Japan Press Weekly

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2013 September 18 - 24 [ECONOMY]

Keidanren brazenly claims anti-tax avoidance measures will hamper their businesses

The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) issued a statement in protest against the international effort to tackle tax evasion and avoidance by multinational corporations.

The G20 Leaders’ Summit held in St. Petersburg, Russia, on September 6 in its declaration stressed the need to prevent multinationals from avoiding appropriate payments of tax.

Three days later, Keidanren stated, “The introduction of excessively tough measures against tax evasion and avoidance will hamper business activities.”

While Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in his economic growth strategy says that he seeks to “make it easier for companies to flourish in Japan than anywhere else in the world”, what the international community seeks is to depart from the excesses associated with pro-corporate policies.

Regarding the issue of tax avoidance, the G20 Leaders’ Declaration states as follows;

In a context of severe fiscal consolidation and social hardship, in many countries ensuring that all taxpayers pay their fair share of taxes is more than ever a priority…In order to minimize BEPS [Base Erosion and Profit Shifting], we call on member countries to examine how our own domestic laws contribute to BEPS and to ensure that international and our own tax rules do not allow or encourage multinational enterprises to reduce overall taxes paid by artificially shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions. We acknowledge that effective taxation of mobile income is one of the key challenges.