Section 15 Penal Provisions

①A person who incites a person liable for tax or a special collection agent not to file, or to file falsely, the tax base amount that the person is to file (including amendments of those filings; hereinafter collectively referred to as "filing" in this Article), not to collect or pay the tax, or not to remit a remittance, is to be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than 200,000 yen.

②A person who uses violence or intimidation in order to prevent filing, to cause a false filing, to prevent the collection or payment of tax, or to prevent a remittance from being remitted is also to be punished by the imprisonment or fine in the preceding paragraph.

A person who is or was engaged in affairs relating to an investigation concerning local taxes (including an investigation for the hearing of a case relating to an appeal and an investigation of a criminal tax case concerning local taxes) or an investigation for the provision of information conducted under the provisions of the Act on Special Provisions of the Income Tax Act, the Corporation Tax Act and the Local Tax Act Incidental to Enforcement of Tax Treaties, etc. (Act No. 46 of 1969), or in affairs relating to the collection of local taxes, is, where the person divulges or misappropriates a secret learned in connection with those affairs, to be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years or a fine of not more than 1,000,000 yen.

①Where a person makes a false statement in a written request for reassessment prescribed in Article 20-9-3, paragraph (3) and submits it to the head of a local government, 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.

②Where a representative of a corporation (including an administrator of an association or foundation without juridical personality), or an agent, employee or other worker of a corporation or person, commits the violation 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 imposed on that corporation or person.

③Where the provisions of the preceding paragraph apply to an association or foundation without juridical personality, its representative or administrator represents the association or foundation without juridical personality with regard to its procedural acts, and the provisions of the laws concerning criminal proceedings in which a corporation is the defendant or the suspect apply mutatis mutandis.