did not pay prefecture tax-burnt big bridge

[WesTokyo]

Contact the prefecture and work out a payment plan, you'll be fine... If you dont pay they WILL seize you bank account in Japan, I know people who been through that, its not fun...

Tax office has special access of all bank transactions over 100,000 yen... They will find you.

[rooboy]

You hear some real wild stories on cases like this, but there are more people who get by without paying in these type of cases, then those who are levied.
Had that happen in a reverse way with a mate of mine, who was laid off his job and essentially unemployed for a year. He moved to a new city and went to the city office saying he had zilch earnings last go around and they registered him in NHI and Nenkin at a respectable low level and charged him for no city tax for last year, which effectively left him exonerated of previous charges (which they did not look into and which he owed big time at his previous residence)...Not all people are that lucky.

Thanks.
My mate's still desperate and looking to come, he wants to live in a totally as in far away prefecture from his old one. Looks like he might be alright, he's got a new passport. Re what Waruta said, he's got a post office savings account only, not used by him for a few years, do the ward offices/tax offices check out those as well as bank accounts?

[FG Lurker]

Thanks.
My mate's still desperate and looking to come, he wants to live in a totally as in far away prefecture from his old one. Looks like he might be alright, he's got a new passport. Re what Waruta said, he's got a post office savings account only, not used by him for a few years, do the ward offices/tax offices check out those as well as bank accounts?

No need for him to use that account, he can just open another one with his new ID when he gets here. I have no idea if they will find him or not but it seems that they are more likely to find him with the old account than with a new one.

[rooboy]

Thanks, I'll pass it on. Good to see non judgemental posts. I pay all my dues to the J govt in all its damned manifestations and I'm up to date on ward tax and all that shit.

But some people just slip behind when things go wrong, no fucking idea in some cases. Different point, I met a bloke just last week who overstayed his visa around 2002 and got some 'special permission' to stay, lucky bastard. How the hell did he go home and then come back with a visa overstay, I thought you couldn't do that until 5 yrs were up?

[FG Lurker]

I pay my taxes as well. Hate how much of it gets wasted on stupid shit, but I pay 'em.

The best advice I can give your buddy is to go to (or contact) the tax office in his previous locale and tell them that he owes them money and wants to pay. They'll work out a payment plan for him so he can get it paid off. They're quite reasonable about this sort of thing, especially if he goes to them rather than them finding him. If he goes to them they don't add any extra penalties (he'll pay low interest on the amount overdue but that's it.) If they find him though then they'll charge him extra penalties. How much money could possibly be involved in this? A few hundred thousand yen? A million or so? It's worth it to get it paid off.

The government here is getting very hungry for tax income. Hiding is likely to become more difficult, as things get more computerized they are more likely to find him. They have his photo and maybe fingerprints on file so if they match the names via computerization then it will just be a case of comparing photos and/or prints to get a match.

He can try to hide by making as clean a break as possible (diff place, diff bank accounts, diff employer, etc etc) but the chance if him being found gets greater as time goes on, and the penalties will just be getting higher.