Japanese Olympic Committee pays 2 billion yen tax bill for accounting irregularities

The Japanese Olympic Committee has been forced to pay around 2 billion yen (US$13 million) in back taxes after tax authorities discovered it had engaged in improper accounting in financial years from 2018 to 2022.

According to the tax audit conducted by the Tokyo Regional Public Prosecutors Office, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) had a significant discrepancy in sums owed to the tax control authority for the four-year period, with a difference of opinion regarding the JOC's expenses and the timing of the recognition of its income.

Advising that it had revised its tax declaration and paid the additional taxes to the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, Takahiro Kitano, a senior JOC board member told media “it is very regrettable. But we will do our utmost to ensure that it never happens again.”

Kitano confirmed that the JOC had paid about 2 billion yen in back taxes to the Tax Bureau, emphasising that the body had not been fined for improper accounting.

Faced with the Bureau's investigation, JOC argued that its accounting was appropriate, pointing out that it had outsourced its corporate tax calculation to a tax accounting firm and had been audited by both its internal auditor and an external entity.

Kitano added "there is no evidence of malicious accounting practices. We will handle the situation in a way that will not affect the (future) training projects of the athletes".

The JOC, which said it believed its accounting was in line with the law, confirmed that it had paid the levy because contesting it "would cost us an enormous amount of work, time and money.”

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