Taxes, ugh taxes. Tax time again – which for most is a tearful goodbye to hard earned money. Not for Toshiki Takei. For him it’s the biggest payday of his tax paying life after being awarded a refund of $2.4 Billion.
However, it didn’t happen in one return. In fact, it’s taken him 12 years to get it.
Flashback to 1999. Takei is director of a consumer loans firm, Takefuji Corporation, and is living in Hong Kong when his parents give him shares in a Dutch Company. Like a good citizen he files his return and Japanese officials give him a bill for 160 billion yen ($1.92 billion US) to be paid for gift tax.
Takei argues he is living in Hong Kong and should be exempt but authorities reject this saying it is temporary so he must pay the insanely high tax.
Jump forward to 2011. The Supreme Court rules in Takei’s favour saying he was in fact a resident of China in 1999 and is exempt from any Japanese tax for that year. Now the government must repay the money with an interest rate of 4% making the grand total in Takei’s pocket 200billion yen ($2.4 billion US.)
According to media sources this could mean more court appearances for the Japanese tax authority. Apparently there are 2 million other people in the country with similar cases.
Oh, the tangled web money does weave. Hopefully the Japanese government’s web is strong enough to withstand a few broken strands and won’t collapse under the pressure.
