If I deposit the roughly ¥3 million I received from men into a bank account all at once, would it be better to open a separate personal account rather than putting it in my company account? I’m worried that depositing it into the same account might attract closer scrutiny from the tax office… Sorry if this is a misguided question. I’d also appreciate hearing how other women handle this, if anyone is willing to share. Thank you in advance for your answers.

This is Saito, a columnist ♪ Please pay your taxes. That’s my only answer.

Maezawa here. Do you have a company bank account? In other words, are you a business owner? If so, you probably already work with a tax accountant, depending on the size of your company, so I’d recommend consulting the tax accountant you normally use. If you consult someone you don’t usually work with, they’ll probably just advise you to report everything normally. But a tax accountant you have an ongoing relationship with may be able to offer tax-saving advice, such as whether certain income should be handled through the company and how to record it. Of course, some tax accountants never bring up tax savings and only talk about filing normally. In that case, I think it would be a good idea to switch to a tax accountant who specializes in tax reduction. Incidentally, tax accountants generally fall into two categories: those who became tax accountants after retiring from the National Tax Agency or a tax office, and those who became tax accountants by passing the required exams. Generally speaking, those who passed the difficult exams tend to have studied tax reduction more extensively, since they had to work hard to qualify. On the other hand, former tax officials know better what tax offices tend to scrutinize. That said, former tax officials usually aren’t as enthusiastic about tax reduction, so which type is better depends on the circumstances. One issue is that even someone who became a tax accountant by passing the exams may not have had to struggle much if their parent was also a tax accountant. If their parent properly passed on their tax-saving know-how, that’s fine—but if not, things can sometimes end rather sadly.