Article 165Delinquency Charge on Automobile Tax Paid After the Due Date for Payment, etc.

①A taxpayer of automobile tax who pays the tax after the due date for payment under Article 156 (where the due date for payment has been extended, the extended due date for payment; the same applies hereinafter in this Article, paragraph (1) of the following Article and Article 168) must add to the tax amount, and pay, an amount of delinquency charge equivalent to the amount calculated by multiplying the tax amount by the rate of 14.6 percent per annum (for the period until the day on which one month elapses from the day following the due date for payment, 7.3 percent per annum) according to the number of days in the period from the day following the due date for payment to the day of payment.

②Where automobile tax is collected by the method of ordinary collection under Article 158, paragraph (7), a prefectural tax collection official must, notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, add to the tax amount, and collect, an amount of delinquency charge equivalent to the amount calculated by multiplying the tax amount by the rate of 14.6 percent per annum (for the period up to the day on which payment is to be made under the tax notice for that automobile tax or the period until the day on which one month elapses from the day following that day, 7.3 percent per annum) according to the number of days in the period from the day following the day on which that tax notice was issued to the day of payment.

③A prefectural governor may reduce or exempt the amount of delinquency charge under the preceding two paragraphs if the governor finds that there were unavoidable grounds for the taxpayer's failure to pay the tax by the due date for payment under Article 156 or on the day on which the tax was to be paid under Article 158, paragraph (4) or Article 159.