It’s tax-filing season. I’m a female member with a full-time job during the day. I have a question about gift tax.

I’m Tetsu, a male member. Do you really want to pay that much in taxes? If you ask me, paying gift tax on your allowance is nonsense. You finally got paid, after all… If you describe the allowance you received from a man as “compensation for emotional distress,” it won’t be treated as a gift and will instead fall under income tax. The Income Tax Act stipulates that money received as compensation for physical or emotional harm is tax-exempt. The key point is that it says “physical or emotional,” not just “physical.” So as long as you claim that you received it because your mind or body was hurt, there shouldn’t be a problem. Even if the man is contacted, he just needs to give the same answer.

Maezawa from the President’s Office will answer as well. Thank you for your question. > To all married male members: has anyone ever filled in the “Donor” section? I feel like you may be asking the wrong people. The recipient is the one who files a gift tax return. Since male members are the ones giving the gifts, I don’t think they need to file anything. Of course, it’s possible they may have received money in the past. In that case, would that be mama-katsu? > After filing and having the woman pay the tax, has anyone ever had a notice, investigation, or inquiry sent to the man’s home? Normally, I don’t think anything would be sent. However, if someone received gifts totaling more than 10 million yen from a particular man, they might receive an inquiry. That said, as long as you can explain the source of the money, I don’t think it would be a problem no matter how many inquiries you received. > To the female members: how do you report money received from men who refuse to share their personal information? When tax-filing season arrives, tax return assistance centers and free consultation counters are set up. These are run by tax accountant associations and other professional organizations, so you can ask there. Normally, if you don’t know the other person’s address, you can’t fill it in. So I think you should file the gift tax return by providing whatever information you do know, such as the man’s name—even a club name should be acceptable.

I’m Kazu, a male member. “Paying taxes is an obligation, so pay your taxes” is absolutely right. As taxpayers, the male respondents here have experience with that. However, since male members are the ones making the gifts, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve had experience filing gift-tax returns. Speaking for myself, I’ve never received gifts exceeding the basic exemption, so I’ve never filed a gift-tax return. I’ve only been a club member for six months, and last year I didn’t give any woman more than ¥1.1 million. This year, though, I may end up exceeding that amount with someone. If a woman I give a fairly substantial amount to over the course of a year asked for my full name and address because she needed them to file her gift-tax return, I’d provide them—on the assumption that she would disclose her own full name and address as well. Come to think of it, the woman who may exceed the limit and I already know each other’s real names. This is just my guess, but even if the woman files and pays the tax, I don’t think the tax office would contact the person making the gift unless the amount seemed unusual in light of the donor’s tax situation. As for how to report money received from a man who won’t provide his personal information, I’d consult a tax accountant.

I’m a male member who dutifully pays his taxes—Paper Airplane. I sometimes have acquaintances ask me, “I’ve never filed a tax return before, but it’s starting to feel dangerous. What should I do?” But failing to file is hard to detect. It’s far less likely to be discovered than tax evasion. Even a certain celebrity went several years without a tax office inspection, so when it comes to personal income, the tax office may not even know for decades if you don’t file. They probably just don’t want to waste time on something that might lead nowhere… Besides, the tax office isn’t going to get worked up over some paltry amount that’s small enough for you to ask someone for advice about. It’s really not that dangerous. (If it were a substantial amount, you probably wouldn’t be asking for advice in the first place.) On the other hand, once you do file, there are apparently some officials who enthusiastically check everything down to the very last detail.