My monthly-arrangement papa (a male supporter) of one year said, “If it goes over 1 million yen a year, there’s inheritance tax and I’ll have to file paperwork, so maybe we should reduce it to 80,000 yen a month so it doesn’t exceed 1 million yen a year?”

I’ll answer as Maezawa from the CEO’s office. The moment you say “inheritance tax,” I have to ask, “Huh?” If you’re talking about inheritance tax, the basic exemption should be ¥30 million + ¥6 million for each statutory heir. So rather than worrying about taxes, I think you’d be better off asking him to increase your allowance by saying, “It’s fine up to ¥30 million.” Besides, you can’t really call it an inheritance when the person hasn’t even died yet, so the whole thing is fundamentally strange. If you mean gift tax, then what Joe wrote is something people often say. It comes up when people talk about gifting ¥1.1 million a year to their children while they’re still alive, so that no inheritance tax will be charged later. It sounds correct at first glance, but since it’s difficult to prove that the gift was actually ¥1.1 million, the idea is that it’s better to deliberately give ¥1.11 million a year and pay ¥10,000 in gift tax instead. That way, there’s proof. You could probably just tell him, “I’ll file a gift-tax return, so there’s no problem.” > I would normally expect the amount to increase as we spend more time together, but can it actually go down instead? What do you think? I feel like increases are actually pretty rare. Most of the time, the amount stays the same. In fact, I think men are more likely to think, “Now that we’re closer, maybe I can lower it a little?” By the way, you pay rent to your landlord, right? If you lived there for a longer period of time, would you think, “I should pay my landlord more rent”? If anything, wouldn’t you be more likely to think, “I wonder if they could lower the rent?” Of course, normally you wouldn’t think about either—you’d just accept that rent is rent and continue paying the same amount. (And in the first place, the amount is fixed in the lease.) Even so, I feel like the situation is similar in principle. > Maybe he thinks I’m spending the money on brand-name clothes because I wear them. I don’t think he cares about that at all. He probably just wants to know whether your allowance could be a little lower.

I’m Tetsu, a male member. Papa is being stingy. The moment he brings up inheritance tax, I’m like, “Huh?” Inheritance tax is something that applies when papa dies. Besides, money received by someone who isn’t an heir before the inheritance begins is absolutely not subject to inheritance tax. And the tax office isn’t going to work itself to the bone over a gift of around one million yen. They’re tax professionals. They calculate how much tax they can collect before deciding how to proceed. If they spent several days on an on-site investigation, several more days gathering supporting evidence, and then a few weeks completing the procedures needed for a penalty—all for a case that would yield less than 100,000 yen in tax, their supervisor would be furious. From a man’s perspective, I think it’s more common for the allowance to be reduced as the relationship goes on. It’s a kind of getting used to each other—or rather, many men believe there’s no need to keep feeding a fish once they’ve caught it. That’s why the cheating never stops.

The person asking this would probably make your papa (a male supporter) angry, but you should tell a papa who says something like that: “I’m going to file a tax return, so please give me 2 million yen a year.” It’s true that gifts of up to 1.1 million yen a year are tax-exempt. However, if there’s a tax audit—which is highly unlikely for an amount like this, though if your papa is audited, they may investigate all the people he transferred money to—you may be required to prove that the total amount you received was 1.1 million yen or less. Bank transfers aren’t a problem, but if you’re paid in cash, there’s a risk they may determine that you received more than that. I don’t mean to scare you, but additional taxes could be imposed. In that case, I think it’s better to receive 2 million yen a year as a gift and file a tax return. To avoid having your finances unnecessarily scrutinized, bank transfers are recommended. That said, this doesn’t necessarily apply if you have several generous (well-paying) papas or other undeclared? side income you can’t tell people about. At the very least, what your papa is saying is basically nonsense. That said, this may sound contradictory, but national taxes are the foundation of the country’s finances, so you shouldn’t underestimate them. When they decide to act, they really do. Of course, I’m not advising anyone to evade taxes. And Joe isn’t a tax accountant, so some of this may be incorrect. But based on my experience, I want to say that just because something is tax-exempt doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in the clear. If anything, I’m more worried about your papa, lol. I think there’s actually a greater chance that he’ll be audited.

They’re just making excuses and trying to haggle you down.

I’m Dai, a male member. I’m surprised that you generally expect the allowance to go up as the relationship gets longer. I think that man simply wants to reduce the allowance. It may be best to assume that the end of your arrangement is approaching.

I’ll continue increasing women’s allowances over time. Paying taxes is a given. You should give enough with that in mind. There are countless ways to handle it. Reducing the allowance makes no sense. An allowance is an allowance. Thinking it should be reduced is just a stingy papa’s excuse. It’s a different story if the woman herself asks you to lower it.

Gifts and occasional bonuses may increase over the years, but in reality, I think the longer it continues, the more the allowance tends to decrease. And the less money is involved, the longer the relationship tends to last. Paper Airplane

I’m Kazu, a male member. That man is probably referring to gift tax, and as far as I know, the recipient is exempt from taxation only up to a total of ¥1.1 million received. The amount from all your papas (male supporters) is combined. It sounds like what he’s saying is incorrect in some way. One straightforward response would be: “Then I’ll report it. Please continue giving me the money as is.” You could then ask for your papa’s address, full name, and date of birth, explaining that you need them for the tax filing. Since the person giving the money can’t claim it as an expense, you don’t need to give him your own address or full name. Another option would be, “Then let’s reduce how often we meet and make it ¥90,000 a month.” The ¥1.1 million is a deduction. So if you receive ¥1.2 million in allowance over the year, the taxable amount is ¥100,000—the ¥1.2 million minus the ¥1.1 million deduction. The tax rate for taxable income of ¥2 million or less is 10%, so the tax would be ¥10,000, or 10% of ¥100,000. You should report and pay the tax. That said, I’m not a tax accountant, so please check the details yourself in advance or consult a tax office employee when filing your return.