On the economy, the differences among candidates turn on whether a rise in the consumption tax is needed to plug a gaping budget deficit and bring down the high levels of debt incurred when Japan tried to spend its way out of slump in the 1990s.
Reform-minded upper-house LDP politicians like Mr Hayashi say they would be prepared to support the DPJ on issues such as the consumption tax if it scraps some of its more reckless public-spending proposals, such as universal child allowances.
The second type of tax reform would replace or supplement the income tax with a broad tax on consumption.
Obviously, funding the basic pension through the broad-based consumption tax would lower the burden on active workers and employing firms.
Noda has also signaled that he will honor the previously-reached agreement with the opposition parties on restructuring government finances and putting welfare state programs on a sustainable financing footing, specifically raising the consumption tax from the current five percent to 10 percent by yearend 2015.
So, it seems, Mr Bush is trying to reach the goal of a consumption tax not through fundamental tax reform, but simply by a thousand cuts on the taxes on capital.
Most suggest some variety of a consumption tax, where the burden of taxation falls on consumption rather than on income.
In the event, they have settled for banning sales of drink for less than the tax paid on it (alcohol duty, plus VAT, a consumption tax).
In January, Rob Woodall (R-GA) introduced a bill in Congress to repeal income, employment and estate and gift taxes and instead impose a 23 percent sales tax on the use or consumption of all goods, properties and services.
The future will be richer the less we place the tax burden upon capital and the more we place it on consumption and property.
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Obama ask Noda about prospects for passage of the consumption tax increase, debate on which begins in the Diet next week.
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On balance, considering effects on the economy, the main source must be the consumption tax.
That is, if the mayor really wanted to limit consumption, he would propose a soda tax that is on a per ounce basis and the revenue could be used in programs to educate people about healthy eating.
Compared with the Americans, the Europeans place far more of their tax burden on consumption than income.
To replace the loss of revenues, Huckabee advocates a consumption tax on goods and services that includes a monthly "prebate, " designed to offset taxes on necessities.
While with income taxes we pay regardless, if a consumption tax were implemented Americans could put the federal government on a diet at the same time that economic uncertainty is forcing them to tighten their own belts.
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Cain wants to simplify and flatten the tax code, replacing taxes on income and investment with taxes on consumption?
For one, much as a flat tax would inspire lobbyists looking for deductions on what would be a simplified tax, so would the same occur with a consumption levy.
FORBES: A Flat Tax Would Be Fine, A Consumption Tax True Perfection
By raising consumption taxes on products and services targeting the affluent while reducing or maintaining income tax levels, the Chinese government has been able to sustain consumer confidence, increase spending (retail sales have risen 16-18% annually over the last three years), and get needed tax revenue for infrastructure projects required to maintain employment numbers.
Under a consumption tax, the burden of taxation would probably fall more heavily on poorer Americans, since most capital, whose returns would not be taxed, is held by the rich.
On Japan, Mr. Singh said the IMF believes Tokyo wants to continue gradually raising the consumption tax, to about 15% after 2015.
Although this plan does less than Mr McCain's to shift taxation from income towards consumption, the reduction of marginal tax rates could have a bigger effect on economic growth.
Over and above this we get to the second point which is that on pure efficiency grounds we would rather tax property and consumption, possibly even incomes, rather than capital returns.
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The president should learn from China to shift some of the tax burden from lower income classes to wealthier people by increasing taxes on consumption rather than, as he has tried to do, on income.
John L. Mikesell, an Indiana University public finance professor, says that since the sales tax is meant to tax personal consumption, it should be imposed on services bought by consumers and not on those purchased by businesses.
All of which brings us to a national consumption tax that would lead to the abolishment of income taxes, along with taxes on estates, capital gains, and presumably everything else.
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As mentioned earlier, be it a flat tax or a consumption levy, both would be huge improvements on what we have at the moment.
FORBES: A Flat Tax Would Be Fine, A Consumption Tax True Perfection
Quite unlike taxes on income that are paid no matter what, with a consumption tax individuals would be able to limit the amount of money handed to the government by virtue of spending less.
FORBES: A Flat Tax Would Be Fine, A Consumption Tax True Perfection
Looking a bit like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates when standing together, the two have seemed in philosophical agreement on major themes like disempowering central government bureaucracies in favor of local control, increasing the local tax base with consumption tax revenues, and free trade (support for TPP).
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The consumption tax approach is one that at least places part of the burden of financing the welfare system on current recipients.
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