Japanese Tax Authorities...Smart

I think this Monday April 15 was a due date of Individual tax return in the U.S. and now that it's finally over and many people are finally relieved.  Congrats!

Japan's Individual tax return is due March 15.  Our situation is a bit different from the U.S.' and is much easier, which is not necessarily good to most of us.

For most of employed people in Japan, the year's tax matters are closed by "year end adjustment," which is an adjustment between final tax amount and what have been withheld in the year.  The year end adjustment is done by their employers, and those employed people do not have to file tax returns, unless they have some reasons, such as claiming some tax deductions, earning high income, etc.

Sounds good?  Well, there have been some arguments for this current tax filing system.

One of those arguments is that the current system intends to take away from the employed people, who are majority of our society, any opportunities to learn about the tax laws and leave them as "tax idiots."  This situation is favorable for the tax authorities as many of those employed people do not realize that they have tax refunds or do not claim the refunds, even though they realize the rights since the refund claim requires them to file tax returns, however, those people are not acｃustomed to tax return filing and just give up the opportunities.

The current tax filing system also helps the tax authorities stay with lower number of headcounts.

Some analyzes that changing the current "year-end adjustment" system to tax return filing system like the U.S. model would possibly cost the Japanese government huge amount of money mainly due to increases of tax refunds and tax authorities' costs.

So, under the current system, the Japanese government is very happy and would like to stay at, and citizens are also happy without knowing their losing opportunities...
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