Taxation of intellectual property in Japan

Japanese tax law does not specifically define ownership with regard to intellectual property (IP). Rather, the tax law borrows its definition of ownership from Japanese civil law. Generally, there is no difference between legal and tax ownership of IP, which makes it difficult to separate such owner...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational tax review no. 8; p. 43
Main Authors Umetsuji, Masaharu, Campbell, Mark T
Format Magazine Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC 01.01.2002
Subjects
Agreements
Copyright
Corporate tax planning
Exploitation
Foreign tax credits
Intellectual property
Jurisdiction
Law
Ownership
Profits
Registration
Software
Tax basis
Tax credits
Tax legislation
Taxation
Trademarks
Transfer taxes
Japan
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Japanese tax law does not specifically define ownership with regard to intellectual property (IP). Rather, the tax law borrows its definition of ownership from Japanese civil law. Generally, there is no difference between legal and tax ownership of IP, which makes it difficult to separate such ownership. However, some cases appear to draw a distinction between legal ownership and economic ownership of intellectual property. In such cases, tax ownership does not automatically follow economic ownership. Rather, tax ownership can follow economic ownership only when real (not apparent) legal ownership underlies such economic ownership. Consequently, if real legal ownership does not underlie economic ownership, then taxable profit may result from transactions between a legal owner and an economic owner. Rules governing the transfer of IP are examined.
ISSN:0958-7594