No. 1426 Alternative Tax Payment Scheme to Specific Municipalities Distorted
The so-called Tax Payment to Hometowns plan has been used popularly through internet sites. Intermediary website entities have provided users with purchase points, but this commercial scheme was banned as of October 1, 2025. This tax payment program was created, at the beginning, to contribute financially to favorite municipalities, but has been transformed to be a practice far from the one with the initial objective. The scheme should be ended.
ABOLISH THE SCHEME AND RETURN TO ORIGINAL DONATION PROGRAM
The alternative tax payment program was founded so that taxpayers could pay their duties as donations to their hometowns or favorite municipalities to support development and prosperity of the localities.
Resident tax is deducted
When a taxpayer paid some of his/her tax amount as contribution to other municipalities instead of his/her place of domicile, he/she can enjoy exemption from paying the total of his/her own resident tax (payment of a reduced sum). He/she pays \2,000, and receives local specialties or hotel accommodation tickets of his/her chosen municipalities. The program can be used by high-income people. If he/she has no income, or is relieved from paying income tax or resident tax, he/she cannot rely on the program.
The scheme has begun in May 2008; the then-Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication Suga Yoshihide announced the program, and so, he is regarded as a ‘creator’. Tax money is shifted from a municipality of residence to other locality, and, therefore, the scheme is totally different from a simple ‘contribution to hometown’, in terms of the precise meaning of financial aid.
Commercial websites
Many people use internet sites of the Furu-Navi of the Satofuru, which are advertised on TV by Sumo-wrestler Takanohana, former-Yokodzuna. The website operators have worked earnestly on winning customers by giving shopping points.
The government banned the point system October 1 on the ground that the shopping privilege is imposed on the side of municipalities, but the commissions of intermediary sites are paid from the sum paid by users of the scheme. This practice also diverts from the meaningful contribution.
The total number of users of the scheme in 2022 counts approximately 8.91 million people (about 33 thousand people in 2009) with the donation amount of approximately \965.4 billion (in 2009, \6.5 billion). The reduced sum of resident tax in 2023 counts \679.6 billion (in 2010, it was \1.8 billion). Thus, the practice has grown enormously. The result comes from the facts that local specialties have increased in volume and the intermediary site business has enlarged.
Impacts on municipalities of big cities
Some municipalities have reduced revenues due to this alternative tax payment program; they are the 23 Wards of Tokyo (no payment of the government’s subsidies) and the Government Designated Cities, including Yokohama, Osaka, Kawasaki and Nagoya in the order of a reduction size.
Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward announced last July that in the fiscal 2025 the tax revenue was decreased by approximately \12.3 billion, which is the biggest in the Ward’s history, deriving from this tax scheme. The total sum of the decrease for the years, reportedly, counts about \57 billion.
The local government of Setagaya Ward has employed the alternative tax scheme, but the profits does not meet at all the reduced revenue of resident tax. Mayor Hosaka Nobuto says that ‘a sum of \12.3 billion compares to a budget to rebuild three schools’, requesting the government to revise the scheme as soon as possible.
‘Donation in terms of its precise meaning’ is important to help development of a municipality, disregarding a return gift.
「ふるさと納税」は、仲介サイトを利用する人が多い。仲介サイトは利用者にはポイントを付けてきたが、10月１日に禁止された。本来の寄付とは全く違うものになった制度は、廃止すべきだ。
ふるさと納税は、自身の故郷や応援したい自治体など、自治体を選んで寄付ができる制度である。
住民税からは控除
寄付した金額分は、居住する自治体の住民税を払わなくもよく（控除）、自己負担２０００円で応援したい地域の名産品や宿泊券などをもらえる仕組みだ。収入がある人が対象で、収入がなかったり、所得税や住民税がかかっていない人は該当しない。
２００８年５月から実施されているが、菅義偉総務相（当時）が制度創設を表明したので、「生みの親」と呼ばれる。居住する自治体から他の自治体に税金を持っていくので、「故郷への寄付」という純粋な意味での寄付とは全く異なるものになっている。
仲介サイトの利用
ふるさと納税は、元横綱の貴乃花がテレビで宣伝している「ふるなび」や、「さとふる」など仲介サイトを利用する人が多い。仲介サイトは、ポイントを付けて利用者の獲得に腐心してきた。
国は、ポイントは自治体負担に転嫁されているとして10月１日から禁止したが、仲介サイトの手数料はふるさと納税額から支払われており、これも本来の寄付から逸脱する。
ふるさと納税の適用者は、22年が約８９１万人（09年約３万３０００人）で、寄付金額は約９６５４ 億円（ 同約65億円）。23年の住民税の控除額は６７９６億円（10年約18億円）となっており、実績は大きく拡大している。返礼品の拡大と、仲介サイト参入の影響である。
大都市部への影響
ふるさと納税のために税収減になっているのは、東京23区（地方交付金は不交付）と、政令指定都市で、横浜市、大阪市、川崎市、名古屋市と続く。
世田谷区は７月、25年度のふるさと納税による住民税の減収額が約１２３億円で過去最大を更新と発表した。累計減収額は約５７０億円に達したという。
世田谷区も減収対策として止むを得ずふるさと納税を始めているが、住民税の減収額には全く及ばない。保坂展人区長は、「１ ２ ３ 億円は、学校３校を改築できる予算規模に匹敵する」として、国に早期の制度改正を求めている。
ふるさと支援は返礼品付きであったとしても、「純粋な寄付」とすべきである。
英訳版↓
No. 1426 Alternative Tax Payment Scheme to Specific Municipalities Distorted
The so-called Tax Payment to Hometowns plan has been used popularly through internet sites. Intermediary website entities have provided users with purchase points, but this commercial scheme was banned as of October 1, 2025. This tax payment program was created, at the beginning, to contribute financially to favorite municipalities, but has been transformed to be a practice far from the one with the initial objective. The scheme should be ended.
ABOLISH THE SCHEME AND RETURN TO ORIGINAL DONATION PROGRAM
The alternative tax payment program was founded so that taxpayers could pay their duties as donations to their hometowns or favorite municipalities to support development and prosperity of the localities.
Resident tax is deducted
When a taxpayer paid some of his/her tax amount as contribution to other municipalities instead of his/her place of domicile, he/she can enjoy exemption from paying the total of his/her own resident tax (payment of a reduced sum). He/she pays \2,000, and receives local specialties or hotel accommodation tickets of his/her chosen municipalities. The program can be used by high-income people. If he/she has no income, or is relieved from paying income tax or resident tax, he/she cannot rely on the program.
The scheme has begun in May 2008; the then-Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication Suga Yoshihide announced the program, and so, he is regarded as a ‘creator’. Tax money is shifted from a municipality of residence to other locality, and, therefore, the scheme is totally different from a simple ‘contribution to hometown’, in terms of the precise meaning of financial aid.
Commercial websites
Many people use internet sites of the Furu-Navi of the Satofuru, which are advertised on TV by Sumo-wrestler Takanohana, former-Yokodzuna. The website operators have worked earnestly on winning customers by giving shopping points.
The government banned the point system October 1 on the ground that the shopping privilege is imposed on the side of municipalities, but the commissions of intermediary sites are paid from the sum paid by users of the scheme. This practice also diverts from the meaningful contribution.
The total number of users of the scheme in 2022 counts approximately 8.91 million people (about 33 thousand people in 2009) with the donation amount of approximately \965.4 billion (in 2009, \6.5 billion). The reduced sum of resident tax in 2023 counts \679.6 billion (in 2010, it was \1.8 billion). Thus, the practice has grown enormously. The result comes from the facts that local specialties have increased in volume and the intermediary site business has enlarged.
Impacts on municipalities of big cities
Some municipalities have reduced revenues due to this alternative tax payment program; they are the 23 Wards of Tokyo (no payment of the government’s subsidies) and the Government Designated Cities, including Yokohama, Osaka, Kawasaki and Nagoya in the order of a reduction size.
Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward announced last July that in the fiscal 2025 the tax revenue was decreased by approximately \12.3 billion, which is the biggest in the Ward’s history, deriving from this tax scheme. The total sum of the decrease for the years, reportedly, counts about \57 billion.
The local government of Setagaya Ward has employed the alternative tax scheme, but the profits does not meet at all the reduced revenue of resident tax. Mayor Hosaka Nobuto says that ‘a sum of \12.3 billion compares to a budget to rebuild three schools’, requesting the government to revise the scheme as soon as possible.
‘Donation in terms of its precise meaning’ is important to help development of a municipality, disregarding a return gift.
November 12, 2025