Japanese Government To Tax Foreign Downloads In 2015

When it comes to both digital and physical goods, most of the time tax is applied, however due to different countries having differing rates of taxes, sometimes it is actually cheaper if you were to purchase from outside the country and have it imported. For the most part your imports will not be taxed unless it’s above a certain limit which makes it an incredibly attractive solution. However it seems that over in Japan, the government plans on taxing foreign downloads come 2015, meaning that local taxes will be applied to foreign digital downloads, compared to before where they were not taxed locally, but in the country they originated from.

According to the government, prior to this foreign downloads enjoy a “tax-free” (local) existence compared to local downloads which were taxed according to the law. This gave foreign companies an advantage over local vendors which sparked some complaints, which is why this law will be put into place to help placate local vendors who might be have felt wronged by this system. According to Nikkei, the tax will apply to digital content such as e-books, music, apps, and games downloaded from foreign servers. Naturally this will make things more expensive although it is not clear how much more expensive things might get for the residents in Japan. So what do you guys think of this new system?

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Japan