Ⅰ About the NTA
The NTA was organized in 1949 as an external organization of the Ministry of Finance. The
NTA supervises 12 Regional Taxation Bureaus (including the Okinawa Regional Taxation
Office, and the same applies hereinafter) and 524 Tax Offices throughout Japan.
There is also the National Tax College which trains tax officials, while the National
Tax Tribunal serves as a special body engaged in examining requests for review from
taxpayers.

1

Organizational Philosophy of the NTA

The Mission of the NTA is “to help taxpayers properly and smoothly fulfill their tax duties.”
In order for the NTA to fulfill the mission, our duty to carry out is “Realizing proper and fair taxationand collection of internal taxes,” “Sound development of the liquor business,” and “Ensuring proper
administration of services by Certified Public Tax Accountants (CPTAs),” provided by Article 19 of the Act
for Establishment of the Ministry of Finance.
In order for the NTA to fulfill the “mission” and “duties,” we compiled “future vision as an organization,”
which indicates what organization we aim for while managing the organization, as well as “codes ofconduct,” which indicates important standards and values for each tax official to perform duties. These
are declared to tax officials and announced to the public as the “Organizational Philosophy of the NTA.”NTA

5NATIONAL TAX AGENCY REPORT 2023

About the NTA

Organizational philosophy of the NTA

Duty

 Realizing proper and fair taxation and collection ofinternal taxes
 Sound development of the liquor business

Proper and Fair
Taxation and Collection

To help taxpayers properly and smoothly fulfill theirtax duties.

Efforts for Enhancement ofServices for Taxpayers andEfficiency of Tax Administration

Mission Ensuring proper administration of services by Certified
Public Tax Accountants (CPTAs)

An organization that supports the nation's
finance with trust

Remedy for
Taxpayer Rights

Future vision as
an organization

 An organization that flexibly copes with changes in the economic society,improves taxpayer convenience and continues to progress.

LiquorAdministration

 An organization that makes taxation and collection more efficient andsophisticated and conducts strict and appropriate examinations anddisposition for delinquent tax while cooperating with a wide variety of
relevant persons.

Codes ofconduct

Ensuring Proper
Results
Evaluation
Administration of Services（）
Evaluation of Policies
by CPTAs An organization that is vibrant and open, respects the diversity of each
official and provides high performance as a team.

Tax professionals who take on a difficult
challenge holding the mission to heart Keep secrets associated with duties and maintain disciplines. Neverforgive frauds and carry out duties in a fair and honest manner.
 Constantly review duties with a sense of participation and challenging
spirit and make administrative duties more efficient and sophisticated.

NATIONAL TAX AGENCY REPORT 2023

Statistics

 Strive to acquire expertise and skills and demonstrate our abilities tothe fullest.

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Ⅰ

About the NTA

2Digital transformation for tax administration⑴ General remarks
The NTA released “Digital Transformation for Tax Administration: Future Vision of Tax Administration
2.0” (https://www.nta.go.jp/about/introduction/torikumi/digitaltransformation/index.htm [in Japanese])(hereinafter “Future Vision 2.0”) in June 2021, to clarify our policy for handling the “fundamental reviews ofnational tax-related procedures and TO BE status of relevant operations using digital (digital transformation
for tax administration)” (hereinafter “DX”).
In June 2023, Future Vision 2.0 was revised, for demonstrating that we will further promote DX for tax
administration, in accordance with three pillars: that is, two earlier pillars (“improvement of convenience
for taxpayers” and “higher efficiency in and sophistication of taxation and tax collection”) plus a newpillar “promotion of digitalization by business operators” (Digital Transformation for Tax Administration:
Future Vision of Tax Administration 2023 (https://www.nta.go.jp/about/introduction/torikumi/digitaltransformation2023/index.htm [in Japanese])).
Digital Transformation for Tax Administration:
Future Vision of Tax Administration 2023

Digital Transformation for Tax Administration: Future Vision of Tax Administration 2023
 We will promote digital transformation for tax administration (that is, fundamental reviews of national tax-related procedures and TO BE statusof operations) such as digitalization of tax procedures and data usage in operations.

 We will promote DX for whole society starting from taxation, through facilitating digitalization for operations of business operators.
We will contribute to society from the perspective of “DX promotion for whole society” as well, in addition to the perspective of “realizationof proper and fair taxation and collection.”

Future vision of tax administration
Realization of
TO BE status oftax procedures
Building an easyprocedure-applied
environment using
digital tools usedordinarily

Improved convenience for taxpayers＜Thorough application of “taxpayer perspectives”＞
Simpliﬁed procedures for tax ﬁling (payment
and refund) and year-end adjustments
Simpliﬁed procedures for application, etc. /online conﬁrmation of own information
Improvement in searchability /sophistication of consultation

A society where alltax procedures canbe completed
without going toa tax oﬃce

Eﬃciency improvement in and sophisticationof taxation and tax collection operations＜Thorough application of “data usage”＞

Performancemaximization as
an organization

Eﬃciency improvement in and sophistication of
taxation and tax collection（Usage of AI and data）（Usage of online tools, etc.）

Particular emphasis
placed on highly
needed areas andmalicious cases

Digitalization of inquiries to related agencies, etc.

Usage of taxation data for academic research purposes※Usage of taxation data other than those on “taxation and tax collection operations”

Proper taxation of
consumption tax

Promotion of digitalization at business operators
Dissemination of and PR on
digital-related measures

Collaboration with otherministries and agencies

Tax avoidance
Proper taxation on
the wealthy class

Collaboration with relevant
associations, etc.

Large-lot cases andmalicious cases

Contribution to society not only from the perspective of “realization of proper and fair taxation and collection” but also from the perspective of “DX promotion for whole society”＊ We will do our best to ensure adequacy in handling taxpayer information and information security.
＊ We will aim to provide eﬃcient and easy-to-use services for all taxpayers including those who are not dexterous in handling digital.
＊ Towards realization of the future vision, we will carry out the following: “realize center-based system for internal administrative tasks;” sophisticate the systems; and improve the infrastructure(personnel development, etc.).

⑵S tatus of the initiatives concerning “improvement in convenience for taxpayers”
We will aim to build an environment that enables even those who are not familiar with tax to carry out
procedures easily and conveniently using a digital tool used ordinarily (smartphone, tablet, PC, etc.). As
such, we will pursue various measures, more treasuring the “taxpayer perspectives” than ever.
As an approach for that, we set an assumed typical model of taxpayer (persona), to obtain a bird’s
eye view of the whole actual flow for a taxpayer to “confirm whether declaration is necessary or not,find the necessary procedures, make an inquiry, submit a tax return, and pay taxes” as well as to enableoptimum improvements for UI/UX; and specify a customer journey for the persona to implement tax
procedures. Through it, we are visualizing the current problems and considering improvement measures.
As concrete measures, we are promoting the following: simplify the declaration and application
procedures (expansion of the range of items that can be entered automatically, etc.) towards realizationof “Japanese version of pre-filled tax return” (tax return not requiring description); sophistication of searchand consultation using digital, etc.

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NATIONAL TAX AGENCY REPORT 2023

About the NTA⑶ Status of the initiatives concerning “improvement of efficiency in andsophistication of taxation and tax collection”

Efforts for Enhancement ofServices for Taxpayers andEfficiency of Tax Administration

Data are the sources of wisdom, value, and competitive edge; they also are positioned as the clues used
to solve social challenges in Japan, which is an advanced country in addressing new challenges. In tax
administration, too, we think it is important to improve efficiency in and sophisticate the operations using
data (or on the premise of data usage) as well as to tackle the challenge of BPR.
Therefore, we will not only proactively use data but also actively leveraging online tools in carryingout tasks, including the scenes of taxation and tax collection. Also, we will expand data-used informationexchange for inquiries to other entities such as local governments and financial institutions, throughpromoting digitalization.
Also, from the viewpoint of effective use of data, we are considering the ways to use taxation data for
academic research purposes as well.

Proper and Fair
Taxation and Collection⑷ Promotion of digitalization at business operators

LiquorAdministration
Ensuring Proper
Results
Evaluation
Administration of Services（）
Evaluation of Policies
by CPTAs

3

Remedy for
Taxpayer Rights

Powerful promotion of digitalization of all transactions of business operators or of all accounting processes,
etc.: This is regarded as one of the important challenges for the whole government to tackle.
Regarding the administrative tasks processed by business operators in daily operations (those related
to economic transactions, those processed by back office), if they can be completed by digital consistently,
it is expected each business operator can enjoy huge advantages such as improved accuracy throughprevention of simple errors and improved productivity through higher operational efficiency.
Therefore, we also are promoting the measures to encourage business operators to pursue operational
digitalization, in addition to digitalization of tax procedures.
If economic transactions and operations are digitalized, and if an environment is established where
efficient digital processing is enabled consistently including tax processing, productivity improvement
would be realized at business operators; as a result, digitalization of other business operators would
be encouraged, and both tax procedures and operations would see further digitalization. This means
creation of a “virtuous cycle in that promotion of digitalization leads to further digitalization.” Thus, if it
occurs, we could expect it will lead to DX promotion for whole society and advantages of digitalization
will spread to whole society.
We are endeavoring to help business operators promote respective operational digitalization, fromthe perspective of enabling digitalization of whole business process of business operators, with an eye on
the fact that such efforts have social implications in that they could contribute to DX promotion for wholesociety.

Thoughts on management of tax administration

We will pursue the following initiatives, to fulfill the above-mentioned missions and roles as well as to earn
understanding and trust from taxpayers.

NTA Initiatives⑴ Enhancement of services for taxpayers

NATIONAL TAX AGENCY REPORT 2023

Statistics● Work to provide an excellent means for filing and payment using ICT, such as e-Tax (online national tax return filingand tax payment system) and filing assistance on the NTA website.
● Provide the necessary information needed for filing via NTA websites etc. so that taxpayers can correctly file andpay their taxes themselves.
● Work to improve an environment and provide support to enhance tax education, in cooperation with the relevant
ministries, agencies, educators and private organizations.
● Respond to advance inquiries and advance pricing arrangement of transfer pricing taxation, so the taxpayer can
predict in advance the tax treatment of its own economic activities.

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Ⅰ

About the NTA⑵ Promotion of administrative work efficiency and enhancement oforganizational foundations● To appropriately perform the NTA’s duties under the severe fiscal conditions, work to secure the necessary structure,staff and budgets, appropriately allocate them, and take the taxpayers viewpoint in working to boost efficiency andreduce costs.
● Constantly review to simplify and boost efficiency, for example by computerization of clerical processes. For theincome tax return, focus on encouraging use of e-Tax which contributes to enhanced taxpayer convenience.
● Thoroughly control administrative documents and information.
● Accurately assign personnel corresponding to their experience and abilities, while paying attention to hiring andpromoting female staff. To enhance needed specialized knowledge, provide guidance and development measures
such as training.

⑶ Proper and fair taxation and collection and remedy for taxpayer rights● Take a strict stance against malicious taxpayers, while protecting taxpayer rights and interests.
● Upon dispositions for taxation and delinquent tax, and then accurately confirm the facts and apply the laws andregulations.
● Systematically work in response to increasingly complex economic transactions, etc. Work to enhance the system tocollect information, and accurately prioritize issues such as response to the increasing diversity of asset investments
and fraudulent refunds for consumption tax.
● For international transactions, exchange information with foreign tax authorities based on tax treaties, and takestrict actions towards tax avoidance etc., in which taxation problems are found.
● Promote the enhancement of corporate governance on tax matters through exchanging opinions with executive
officers of large enterprises, etc. At the same time, reallocate the volume of examination duties to corporations witha high necessity of examination from those judged that the necessity of examination is low including the situationof corporate governance.
● Achieve proper and speedy processing of a request for review, as well as develop environment for more userfriendly request for review system.

⑷ Proper management of liquor administration● As the competent agency in liquor business to aim at the preservation of liquor tax and the sound development ofliquor business, the NTA endeavors to ensure the proper enforcement of laws and strengthens the promotion of
liquor business (especially promoting exports) from the comprehensive perspective that covers consumers and thewhole liquor industry while coordinating and cooperating with related government offices, organizations, etc.
● Make efforts to cultivate overseas markets through distributing information globally and holding international
negotiations, etc., to promote the establishment of brands through spreading the use of Geographical Indications(GI), to provide technical assistance to liquor manufacturers, etc. and to ensure the safety of liquor among others.
● To ensure fair trade of liquor, conduct a survey of liquor business operators to check the actual state of trading of
liquor, etc. If a transaction that does not comply with“the Standards for the Fair Trade of Liquor”is detected, we takestrict actions including issuing instructions.
● To respond to social requirements, such as countermeasures against health problems caused by alcohol intake andpromotion of recycling resources, increase the publicity of the ban on selling liquor to people younger than the ageof 20 and recycle of liquor containers, etc.

⑸P roper administration of services by Certified Public Tax Accountants (CPTAs)● Endeavor to coordinate and cooperate with Certified Public Tax Accountants’
Associations as organizations for
improving the work of CPTAs, because CPTAs play important roles in the proper and smooth realization of the selfassessment system.
● Work to prevent violations of the Certified Public Tax Accountant Act by CPTAs etc. At the same time, take strict
action against CPTAs etc. who violate the Certified Public Tax Accountant Act and so-called “fake CPTAs” byapplying disciplinary actions and filing accusations seeking prosecution.

⑹ Results evaluation (Evaluation of Policies) and improvement of tax
administration● Provide easily understood information on issues the NTA should work on, on its policy initiatives and its various
measures, and on its evaluations and verifications of the results of their implementation. In addition, work to improvetax administration, based on the evaluations and verifications of the results of its implementation.

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NATIONAL TAX AGENCY REPORT 2023

Overview of the national tax organization

About the NTA

4⑴ National revenue and taxes
National revenue (initial budget for general account revenues) for FY2023 stands at 114,381.2 billion yen,

Efforts for Enhancement ofServices for Taxpayers andEfficiency of Tax Administrationof which 69,440 billion yen is from taxes and stamp revenues.
The income tax, corporation tax, and consumption tax account for about 80% of tax revenues.

■ National revenue (FY2023 general account revenues (initial budget))

9.3

Proper and Fair
Taxation and Collection

Others＜Categories of Taxes and Stamp Revenues＞

trillion yen（8.1％）

Specialdeﬁcit-ﬁnancing
bonds

Government （25.4％）
bonds

35.6

Total

114.4
trillion yen

Construction
trillion yen
bonds（31.1％）
trillion yen

6.5

69.4

trillion yen（60.7％）

Withholding
income tax

Inheritance tax
2.8 trillion yen（4.0％）

Consumption
tax

17.5 trillion yen（25.2％）

Total

69.4

trillion yen

23.4 trillion yen（33.7％）（5.7％）

Remedy for
Taxpayer Rights

29.1

trillion yen

Taxes and
Stamp revenues

Self-declared
income tax
3.5 trillion yen（5.0％）

Corporation tax

14.6 trillion yen（21.0％）

1.2 trillion yen（1.7％）

Stamp revenue

0.9 trillion yen（1.3％）

Gasoline tax

2.0 trillion yen（2.9％）

LiquorAdministration

Liquor tax

Motor vehicle tonnage tax 0.4 trillion yen（0.6％）
0.9 trillion yen（1.3％）

Customs duty

1.1 trillion yen（1.6％）

Others

1.1 trillion yen（1.6％）

Ensuring Proper
Results
Evaluation
Administration of Services（）
Evaluation of Policies
by CPTAs

Tobacco tax※1 Government bonds are revenues generated by construction bonds to finance public project-related expenditures and special deficitfinancing bonds issued to compensate for the revenue shortfalls. All are debts which are to be repaid in the future.
※2 The total amount of each item and the amount indicated as “Total” do not exactly match, due to rounding of fractional figures.
※3 Please refer to “Thinking About Japan’s National Finance” available on the official website of the Ministry of Finance (https://www.
mof. go.jp/zaisei/index.htm [in Japanese]) concerning national expenditures.

⑵ NTA budget
The NTA initial budget in FY2023 stands at 641.7 billion yen, with salary costs amounting to 563 billion
yen and general expenses 78.7 billion yen.

Statistics

NATIONAL TAX AGENCY REPORT 2023

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Ⅰ

About the NTA⑶ Organizational structure and number of personnel of the NTA
The NTA supervises 12 Regional Taxation Bureaus and 524 Tax Offices throughout Japan to process
national tax administration. Also, the authorized capacity for manpower of the NTA is 55,985 persons for
FY2023.（※1, ※2）

Ministry of FinanceTax Bureau Planning and drafting of the tax system(Local Branch Oﬃces)

National
Tax Agency
The NTA plans and draws up programs
to implement tax administration,
standardizes the way to interpret tax
laws, and directs and supervises theRegional Taxation Bureaus and Tax
Oﬃces (1,100 persons, 2.0%).

（Internal Subdivisions）
Commissioner’s
Secretariat
Taxation Department

Collection Department
Large Enterprise andCriminal Investigation
Department

Regional Taxation Bureaus andOkinawa Regional Taxation Oﬃce（12）Sapporo, Sendai, Kanto-Shinetsu, Tokyo,
Kanazawa, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima,
Takamatsu, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Okinawa

Regional Taxation Bureaus direct andsupervise Tax Oﬃces in their jurisdiction.
Bureaus also carry out various otheroperations, including the provision of tax
consultations and other services to taxpayers,
tax examinations on large-scale wide areas
and diﬃcult-to-process cases, and disposition
for delinquent taxes (15,790 persons, 28.2%).

Planning and Administration
Department（※4）
Information System Development
and Operation Department（※5）
Developes information systemsof the NTA such as e-Tax andKSK system and others.

Taxation Department
Directs and supervises divisions
within the Taxation Groups
within Tax Oﬃces, and conducts
diﬃcult tax examinations suchas on large-scale and malicious
taxpayers.

Collection Department（Councils etc.）

National Tax Council（※3）（Facilities）
National Tax College
The National Tax College trains new
recruits and provides important job
training to tax oﬃcials working in theﬁeld so that they can adapt promptly tosocial changes (328 persons, 0.6%).

（Special Body）

National Tax Tribunal
The National Tax Tribunal makes decisions
on requests for reconsideration regarding
decisions made by the District Director of
the Tax Oﬃce or other authorities, pursuant
to the laws/regulations about national tax(464 persons, 0.8%).

Directs and supervises the Revenue
Management and Processing
Groups and the Collection Groups
within the Tax Oﬃces, and initiates
procedures for large-scaledelinquent taxpayers.

Large Enterprise
Department

Carries out examination oflarge-enterprises and others.

Criminal Investigation
Department
Investigates malicious tax
evaders in order to pursue
criminal responsibility.

Regional Tax Tribunals (12)& Branches (7)(Regional Tax Tribunals): Sapporo, Sendai,
Kanto-Shinetsu, Tokyo, Kanazawa,
Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Takamatsu,
Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Okinawa(Branches of Regional Tax Tribunals):
Niigata, Nagano, Yokohama, Shizuoka,
Kyoto, Kobe, Okayama

Tax Oﬃces（524）
Tax Oﬃces are points of contact with
taxpayers, working as ﬁrst-line bodies
to process tax administration (38,303
persons, 68.4%).

Co-ordination Division
Special Oﬃcer(Public Relations)
Revenue Management
and Processing Group

Receives tax returns, issues certiﬁcates oftax payment, receives cash for tax
payment, general consultation on
taxation, etc. It also inputs information
on tax returns, manages national tax
claims, and administers refund
procedures, postponements of tax
payment, and payments in-kind.

Collection Group

Provides consultation on tax
payments, and executes procedures
against tax delinquencies.

Individual Taxation Group
Carries out consultation on income
tax and sole proprietor’s consumption
tax, and related examinations.

Property Taxation Group
Carries out consultation on
inheritance tax, gift tax, income tax
imposed when land, buildings, or
stock were transferred, and related
examinations. The Group alsod e t e r m i n e s r o a d p r i c e r a t i n gs,
which are used as reference incalculating inheritance tax, etc.

Corporation Taxation Group
Provides consultation on corporation
tax, local corporation tax,
consumption tax on corporations,withholding income tax, and othertaxes including stamp tax andgasoline tax, as well as related
examinations.

Chief Examiner(Liquor Tax and Industry)
Carries out consultation on liquor
tax, related examinations, and backoﬃce work for liquor sales licenses.

※1 The headcount and percentage indicated in each department represents the prescribed number of personnel, and its percentage of the overall
number of personnel in the NTA (FY2023).
※2 The prescribed number of personnel of 38,303 persons for tax offices includes the prescribed number of personnel of 220 people (0.4%) topromote employment of the challenged.
※3 The National Tax Council addresses the following: ① deliberation of cases in which the NTA Commissioner does not recognize the opinion of
the Director-General of the National Tax Tribunal as reasonable, where the Director-General of the National Tax Tribunal determines the caseby interpreting laws differently from the notification issued by the NTA Commissioner; ② implementation of CPTAs examination and decisionon the disciplinary actions applied to CPTAs; and ③ deliberations on the establishment of labeling standards for liquor, and other matters.
※4 Office of Submission Processing Center was established in July 2021. For details, please refer to Column 2 on page 21.
※5 Information System Dept. was installed in the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau in July 2023.

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NATIONAL TAX AGENCY REPORT 2023