KDDI Co-Founder’s Children Fail to Pay Taxes on Lifetime Gifts

Tokyo, July 9 (Jiji Press)–Four children of Sachio Senmoto, co-founder of one of the predecessors of telecommunications carrier KDDI Corp., had failed to pay taxes on lifetime gifts from their father, it was learned Thursday. The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau judged in 2024 that the four had failed to declare a total of about 750 million yen in lifetime gifts, underreporting the value of real estate, and imposed back taxes of 178 million yen on them, informed sources said. The four appealed to the National Tax Tribunal, but their appeal was dismissed in April 2025. According to the sources, Senmoto, 83, purchased three condominium buildings for about 4 billion yen through three companies between 2013 and 2017 and gave shares in the three companies to his first and second daughters and sons between 2017 and 2020. The four calculated taxes on the lifetime gifts at zero yen by assessing the value of the condominium buildings at about 800 million yen, based on state-set roadside land prices, and deducting the amount of bank loans. However, the tax bureau estimated the value of the condominium buildings at about 3.4 billion yen, based on their acquisition costs. The bureau found that applying the rule allowing the use of roadside land prices three years after property acquisition was inappropriate in this case. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]