its value or raise the costs, in order to escape the delinquent tax collection procedure or collection Japan has asked a tax treaty partner to make, can be punished by up to three years' imprisonment (拘禁刑), a fine (罰金) of up to 2.5 million yen, or both; a person who knowingly takes the other side of such a deal, by up to two years' imprisonment, a fine of up to 1.5 million yen, or both. Making a false declaration about membership of an organized crime group (暴力団員) when bidding for, or buying, real estate in the procedure is punishable by up to six months' imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. Where a company's or person's representative or employee commits the offences in Articles 187, 187-2 and 188 in the course of its business or about its property, the company or person is fined as well.This is the rule from 1 April 2027.(Art. 187(1), Art. 187(2), Art. 187(3), Art. 187-2(1), Art. 189(1), Art. 190(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A challenge (不服申立て) to the delinquent tax collection procedure on the ground that a step in it was defective must be made by a deadline set by the step: for a demand for payment (督促), the day three months after the notice of seizure was received (or, with no notice, after the seizure became known); for a seizure of real estate and the other property Article 104-2 lists, the day of the public auction (or of the sale by private contract), not the later sale decision; for the steps from the auction notice to the sale decision for such property, the deadline for paying the price; and for the distribution of proceeds, the day they are paid out. The same deadlines apply to a lawsuit.(Art. 171(1), Art. 171(2), Art. 104-2(1), Art. 111(1), Art. 113(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where a taxpayer has fallen behind with liquor tax, tobacco tax or another of the consumption taxes and the like (消費税等) other than consumption tax itself, and later tax of that kind could not otherwise be secured, the district director of a tax office may order them to provide security (担保) of a set amount by a set deadline, up to three times the previous month's tax (or, if more, the tax for the matching month and the two after it a year earlier). For those taxes other than liquor tax, if the security is not provided in time, the director may notify the taxpayer in writing that a mortgage (抵当権) up to that amount is set up on their property, and it is then treated as set up. The security must be released once three months in a row pass without that tax falling into arrears.(Art. 2(1)(iii), Art. 158(1), Art. 158(2), Art. 158(3), Art. 158(4), Art. 158(7)) (the provisions it rests on)