The National Federation of Commerce and Industry calculated the taxable amount of the 85 individuals who were found to have failed to report their political fund balance on their income and expenditure reports, and determined that the total additional tax due for the five years, including income tax, heavy additional tax, and inhabitant tax, was ¥135,333,920. “This time, it hasn’t been scrutinized much, but consumption tax is also imposed. Since they’re essentially profiting from an entertainment business, they become taxpayers for consumption tax.” For small-scale business owners and individual proprietors forced to pay consumption tax through the invoice system, filing tax returns may seem ridiculous. Over the past five years, Mr. Hagita received a total of 27.28 million yen in kickbacks, yet even after amending his financial statements, he still listed entries such as “purpose of expenditure” and “amount” as “unknown.” What happens when an individual business owner submits a profit and loss statement or an income and expenditure breakdown full of unknown entries? “The tax office is unlikely to approve it. If we submit with ‘unknown’ entries, we’ll be subject to additional taxes.” If there are discrepancies in the tax return forms, citizens are investigated. Politicians, on the other hand, receive substantial kickbacks, make dubious entries in their financial reports, and still manage to avoid paying taxes.