One of my favorite tax stories to come out of the BBC (yes, even more than the new UK budget) is the saga of Hatsue Shimizu and Yoshiko Ishii. The two Japanese sisters have been arrested for alleged tax evasion – the National Tax Agency in Japan is calling it the biggest ever case of its kind in the country.
Tax officials in Japan claim that Shimizu and Ishii hid almost 6 billion yen ($58 million) in cardboard boxes and paper bags at their home in Osaka. The money reportedly is an inheritance as a result of the death of their wealthy father in 2004. Rather than report the inheritance, authorities allege that the sisters reported a small fraction and hid the rest. Tax officials claim to have found most of the money packed away in fifty cardboard boxes hidden in a shed.
This I don’t get. I don’t quite understand the appeal of hiding nearly $60 million in a shed near my house (notwithstanding the mildew issues since I live not so far from a creek). Clearly, you’re not packing it up and shipping it off to say, Liechtenstein, but maybe a pair of nice shoes? A trip to Paris? But hiding it in a shed? For four years? No wonder they were caught.
