TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s ruling bloc agreed on Friday to raise corporate, tobacco and disaster-reconstruction income taxes by some 1 trillion yen ($7.3 billion) to double military outlay to 2% of GDP by 2027, a draft annual tax-code revision seen by Reuters showed on Friday.
Japan would adopt a corporate surtax of 4%-4.5% with a deduction of 5 million yen for small firms, while adopting surtax of 1% on incomes for the time being. Tobacco tax will be also raised in stages by 3 yen per cigarette, the draft showed.
These changes, to be implemented at “an appropriate time” from 2024 onwards, will be written into the annual tax-code revision by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its ally Komeito party to be approved by the cabinet later on Friday.
($1 = 137.4000 yen)
(Reporting by Takaya Yamaguchi and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Tom Hogue)
