From Oct. 1, a new tax regulation decades in the making will go into effect ¡ª and hundreds of thousands of workers in Japan are angry.
The Qualified Invoicing System, which requires taxable businesses to issue invoices containing tax information for transactions, has generated a full-fledged movement against it. to halt the regulation has received nearly 450,000 signatures. The social movement #STOP¥¤¥ó¥Ü¥¤¥¹ (invoice) has held regular demonstrations and conferences advocating against the law, alongside significant protest from the world of pop culture: Animators, filmmakers, voice actors, manga artists and V-tubers of all stripes have joined together against it.
While the law is complex, the reason it¡¯s hated is not: It¡¯s effectively a tax increase. While the system was created to ensure that businesses will properly pay consumption tax, for many freelancers and small businesses the result will amount to a 10% increase in taxes ¡ª a high enough jump to potentially devastate creatives who already make a living by the narrowest of margins.
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