Article 34Obligation of Joint and Several Liability for Payment, etc.

①All persons who have acquired property by inheritance or bequest (including a gift relating to property to which the provisions of Article 21-9, paragraph (3) apply; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph and the following paragraph) from the same decedent are jointly and severally liable for payment of the inheritance tax relating to the property acquired by that inheritance or bequest, up to the amount equivalent to the value of the benefit received by that inheritance or bequest; provided, however, that this does not apply to the inheritance tax prescribed in the following items, according to the classification of persons listed in the respective items:

③In the case where property that formed the basis for calculating the taxable value for inheritance tax or the taxable value for gift tax has been transferred by gift, bequest or deed of endowment, the person who has acquired the property by that gift or bequest, or the juridical person established by that deed of endowment, is jointly and severally liable for payment, up to the amount equivalent to the value of the benefit received, of the inheritance tax equivalent to the amount calculated by multiplying the amount of inheritance tax of the person who made that gift, bequest or deed of endowment, in which that property was included in the basis for calculating the taxable value, by the proportion that the value of that property accounts for in the value of the property included in the taxable value for that inheritance tax, or of the gift tax equivalent to the amount calculated by multiplying the amount of gift tax for the year in which that property was included in the basis for calculating the taxable value by the proportion that the value of that property accounts for in the value of the property included in the taxable value for that gift tax.

④A person who has made a gift of property is jointly and severally liable for payment, up to the amount equivalent to the value of that property, of the gift tax equivalent to the amount specified by Cabinet Order as the amount calculated by multiplying the amount of gift tax, for the year in which the person who acquired the property by that gift acquired that property, by the proportion that the value of that property accounts for in the value of the property included in the taxable value for gift tax.

⑤In the case where the district director has issued a demand under the provisions of Article 37 (Demand) of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes to a person liable for tax with respect to the inheritance tax of that person liable for tax, and that inheritance tax has not been paid in full by the day on which one month elapses from the day on which the written demand relating to that demand was issued, the district director is to notify the person jointly liable for payment relating to that inheritance tax, notwithstanding the provisions of that Article, that the inheritance tax has not been paid in full and of any other matters specified by Ministry of Finance Order.

⑥In the case where the district director has given the notice under the provisions of the preceding paragraph and intends to collect inheritance tax from a person jointly liable for payment pursuant to the provisions of the main clause of paragraph (1), the district director must give that person jointly liable for payment notice by means of a written payment notice stating the amount to be paid, the place of payment and any other necessary matters.

⑦If the inheritance tax relating to the notice under the provisions of the preceding paragraph has not been paid in full by the day on which two months elapse from the day following the day on which the notice was issued, the district director must issue a demand under the provisions of Article 37 of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes to the person jointly liable for payment who received the notice.

⑧Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding three paragraphs, if there is a fact that a person jointly liable for payment falls under any of the items of Article 38, paragraph (1) (Advance Demand) of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes and it is found that there is an impediment to the collection of the inheritance tax, the district director must issue a demand under the provisions of Article 37 of that Act to that person jointly liable for payment.