February 5, 2012
About 187,000 households in FY2010 experienced the compulsory seizure of assets for nonpayment of their national health insurance tax.
Data the health and welfare ministry released on February 3 shows that 90% of municipalities in Japan seized some kind of property such as savings, deposits, life insurance policies, real estate, or movable assets. The total amount of seizure is 73.2 billion yen.
The main cause of people falling behind in their national health insurance tax payments is the overly high tax rate. For example, a family of four living on 2 million yen in annual income is charged 400,000 yen a year for the national health insurance tax.
The health and welfare ministry in 2005 demanded all municipalities to strengthen measures to collect back taxes. Since then, cruel and forcible collections have taken place, and both the number of attachments and the amount of value of seized goods have increased. Even an educational insurance policy can be subject to seizure in spite of the fact that parents have put aside these savings in order for their children to obtain higher education.
The rate of collection in FY2010 was slightly improved to 88.6%, 0.59 points up from the previous fiscal year. Despite this fact, the amount of money collected decreased by 2.1% to 64.4 billion yen because people’s incomes have been declining.
Data the health and welfare ministry released on February 3 shows that 90% of municipalities in Japan seized some kind of property such as savings, deposits, life insurance policies, real estate, or movable assets. The total amount of seizure is 73.2 billion yen.
The main cause of people falling behind in their national health insurance tax payments is the overly high tax rate. For example, a family of four living on 2 million yen in annual income is charged 400,000 yen a year for the national health insurance tax.
The health and welfare ministry in 2005 demanded all municipalities to strengthen measures to collect back taxes. Since then, cruel and forcible collections have taken place, and both the number of attachments and the amount of value of seized goods have increased. Even an educational insurance policy can be subject to seizure in spite of the fact that parents have put aside these savings in order for their children to obtain higher education.
The rate of collection in FY2010 was slightly improved to 88.6%, 0.59 points up from the previous fiscal year. Despite this fact, the amount of money collected decreased by 2.1% to 64.4 billion yen because people’s incomes have been declining.
