Professional Practices in Fixed Assets Valuation and Assessor Education in North America: Suggestions for Japan

This paper examined and compared the situation of and problems with professional practices in fixed assets valuation and assessor education between North America (the United States and Canada) and Japan. Because professional practice in tax assessment takes place within individual municipalities in North America, the opportunities for external experts to participate in the practice are limited. Moreover, external institutions and universities that provide professional education educated the assessors who were in charge of these professional practices. As a result, the costs of professional practices in tax assessment and assessor education and training have been kept low. In Japan, there has been no foundation through which to foster experts within individual municipalities, so much professional practice is outsourced; consequently, this practice has become ineffective and unstable. Thus, Japan can refer to the North American system of providing complete professional tax assessment services within each municipality, as well as the fostering of experts through external organizations.