Transparenz in Steuersachen in Japan
Abstract
Combating tax evasion (and money laundering) on the international level is at least since 2011 a common international political goal.
After an introduction into the topic, in the first part of this paper (I.), the legislative history and the background of the enactment of the Japanese tax identification and social insurance number act (TIN Act), which came into effect in 2017, is described. Since then, in Japan exists in theory one nationwide central database with the data of all citizens in question. However, only the tax payers themselves have unrestricted access to their personal data (annual income, costs of social insurance, costs of medical treatment, pension data, etc.). Japanese authorities and employers have a general duty to protect those data of taxpayers/employees.
The TIN Act is regarded as lex specialis in relation to the more general Law about the Protection of Personal Information. This, however, does not mean that the tax payers in Japan are less protected by the TIN Act against the administration in comparison with taxpayers in other countries. The aim of the act was only to create a special law for TIN, after a massive leak of information about pensions from the social welfare authorities and the Japanese pension organisation had occurred. The introduction of the TIN had also influence on Japanese financial institutes, because the authorities (tax authorities, financial supervisory authorities) are now controlling all bank accounts. In practice, the resulting bureaucratic and complicated procedures have caused quite severe problems.
In addition to the introduction of the TIN and other domestic measures, Japan has also ratified multilateral conventions aiming at the realization of tax transparency. It is therefore already possible to collect necessary information about the income of tax payers from the authorities of other countries.
Due to the measures mentioned above, tax transparency has been further enhanced, as even before, that the authorities already had various opportunities to obtain information (Part II.). However, the enhanced opportunities have to be carefully evaluated, because it is still unclear whether the rights of the tax payers are sufficiently protected (Part III.). The Japanese courts are generally a little more lenient to authorities and the legislator, compared to other countries (lack of constitutional anchoring of the principle of proportionality). While the tax payer has to accept his transparency, the Japanese tax administration is not really transparent. The main reason for this, however, is the principle of fiscal secrecy for the protection of the tax payer (Part IV.).
(The Editors)
