"Inheritance AI" Launches Nominal Deposit Check Tool — AI Assesses the Risk of Family-Named Deposits Being Classified as Inheritance Assets in 3 Stages

Mycat Inc. (Headquarters: Meguro-ku, Tokyo) has launched a new "Nominal Deposit Check Tool" for its AI inheritance tax simulation service, "Inheritance AI" (https://souzoku-ai.xyz), which uses AI to determine if deposits in a family member's name qualify as inherited property.

Tool URL: https://souzoku-ai.xyz/tools/meigi-check

What is the Nominal Deposit Check Tool?

A nominal deposit is a savings account where the nominal holder of the account and the actual owner are different. For example, in a case where a grandfather creates an account in his grandchild's name and makes monthly deposits, the grandchild may be the nominal owner, but the grandfather could be judged as the actual owner. In this situation, upon the grandfather's death, it must be declared as part of his inherited assets.

This tool is a web-based utility that allows users to pre-check the risk of such nominal deposits before an inheritance occurs.

Input Items and Judgment Process

Step 1: Information about the decedent (the person leaving the property)

• Age (approximate is acceptable)
• Approximate number of savings accounts held
• Whether they have opened accounts in family members' names in the past

Step 2: Information on the account to be checked (enter one account at a time, up to 10 accounts)

• Account holder's name (relationship to the decedent: spouse/child/grandchild/other)
• Account opening date (approximate is acceptable)
• Source of funds (whose money was used for the initial deposit)
• Depositor (who primarily makes deposits: the account holder themselves/the decedent/other)
• Manager of the passbook and cash card (the account holder themselves/the decedent/other)
• Owner of the registered seal (the account holder's own seal/the decedent's seal/shared/unknown)
• Whether the account holder is aware of the account's existence

Step 3: Gift Records

• Whether a gift tax return has been filed in the past
• Whether a gift agreement has been created
• Whether management is conducted with an awareness of the annual gift exemption (within 1.1 million yen per year)

Output Content of the Judgment Results

Based on the input, the following judgment results are displayed for each account.

1. Nominal Deposit Risk Judgment (3 levels: High, Medium, Low)

The answers to each checklist item are comprehensively evaluated, and the risk of the account being judged as a nominal deposit is displayed in three levels.

• High Risk: Cases where the source of funds is the decedent, management is also by the decedent, and the account holder is unaware of the account's existence, etc.
• Medium Risk: Cases where the source of funds is the decedent but the account holder manages it, or there is no gift agreement, etc.
• Low Risk: Cases where the account is funded by the account holder's own income, and they manage and are aware of it, etc.

2. Detailed Analysis of Risk Factors

This shows which answers affect the risk judgment on an item-by-item basis. It clearly indicates specific points for improvement, such as "Passbook is managed by the decedent → A factor that makes it likely to be judged as a nominal deposit."

3. Proposed Countermeasures to Avoid Being Judged as a Nominal Deposit

For accounts with medium to high risk, it presents countermeasures that can be taken to avoid being judged as a nominal deposit.

• Creation of a gift agreement
• Handing over the passbook and cash card to the account holder themselves
• Starting account management by the account holder themselves
• Filing a gift tax return (if the amount exceeds 1.1 million yen per year)

4. Summary for Expert Consultation

The check results are compiled into a single summary and output in a format that can be submitted directly when consulting a tax accountant.

Background on Why Nominal Deposits Are a Problem

According to the inheritance tax investigation results published by the National Tax Agency, the average amount of undeclared assets identified per case in a tax audit amounts to 35.3 million yen (Source: National Tax Agency Inheritance Tax Inve...