1. Accounting(The issuance of Accounting Standard for Revenue Recognition)
On March 30, 2018, the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) issued the following accounting standard and implementation guidance:
・ASBJ Statement No. 29 Accounting Standard for Revenue Recognition.
・ASBJ Guidance No. 30 Implementation Guidance on Accounting Standard for Revenue Recognition.
As the basic guidelines in developing accounting standards for revenue recognition, the ASBJ set a new standard incorporating the core principle of IFRS 15 as the starting point in terms of comparability of individual financial statements which is a facility to ensure consistency with international standards. However, if there is any arrangement needed to make our own application and reports under Japanese GAAP easier, additional alternative treatments will be introduced with consideration which will not impair international comparability.
Basically, the same accounting treatment is applied for consolidated financial statements as well.
2. Tax(The Outline of Tax Revisions of 2018 (Part 4))
Regarding the calculation of income subject to the Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) rules of Japan , the following revision will be introduced.
Where a Japanese company acquires a foreign company group – when one of the members in the group meets the conditions of the specified foreign affiliated companies such as a paper company located in a country of which tax rate is low , any capital gains arising from the transfer of shares of companies with substantial activities which are owned directly by the paper company to the said Japanese company or another foreign related company (excluding other specified foreign affiliated companies) are excluded from income subject to the CFC rules if the conditions including the following are met:
・The transfer of such shares is made based on a business plan stating the basic policy/methods for post-acquisition restructuring.
・The transferor such as the above-mentioned paper company is expected to be dissolved within 2 years from the date the shares are transferred.
(To be continued in our next issue)
Further, this revision is applied for the fiscal year starting on or after April 1, 2018.
3. Labor Management (Revision of Values of Benefits in Kind effective April 2018)
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced the revision of the values of benefits in kind (a part or all of salaries/bonuses that are paid by way of anything other than currency) effective April 1, 2018. This time, the values for meals were revised in all prefectures. A change in the value of benefits in kind is regarded as a change in the fixed wages such as an increase/decrease in the base salary, housing allowance, or position allowance, etc. Therefore, if an employee’s Monthly Standard Remuneration is affected by this change, the employer is required to submit a notice of occasional revision of Monthly Standard Remuneration to the social insurance office.
(Source: The Japan Pension Service leaflet, “Revision of values of benefits in kind effective April 2018”)
4. This Month’s Words of Wisdom
“Art does not reproduce the visible,
it makes the things visible.”
(Paul Klee)
I wonder since when the manner of appreciating artwork has required a metaphysical approach.
I suppose that the following fact might be a reason: neither European nor Japanese artwork has an unwavering or traditional approach to appreciation due to the shift from having influential patrons (churches, nobles, and monks) to the general public being the main audience.
For more details, please refer to Nagamine & Mishima JC Accounting K.K.
