March 31, 2020

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Daimon Mikishi on March 26 demanded that the government tax the profits of large multinationals in order to secure funding to tackle the negative economic impacts caused by the spread of COVID-19.

JCP Daimon made this demand at a House of Councilors Financial Affairs Committee meeting during his allotted questioning time in regard to the issue of new tax rules on IT giants.

Large IT businesses like Google and Facebook are often criticized for evading paying corporate taxes to countries where they supply their services based on the lack of physical presence. Several European nations recently began introducing a “digital services tax” which is imposed on sales of multinational firms providing digital services.

Diamon pointed out that even the Tokyo Tax Commission, the advisory body to the governor, has called for taxing multinational digital service providers. He said that the national government should consider introducing such a tax. In response, Finance Minister Aso Taro said that global tax rules are important.

Past related articles:
> International rules on digital tax necessary to have tech giants pay their fair share of tax [February 5, 2020]
> OECD seeks to tighten taxation rules on IT giants [October 9, 2019]