Japan's ruling party considers raising taxes

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering raising taxes. It plans to increase taxes on corporations, personal income and tobacco products from 2024 or later. These measures will help raise funds for defense spending, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.

The document states that the party addresses the issue of raising the corporation tax by 4-4.5 percentage points and income tax by 1 percentage point. The tax on tobacco products will also be increased by an extra ¥3 per cigarette. The paper also said that companies with revenues of less than 10 million yen per year would not be affected by the corporate tax hike.

According to a statement by LDP MP Yuji Yamamoto, a general tax increase policy will be incorporated into the tax system and agreed by the end of this week. But details will not be included in the tax revisions. He said that those amendments will be discussed at the ordinary session of parliament in the following year.