News
A total of 2,437 importers either failed to make declarations or committed other acts of misconduct in Japan in the year from July 2022 through June 2023, which increased 2.23-fold from the previous 12 months, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
The ministry unveiled a report yesterday that it had compiled on the results of the post-surveys that the customs across Japan conducted in July 2022-June 2023 on the declarations that importers made in the same 12 months on import tariffs and domestic consumption tax.
The total amount of tax imposed on failed declarations and other acts of misconduct was ?88.49 billion (US$586.12 million), which increased 49.7%, but ?9.34 billion (US$61.86 million) was not paid-?8.53 billion (US$56.5 million) in consumption tax and ?810 million (US$5.37 million) in tariff. Back taxes amounted to ?9.82 billion (US$65.05 million), which swelled 52.1%.
The top five commodities on which tax payments were not appropriately made were optical instruments, automobiles, electric appliances, machinery and footwear, which accounted for some 60% of the total.
The three most frequent declarations failures were as follows: 1) Import declarations were made with invoices containing lower prices than the transaction prices set by exporters or importers. 2) Declarations were not made on shipment costs that had to be paid in addition to prices on invoices. 3) Declarations were not made on parts, components and others that had been provided to exporters free of charge.
