“Tax evasion”? “Tax saving”? Wealthy class unknown real September 11 18:08

Hokkaido's “Niseko area” attracts wealthy people and foreign capital from all over the world. Looking closely, corporations based in so-called “tax havens (tax avoidance areas)” acquired land and buildings one after another. Nearly 200, just knowing that number. Some of them are called “paper companies”. Why are these corporations and “paper companies” acquiring real estate in the Niseko area one after another? I learned that Hong Kong has clues to solve the mystery. What I saw was the reality of the world's wealthy, far from our common sense ...
(Social Department reporter, Tomomitsu Fujimoto / Hakodate Broadcasting Station reporter, Atsushi Kawaguchi)

Paper Company Niseko land acquisition! ?

The Niseko area is called Kutchan Town, Niseko Town, or Rankoshi Town in Hokkaido. So far, the number of foreign capitals that acquire real estate in the three towns is at least 1818 corporations.

In addition, we found that there are at least 199 corporations based in the so-called “Tax Haven” such as the British Virgin Islands.

Furthermore, 48 of these companies that were identified in the register were mostly “paper companies” with no offices.

(For details, see the link below)

“Tax Haven” corporation acquired real estate in Niseko! ?

September 3 News Up

The key to solving the mystery “Agent”

By the way, “Tax Haven”, as its name suggests, is a country or region that attracts funds from companies and wealthy people by significantly lowering tax rates.

The mystery of “Tax Haven” and “Paper Company” is deepening.

Looking for the clue and proceeding with the interview, it was found that the British Virgin Islands financial authorities had released corporate registration information.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the name or contact information of the representative of the corporation, but I found an item that was marked "Agent".

It was a company that acted as an agency for corporations, and many of them were in Hong Kong. So I decided to go to Hong Kong and interview directly.

The world of the paper company finally revealed

In Hong Kong, we contacted more than 40 companies, mainly the agents found in the registration information. Negotiations were difficult, as soon as I knew I was a reporter, but I finally reached an agent who responded to the interview.

The agent was based in an office building in the heart of Hong Kong.

When I was guided by a senior man and entered the office, there was an impression that it was no different from a typical company office, and more than 50 female staff worked.

This company is in charge of establishing a corporation, has 14 branches in China, and has a total of more than 400 employees.

I noticed this office. It is a shelf with a large number of files with corporate names.

When one of them was shown, the ones included were certificates and seals issued by governments such as the British Virgin Islands. If you have this set, you can do various activities as a corporation without an office.

In addition, there was a paper company “inventory” in the shelf that was established in advance so that it could be sold to customers at any time. There are more than 100 companies in each country and region, such as the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles Republic, and it is said that you can buy for less than 130,000 yen per company just by ordering by email or phone.

A man at a company executive explained the company's business:

"If you are a corporation on this shelf, you can always get your customers within one business day. You don't have to go to the British Virgin Islands, etc. All the necessary documents are created by us and the customer only signs. It ’s very easy. ”

You can buy corporations as if you were shopping online. For us living in Japan, there was a world that we had never seen.

By the way, this kind of agent business is a legitimate business in Hong Kong, and the number of customers who use the company's services is about 20,000 a year, mainly in Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China.

Who is buying a paper company for what purpose? Ask a company executive.

We revealed that most of our customers are wealthy people and celebrities in Asia.

Furthermore, for these wealthy people, buying a paper company is normal, not special.

“Our customers don't use their names to manage their assets. They use them to know who is rich in the area and to impersonate themselves to steal wealth. With a paper company, no one knows who the real owner is or how much wealth they have accumulated. ”(Agent Executive)

In other words, you hide your name and use it on a daily basis to protect your assets from third parties.

“We make bank accounts and credit cards in the name of the paper company. The property is well protected. The wealthy are familiar with the functions and benefits of the paper company.”

“Tax Escape” at Paper Company? The crack is

"High anonymity ..." In fact, I heard the same story from Japanese real estate officials.

But no matter how many times you listen, you won't fall. Isn't the purpose and reason for owning real estate in Niseko using a paper company really “high anonymity”?

The company executives finally talked about one more reason, the core, after persistently asking questions without being able to give up.

“The advantage of using a paper company is when you resell real estate.”

If you use a paper company, you will not be taxed on the profits from the resale.

According to this executive, the mechanism was as follows:

In the case of a general transaction in Japan, reselling real estate will add a new name to the purchaser in addition to the original owner.

If the resale makes a profit, the tax office can keep track of this fact and tax the original owner.

On the other hand, in a transaction using a paper company, when reselling, it takes the form of selling the stock of a corporation, not the real estate itself.

In this way, the fact that the corporation owner has changed behind the scenes does not change the fact that the corporation owns real estate, and there is no change in the registry.

In other words, the tax office cannot even know the fact that there was a transaction. Despite transactions between individuals, using a paper company prevents the tax office from grasping the facts of transactions and avoiding tax payments.

Is that really allowed? When investigating, in order to resell Japanese real estate, foreign corporations must also make a tax return and pay corporate tax.

The executive responded as follows:

“I don't think corporate owners have filed a tax return because the procedure to transfer shares is not in Japan but here in Hong Kong. This is not a tax evasion guide, it teaches how to legally save taxes. "

An agent who claims to be legal. He stressed that customer information is completely confidential and will never be revealed.

Finally, when asked what the Japanese tax authorities would visit directly, the executive answered with a smile.

“Of course we don't respond. That's impossible. Don't worry.”

How do you deal with the risk of “tax evasion”?

Is the agent's claim true? I went to talk with Masayuki Nakayama tax accountant, former tax inspector, Tokyo Tax Bureau, who is familiar with international tax.

According to Mr. Nakayama, the method revealed by the agent is called “transfer of real estate stocks” and this is a legal method.

However, even in overseas corporations, if most of the assets are real estate in Japan, it will be a violation of the corporate tax law if a tax return is made even if profits have been made.

However, as in the case interviewed this time, if the company is an overseas corporation and the stock is transferred overseas, it is difficult for the Japanese tax office to grasp the transaction, and there is a risk that "tax evasion" will prevail. Nakayama points out.

Mr. Nakayama said, “In particular, in the case of a paper company established in Tax Haven, there are many cases that represent a third party or another paper company that has nothing to do with it. Was extremely difficult, "he said as follows.

“When corporations based overseas, such as Tax Haven, buy Japanese real estate, it is necessary to introduce a new mechanism that requires the disclosure of true owners. In addition, there is a fear that Japanese land will be bought only by foreigners in time, and it is time to review the existing system for real estate sales. ”(Nakayama Tax Accountant)

Investment in real estate from abroad will revitalize the economy and produce various effects such as new development and job creation.

On the other hand, as Mr. Nakayama said, I strongly felt that the creation of new rules and systems would be indispensable.

To that end, we need to know exactly how the world sees real estate in Japan, what is happening in Japan and the actual situation and problems.

I would like to continue to explore the issues behind the veiled real estate market.