Japan Press Weekly

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2019 April 10 - 16 TOP3 [ECONOMY]

JCP Daimon: Proper international taxation on GAFA needed

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Daimon Mikishi at an Upper House Financial Affairs Committee meeting on March 28 stressed the need to levy international taxes on powerful U.S. IT companies, demanding that the Japanese government fulfill an international role to do so.

Daimon showed data in regard to Google, Amazon.com, Facebook, and Apple Inc., dubbed "GAFA", and pointed out, "A huge amount of tax revenues which are supposed to come into Japan's treasury from these companies are actually flowing out of the country."

The G20 Summit which Japan will host this coming June in Osaka will discuss how to make IT giants pay their fair share of taxes, working toward a global solution to be devised by next year.

Daimon said, "Japan as the host nation of the G20 meetings should make its own efforts as well." Finance Minister Aso Taro in response said, "Finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized countries also seek a solution within this year. So, we will carefully work on the issue."

Under the present global tax rules, if companies do businesses without having any branches or factories in other countries, these countries cannot impose corporate taxes on those firms. Therefore, the situation where no country can tax digital businesses such as Internet advertisement and online shopping has become a pressing international issue.

Past related issues:
> Amazon's tax evasion tactics create unfair competition [September 6, 2018]
> Corporate taxes paid by Amazon Japan were 1/30 of that of Japan's major retailers [May 14, 2018]
> Apple avoids paying 1.2 trillion yen in tax in Japan [December 27, 2017]
> Apple evaded 200 billion yen in taxes in Japan [February 11, 2017]