Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has received a refund of about ¥130 million from the ¥609.7 million he paid for the gift tax on assets provided by his mother, sources said.
Hatoyama had long failed to take the necessary tax procedures on the assets. Most of the refund was made because the statute of limitations on some of the gifts had been reached.
The tax authorities judged that the tax he later paid on funds he received in 2002 and 2003 was unnecessary because the five-year time limit had expired, sparing him more than ¥100 million he would otherwise have had to pay.
Hatoyama paid ¥609.7 million in the gift tax on about ¥1.25 billion in funds provided between 2002 and 2009 by his mother, Yasuko, his office said.
His billionaire mother allegedly began providing ¥15 million per month at the request of an ex-aide of Hatoyama. The state-paid secretary was later convicted of falsifying political funding reports.
The tax authorities investigated Hatoyama's case and judged that he hadn't known his mother was providing the money and therefore didn't participate in a coverup.