The eldest son who “covered up 30 million yen” given by his late father… One phone call from the tax office that made his younger brother and sister jump up and down

There is an old saying that goes, “Brothers and sisters are the beginning of strangers. It means that brothers and sisters, who have lived and slept together in their childhood, become estranged from each other as they start working or get married.

Inheritance sometimes makes people realize this old proverb, as was the case in the B family. The eldest son graduated from a local national university and found a job in the prefecture. After his mother passed away, the family moved to a new house near the family home out of concern for his father. His younger siblings living in the city also relied on him.

The eldest son and his wife took good care of their elderly father. They took him to and from the hospital and took care of him afterwards without hesitation. When my father was in critical condition, they immediately called my younger brother and sister, and the three of them were able to take care of my father in his final days. Therefore, the younger siblings trusted their older brother and entrusted him with the management of the family home and inheritance procedures.

The elder brother proposed, “Let’s sell the family home and divide the money and father’s savings equally among the three of us (inheritance),” even though it was in the countryside and it would not amount to much.

My brother and sister agreed, of course. They even felt sorry that their brother’s inheritance should be equally divided, even though it was my brother and his wife who had taken care of my father. So, the B family’s inheritance division conference was settled without any particular trouble. The family home was sold within 10 months of the inheritance, which was the deadline for filing inheritance tax returns, and the division of the estate was successfully completed.

The sadness of losing my father is almost over. In the fall of two years later, just as the grief over the loss of their father was about to subside, a phone call sent their younger brother and sister jumping up and down. The call was an advance notice of a “tax audit” from the tax office.