From the Commissioner

The mission of the NTA is “ to help taxpayers meet their tax responsibilities
properly and without difﬁculty.” To succeed in this mission, the NTA endeavors
to provide complete service to taxpayers as well as to conduct proper and fairtaxation and collection so that compliant taxpayers feel that tax laws are applied
fairly to everyone.
In addition, in tandem with development of the globalization of the economy
and the sophistication of information, Japan’s tax administration environmenthas been changing considerably. Amidst such circumstances, we have been
implementing various measures to continuously pursue the NTA’s mission.
In terms of enhancing taxpayer service, the NTA offers helpful information totaxpayers about tax ﬁling and payment via the NTA website and other sources inan easy-to-understand manner, and the NTA has also taken a number of steps tomake the ﬁling and payment procedures more accessible to taxpayers utilizing
ICT, including online national tax return ﬁling and payment system（e-Tax）as well
as ﬁling assistance on the NTA website.
The NTA will take measures to further improvement of taxpayers’ convenience
with the introduction of the Social Security and Tax Number System as a turning
point.
In terms of achieving proper and fair taxation and collection, we are taking
rigorous actions against large and vicious fraudulent cases, thereby protecting
the interests of taxpayers. At the same time, we are promoting voluntaryenhancement of corporate governance regarding tax matters at large enterprises
in order to maintain and improve the level of tax ﬁling.
In recent years in particular, amid further globalization of the economy, public
interest has been signiﬁcantly growing in international tax avoidance cases dueto the disclosure of the so-called “Panama Papers” and progress in the Base
Erosion and Proﬁt Shifting（BEPS）Project.

1National Tax Agency Report 2017

With the addressing of international taxation being set as an important task,
the NTA has been working on the enhancement of information collection andutilization, and cooperation with foreign competent authorities. We also havebeen actively conducting examination, etc., after establishing and expanding asystem for specialized areas.
We will continue to appropriately deal with the act of hiding assets overseasand international tax avoidance performed by the affluent taxpayers andcorporations that conduct cross-border transactions, and will actively addressinternational taxation issues that newly arise.
Every member of the staff at the NTA is dedicated to help taxpayers file tax
returns and pay tax due properly and without difﬁculty, through various measures
as stated above.
To expedite implementation of such measures, taxpayers’ understanding
and trust in tax administration are essential. Therefore, the NTA provides
information on our various activities, policy initiatives, and other issues in themost lucid manner possible through the NTA website, press releases, and otheropportunities.
The NTA Report is one of such efforts and explains our activities anddevelopments for the previous year together with statistical data and otherreferences.
I would appreciate it if this “National Tax Agency Report 2017” would help you
to better understand us and the NTA.

June 2017

Hidenori Sakota
Commissioner
National Tax Agency, Japan

National Tax Agency Report 20172