The ruling coalition gave the green light to a tax reform package for the next fiscal year on Thursday that includes setting a cap on controversial income and residence tax cuts, while again remaining silent on the schedule for planned tax hikes to boost defense spending.
“Under the current political circumstances, it is difficult to make a decision (on the timing of the tax hikes) this year,” Yoichi Miyazawa, who chairs the Liberal Democratic Party’s tax panel, said earlier this week.
Up until last month, executives of the LDP tax panel had intended to set a time frame, but gave this up in the end, as a fresh political fundraising scandal is hitting the LDP hard and is dragging down Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration, which had to replace four ministers on Thursday.