Japan Has Room to Increase Some Tax Rates, IMF Suggests

Japan has room to raise some tax rates to increase revenue and take other “revenue mobilization” steps, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

The country’s tax revenues as a portion of its gross domestic product are low relative to other G-7 countries, the IMF’s staff said in the concluding statement of its 2022 official consultation on Japan.

• Among the revenue-mobilization options that could be explored as a result are increasing Japan’s consumption tax standard rate; strengthening property taxation through removal of the preferential treatment of residential land; rationalizing allowances and deductions in personal income taxation; and increasing the capital income ...