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NEWS: Log Horizon Author Mamare Touno Charged With Tax Evasion

Damn, well this will keep season 3 from happening anytime soon.

In 1995, Gainax produced perhaps their best known series, the commercially successful and critically acclaimed Neon Genesis Evangelion. In the wake of Evangelion's success, however, Gainax was audited by the National Tax Agency at the urging of the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau on suspicion of committing tax evasion on the massive profits accruing from various Evangelion properties. It was later revealed that Gainax had concealed 1.56 billion yen worth of income (thereby failing to pay 560 million yen due in corporate taxes) which it had earned between the release of Evangelion and July 1997 by paying closely related companies various large fees, ostensibly to pay for animation expenses, but then immediately withdraw 90% of the sums from the other company's accounts as cash and store it in safe deposit boxes (leaving 10% as a reward for the other company's assistance).
Gainax president Takeshi Sawamura and tax accountant Yoshikatsu Iwasaki were arrested on July 13, 1999 and later jailed for accounting fraud. Yasuhiro Takeda later defended Sawamura's actions as being a reaction to Gainax's perpetually precarious finances and the shaky accounting procedures internally:
"Sawamura understood our financial situation better than anyone, so when Evangelion took off and the money really started rolling in, he saw it as possibly our one and only opportunity to set something aside for the future. I guess he was vulnerable to temptation at that point, because no one knew how long the Evangelion goose would keep laying golden eggs. I don't think he purposely set out with the goal of evading taxes. It was more that our level of accounting knowledge wasn't up to the task of dealing with revenues on such a large scale."

Somehow, I didn't think being a government funded anime could backfire quite this badly.

Somehow, I didn't think being a government funded anime could backfire quite this badly.

Which of his series was government funded and why?

Which of his series was government funded and why?

@residentgrigo, not saying no. My post was more an observation that people always seem to think that tax is fairly simple, even when they are employing others. I see people all the time doing their own tax returns even for incredibly complex stuff, trying to save money. They really should know better. Tax accountants can be expensive, but it is far better than the fines you get for evasion. Whether Mamare Touno was legitimately evading tax, or stuffed his own taxes up, remains to be seen.