A son of the founder of consumer loan firm Takefuji Corp. has filed a lawsuit calling on tax authorities to cancel 130 billion yen in gift and penalty taxes they have imposed on him, sources said Sunday.
Toshiki Takei, a 40-year-old son of former Takefuji Chairman Yasuo Takei, filed the suit with the Tokyo District Court after the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau ordered him to pay the taxes over his alleged failure to declare a record 160 billion yen in taxable income, the sources said.
Takei's parents set up YST Investment in the Netherlands in December 1997 and gave 720 shares worth 160 billion, yen or 90 percent of the Dutch firm's outstanding shares, to him in December 1999 when he was using Hong Kong as his address.
Under the tax code at that time, citizens living abroad were exempt from taxation even if they were given shares in foreign companies.
But the tax authorities determined that Takei was effectively living in Japan at the time.