In recent years, governments of developed countries such as the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom have taken positive steps to reinforce the fairness and transparency of their respective tax administration systems. Particularly noteworthy in these attempts has been the establishment of a comprehensive set of 'taxpayers' rights'. This has involved the enactment or amendment of general administrative procedure laws or specific tax procedure laws, as well as the publication of an easily comprehensible Declaration of Taxpayer Rights. Taxpayer's Charter, Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, etc. The respective governments and tax authorities have thus conveyed to taxpayers their sincerity in promoting fairness and transparency.

The OECD published a report in 1990 entitled Taxpayers ' Rights and Obligations: A Survey of the Legal Situation in OECD Countries. The International Fiscal Association (IFA) has recently adopted several research themes which relate to taxpayers ' rights, such as Taxation and Human Rights (1988) and Protection of Confidential Information in Tax Matters (1991). This display of interest by major international bodies is a testament to the weight being attached to taxpayers' rights at the highest levels.

The Japanese tax administration system has always been based on the premise that the tax authorities were the dominant party. As will be seen in the chapter on tax audits in this volume. many details of tax administration are left to the discretion of the tax authorities. which has led to the prevalence of procedures that are not fully fair and transparent. For this reason, there has been a longstanding movement in Japan to achieve taxpayers' rights - fair and transparent tax administration that is managed from the standpoint of the taxpayer rather than the authorities. This movement has been supported not only by academics and zeirishi ('certified tax accountants' or 'tax attorneys'), but also by broad-based taxpayer associations and consumer groups.

Despite such demands from tax specialists and taxpayers, the government and tax authorities remain unreceptive to an overhaul of the current tax administration system. Until now. the zeirishi associations and taxpayer associations have submitted many concrete proposals to establish taxpayers' rights, such as draft bills to streamline tax procedures or to allow access to information held by the tax authorities. However. the government and the tax authorities have not responded positively to these suggestions.

This volume was written to provide an English-language resource on the Japanese tax administration system, with the aim of obtaining comments from readers from other countries and from international bodies to promote the fairness and internationalization of the Japanese tax administration system.

View by AcrobatReader(.PDF)