„Takaichis Regierung und das Finanzministerium haben absolut nicht die Absicht, eine Nullverbrauchssteuer auf Lebensmittel einzuführen, wie sie während der Wahl versprochen hatten … Sie erfinden nur Ausreden wie ‚Es wird Zeit brauchen, die Registrierkassen umzustellen.‘“

Depends on how register and sales software is coded

If the software and accounting systems (which are run by retailers, *not* the LDP) are designed to absolutely require a value for tax, and a billion other computations are dependent on that value, then it’s absolutely possible they would need to overhaul a metric fuck ton of backend shit. Meaning this policy was a dumbass oversight from the outset.

And now they are trying to propose a reduction to 1% as a means of circumventing the need for those backend changes.

And even if the taxes get cut, prices will stay the same as vendors just jack up their prices to increase profits. And when the tax reductions are rolled back, everyone will be paying more in a few years.

Amazing that Japan thinks it will save itself by throwing it’s dying economy into the same burning furnace as the U.S. has

Idiotic policy 

It’s really hard to imagine a 0% tax rate would cause any troubles. Some items like city designated garbage bags sold at convenience stores and drug stores are already tax free now.

Yeah but she plays the drums!

I think there’s a general misunderstanding of how Japanese consumption tax works relative to other countries like the US.

Not only that, Takaichi’s own Ministry of Finance has estimated this policy would cost ~¥5 trillion annually in lost revenue. So far, the LDP has given „concepts of a plan“ but no concrete outline of how they would make up that massive loss.

When do we get a new Prime Minister?

I serviced and programmed cash registers. If you can program two distinct tax rates for two specific categories of goods, you could easily change the tax rate from .08 to .0.