1. Accounting (Source : “Keieizaimu Magazine”)
~22 New Offerings in 2010~
In 2010, the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in Japan was 22. This is a slight increase from 19 deals in 2009, after three consecutive years of decline since 2007 affected by such factors as the Lehman shock. Although the declining trend has somewhat bottomed out, IPO activity still remains at a low level.
On the other hand, companies delisting from the market amounted to 68. The reasons are mainly due to corporate reorganization including “acquiring full ownership of subsidiaries” (37 companies, 54%) and “all-stock acquisitions” (16 companies, 23%). The number of delisting companies has been hovering at around 70 to 80 in recent years, and business restructuring is the primary reason for these delistings as well.
2. Taxation (Source: “Zeimu Tsushin Magazine”)
Japan’s Supreme Court made a ruling on February 18 in a tax suit involving the eldest son of the consumer finance company TAKEFUJI CORP.’s deceased President, who had been alleged to have avoided Japanese gift tax on grounds that he resided in Hong Kong when he received the foreign assets. The Court ruled in favor of the taxpayer stating that “Whether a fixed place constitutes a domicile or not should be determined objectively on the basis of whether it fulfills the requirements of a principal place of living in substance. Although there may have been a subjective intent to avoid gift tax, such intent does not deny the objective existence of the domicile.”
As a result of the ruling, approximately 200 billion yen including about 40 billion in interest will be refunded to the taxpayer. The court ruling was made in accordance with the principle of “no taxation without law”. (Note that such tax avoidance schemes are now banned under current law).
3.This Week’s Words of Wisdom (Source: “Inspiring Quotes”, Edited & Supervised by Shintaro Ishihara)
“Anyway, take action. A person’s potential does not suddenly appear without action.”
(Seizo Katsunuma, Japanese Anatomist)
A person of integrity is not naturally born with the qualities that make him/her a person of integrity. I am sure that such people make continuous efforts in daily life by improving their actions little by little and one day come to be called a person of integrity.
In other words, the most important thing is to take action. Anyone can just imagine. Anyone can keep a resolution for one day. But only a handful of people can keep that resolution for a year. This is the essence.