萬國法律事務所

Some legislators have proposed an amendment to the Tax Collection Act. According to the proposed Amendment, an additional chapter titled, Taxpayers’ Protection, will be included in the Tax Collection Act. This new chapter will contain the following four major points.

First, the tax collection authorities can only collect taxes on the basis of a statute passed via legislative procedure. Explanatory letters issued by the Ministry of Finance or administrative regulations cannot be the basis for the collection of taxes.

Second, the Ministry of Finance shall make public the relevant explanatory letters and administrative regulations, as these are often invoked by the Administrative Courts as important references in tax cases. Only those explanatory letters and administrative regulations that involve state secrets, business secrets or privacy are exempted from this public disclosure requirement.

Third, the tax collection authorities shall investigate evidence on their own initiative, and they shall consider any evidence favorable to taxpayers. Taxpayers, however, are obligated to assist in such investigations.

Finally, the tax collection authorities shall inform taxpayers of the scope and necessity of their investigations. A taxpayer may delegate another person to participate in the investigation or have an assistant accompany himself/herself in such procedure with the permission of the tax collection authorities.