Tokyo mulls over income tax hike on the wealthy

Tokyo

JAPAN'S government is considering raising income taxes for the wealthy and increasing the inheritance tax if it looks unlikely to reach its goal of returning to a primary budget surplus in 2020, government sources said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government plans to raise the nationwide sales tax to 10 per cent from 8 per cent in April 2017 to help pay for rising welfare and healthcare costs. "Abe is determined to not raise the sales tax any further,"said one source who declined to be identified. "But we still have to make sure spending matches revenue, so we would have to consider measures to either cut spending or increase revenue."