Word spread that Japan’s Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) plans to open internal discussions by year-end on a proposal to tighten taxation of pachinko winnings, sparking a lively debate on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” (anything-goes live chat) board. Under tax law, pachinko winnings are technically classified as “occasional income” and are supposed to be declared, but in practice only a tiny fraction of players actually pay tax on them. Commenters were split: some argued that if winnings get taxed, losses should be deductible too; others suspected Ishin was singling out the pachinko industry while pushing to legalize casinos; and some expressed hope the move would curb welfare recipients’ pachinko spending.
Japan Innovation Party may propose year-end debate on taxing pachinko players’ income
Under Japanese tax law, pachinko winnings count as “occasional income” — half of net annual profit, after expenses and a ¥500,000 special deduction, is technically taxable — but almost no one actually files a return on it. As part of a broader overhaul of gambling tax rules, Ishin is putting a spotlight on the issue and starting internal discussions aimed mainly at full-time pros and high-volume players. The focus is on tightening identity checks at cash-out and whether losses can be deducted against winnings; the industry is voicing concern, though the impact on casual hobby players is expected to be limited.
Source: x.com / Original post here
Do the loss offset through your tax return.
Those are real gold, you know.
Don't post if you don't know that.
If you sell that, you'd owe tax on it.
If that looks plated to you, go see an eye doctor.
Tax the ball/coin rental fees instead.
That's already taxed via consumption tax.
Without loss offsetting, you'll get taxed once the payout tops ¥500,000.
In Tokyo it starts at ¥1,000.
TUC (the special-prize wholesaler) has been using real gold and silver, so prize values kept climbing, but apparently they've hit a limit and some prizes have switched to fakes this year.
That kind of discretion becomes its own form of power.
Public gambling (horse racing etc.) already works that way and it hasn't caused problems.
You'd have to be a pretty extreme case to actually get taxed.
There's nothing wrong with welfare recipients playing pachinko.
Playing is fine, but if you win you have to report it as income.
At the very least they should allow it for bets placed online.
For online bets, allow loss offsetting; for paper tickets, just deduct a flat 20% before paying out.
That's a separate issue from not letting them bet at all.
If reporting becomes mandatory, people will just stop bothering with it, right?
If welfare recipients stop spending it on pachinko, their quality of life would probably go up.
Reporting is already required even now.
Right now, unless city hall staff literally stake it out and catch you in the act, it doesn't get caught.
The point is it'd be good if they could link it to My Number (Japan's ID system) and trace cash-outs that way.
Crack down on the cash-out system itself.
People will just swap it for cigarettes and sell them on Mercari (a flea-market app), so cracking down is pointless.
Back then there were a lot of small independently-run parlors, and they couldn't afford to spend much on the special prizes they needed in bulk, so a lot of them were pretty cheap and haphazard, I'd guess.
It's an open secret, after all.
As long as you record just the winnings, you can pay the tax on them.
They should just require ID verification at both the prize counter and the cash-out shop.
Making it subject to taxation basically upgrades it to the status of state-sanctioned gambling, so it'll survive.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Under Japan’s income tax law, pachinko winnings are classified as “occasional income”: half of the amount left after subtracting necessary expenses and a ¥500,000 special deduction from annual profit is subject to tax. In practice, however, only a small fraction of players actually file returns on it, and the cash-out mechanism (the so-called “three-shop system”) has long made the real scale of winnings hard to track. What Ishin is reportedly considering is a plan to tighten taxation mainly targeting full-time players and big winners, with the impact on casual hobbyist players expected to be limited. Within the thread, opinions split between those arguing that losses should be deductible against winnings and those pointing out that a reporting system already technically exists. Some also voiced hope that stricter ID checks at cash-out would curb pachinko use among welfare recipients. It’s worth noting, though, that this is still at the stage of internal party discussion and has not yet taken shape as concrete legislation.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] Pachinko Tax, Incoming lolololol“.
