Sisters Hide Inheritance in the Shed to Avoid Japanese Estate Tax

According to Matthew Firestone, Big in Japan: Sisters hide billions of yen in their tool shed, gadling.com, March 12, 2008:

Today in Japan, the tabloids are buzzing with the latest news of two sisters from the city of Osaka, who were arrested yesterday after hiding US$58 million from the tax man.***

[T]hey actually kept all of the money in cardboard boxes and paper bags that were stowed away in a shed attached to their house!***

According to prosecutors, the two sisters in question, Hatsue Shimizu and Yoshiko Ishii, inherited about 7.5 billion yen (or US$73 million) when their father, who owned a property and finance company, died in 2004.

In Japan, inheritance tax can take a serious chunk out of your assets, and this dastardly duo wasn’t about to lose their hard-earned money to the government.

So, rather than losing an estimated 2.86 billion yen (or US$28 million) of their newfound fortune, the free-thinking pair simply declared a small amount and stashed the rest.***

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this article to my attention.