Sales tax hike will add Y6 tril to household burden: gov't panel

That's petty small since they are already shouldering the burden of over Y1000 trillions :(

take active measures to meet its 2% inflation target at an early date.

With ¥6 trillion in additional household burden, do they really expect (and want) the cost of living to increase as well? The LDP and their economic advisors are a ship of fools.

Do we get a pay raise? A tax break? How do they expect business to increase if people won't be able to spend as much money?

SInce the government is helping itself to another pound of flesh, can I have some sort of guarantee that the money accumulated by the tax increase will actually go towards its earmarked purpose of saving social security and not into the pockets of a "committee designed to further study the situation"?

unless I'm getting a 5% pay increase along side it I can't afford this along with everything else going up, including fuel and power

Only a foolish government would increase taxes with a sluggish economy. Stop the foolish spending and tighten your belt like every citizen has to do.

Yes, raise the taxes and spend the money on TEPCO!

Isn't this what is truly going to take place? Im sure it is in every way!

And who said so after all? "private sector members of a key government panel say...The government should boost corporate capital spending"

Yeah - enough is enough! Tax payers money for sinking corporations whose managers are getting bonuses no matter the results!

I am not an economics expert but from my perspective tax hike is good. I would buy only what I really need and the elder generation that holds the most of the savings have to share the burden.

Top up for the pork barrel. That's a lot of brown envelopes!

How about upping the tax for the 1%, for the super rich.

Isn't it about time they took some share of the burden?

This sounds like unarmed robbery. They`ll do what they want anyways.

OMG tax increase, must post negativity to JapanToday immediately.

I'd say Japan has no choice, and if they were smart, they'd cultivate enough patriotism in their people to accept and support changes like this. If nothing else it provides "inflation" that might be otherwise hard to attain.

Yeah, and who remembers Abe spouting how his economic policies will increase disposable income for families? What a load of BS! Sadly, many of the sheeple that voted for him actually believed it. Under his policies major corporations get tax breaks, the labor laws are changed to make it easier to fire employees, the minimum wage is to be lowered or abolished and the middle and lower classes just get screwed! And, nobody is gonna do a damn thing about it especially the 47% of voters that couldn't be bothered getting off their butts to vote. Serves you all right! Fools!

How about upping the tax for the 1%, for the super rich.

This is not the United States. For instance in most companies the wage differentials between highest and lowest salary levels are much closer here than in the U.S. The Japanese inheritance tax in particular is far more predatory than the U.S. and the heirs of rich individuals are left with crumbs -- if they are lucky.

I'm all for an increase in the consumption tax, but health insurance and the inhabitants tax are already outrageously high... where are those tax breaks?!

Future generations are being punished while the elderly reap all the benefits...

Earth to idiots in Nagatacho, Earth to idiots in Nagatacho!

You need to REMOVE tax on FOOD!!

And for christs sake CUT spending don't keep on wasting our tax $$$!

Peter PayneSep. 17, 2013 - 11:10AM JST

If nothing else it provides "inflation" that might be otherwise hard to attain.

Are you for real? Bwaahaha, that has to be the worst economic statement I have read.

Why doesn't the Japanese government go the whole hog and just implement the full 10% sales tax in April 2014 and Abe and Kuroda would have done the impossible, and their promise of 2% inflation for Japan. Of course the whole economy would go down the drain, but hey, we finally got inflation?

Price inflation is only one small aspect of inflation and without the other inflationary aspects (wage inflation and cost inflation) just leads to stagflation, which is the biggest evil of them all.

Japan is broke and everybody know it, they need to get the money to don't bankrupt from our pockets.

I would agree with it if they did the following.

No tax on food (Sorry, Potato chips are not food)

No tax on medicine both prescribed and over the counter.

No tax on infant and toddler products such as diapers and formula.

No tax on school books, and school supplies.

No tax on school uniforms and bags, and school art and PE supplies.

Tax all the rest of it all you want. The above items we have no choice but to buy. Luxuray items we do not need.

I think many folk on this forum might be from the US where PAYE, insurance, healthcare and consumption taxes are much lower than in other parts of the world. The EU has some really high consumption tax rates, albeit there is often a lower rate for food. As it stands Japan's 5% is one of the lowest, and 8% will still be amongst the lowest.

Don't cast your pearls before swine.

the heirs of rich individuals are left with crumbs -- if they are lucky

The "crumbs" of access to superior education at every level and good connections. If you can't make it on that, you don't deserve to make it.

EbiKatsuSep. 17, 2013 - 01:28PM JST

I think many folk on this forum might be from the US where PAYE, insurance, healthcare and consumption taxes are much lower than in other parts of the world. The EU has some really high consumption tax rates, albeit there is often a lower rate for food. As it stands Japan's 5% is one of the lowest, and 8% will still be amongst the lowest.

I get tired of this hobby horse being trotted out.

If you include the indirect taxation that is paid in my household, monthly local government taxes ( around Y45,000 x 2) and monthly national health insurance ( around Y45,000 x 2 ) plus one of us is penalized at a flat income rate tax of around 15% because we are a double income family with neither one earning beneath the Y1,500,000 annual ceiling, then I'd say my family's taxes are on par, if not exceeding, what I would pay in the EU.

All for someone to collect my rubbish every week and have my teeth cleaned twice a year!!!!!!

Dog, I pay 55,000 yen for national health insurance every month, but this year I got 420,000 yen back because my wife gave birth. I also get 15,000 yen per kid per month for child allowance. There are lots of local facilities (jidoukan) for kids that we can use for free. You won't feel you're getting ripped off if you have kids. If you don't have kids, you must have a lot more disposable income than me, so what are you complaining about?

kickboardSep. 17, 2013 - 02:41PM JST

If you don't have kids, you must have a lot more disposable income than me, so what are you complaining about?

Who's complaining? I'm just pointing out that Japan is not a taxpayer's heaven and while direct taxation might be low, indirect taxation is very high.

As for your kid, I don't ask you to pay for the upkeep of my dog, why do I have to pay for the upkeep of your kid?

Both were lifestyle choices.

Why a consumption tax, rather than an income tax? I thought we were trying to boost consumption?

why do I have to pay for the upkeep of your kid?

Oh dear. YOU do not pay pay for the upkeep of my kids. I do. The child allowance the JAPANESE GOVERNMENT provides us goes straight to an education fund. Your contribution to the Japanese government is minuscule. You sound like a drunk oyaji arguing with the cops : "Hey, my taxes go towards your salary so you should respect me!"

Dog, yeah, both were lifestyle choices, but not many dogs are going to enter the workforce and pay taxes for 40 years. If no one has dogs, we have less crap to tread in. If no one has kids, you won't get the pension you're currently paying for, but you're an economist, and you know that. Yeah, I agree, Japan's overall taxes are not low, and supermarkets in the UK are far cheaper than Japanese ones despite minimum wage and a 20% VAT, even for goods with exclusions. People with children get more benefits, but it's not our fault than we are all part of a ponzi scheme making us reliant on the next generation for things we are paying for. That's the same the world over, but it's the elderly that cost most money, and on average they already have most money. That's what seems most unfair to me.

If you don't have kids, you must have a lot more disposable income than me, so what are you complaining about?

About paying for other people's kids, from the government kickbacks you enjoy to the insurance premiums subsidized by people without kids to the utility rates also subsidizing those with kids. You could be a bit grateful to those who are subsidizing your family.

kickboardSep. 17, 2013 - 03:18PM JST

Oh dear. YOU do not pay pay for the upkeep of my kids. I do. The child allowance the JAPANESE GOVERNMENT provides us goes straight to an education fund.

Yeah and the JAPANESE GOVERMENT is a self financing entity.

If you're not posting about how much you're supposedly earning, which is totally flawed with your projection of a Y250,000 to the same conditions as a Y550,000 salary, you're posting about people bitching, even when they're not.

If you were paying Y55,000 a month Kenkyo Hokken as a company employer, you'd have to be earning Y 27,000,000 a year.

Love the sensationalism… everyone playing into the big Y6 tril headline… amuses me. The fact is the tax is going up 3%, that is three yen more per hundred yen of taxable expenditures, period!

omik,

sorry but you need to go back to calculator 101! An increase of 5% to 8% is a 60% increase in consumption tax, just sayin.

with your projection of a Y250,000 to the same conditions as a Y550,000 salary

Um, what? You're not making any sense again.

If you were paying Y55,000 a month Kenkyo Hokken as a company employer, you'd have to be earning Y 27,000,000 a year.

Nope. I'm self employed, supporting a family of 4 on my income.

Too much tax to begin with. Its needed for all the wasteful spending. Ya! just look at all those little parks around town with bird crap all over them. Taxes arent paying for that are they?