Consumption Tax Hike, Tax Morale, and Tax Resistance: Taxpayer Paradox in Japan

Abstract

　This paper discusses taxpayer paradox in Japan. We define tax payer paradox as the situation with high tax morale but strong tax resistance. Based upon our own survey, we first show that tax morale in Japan is high. Furthermore, almost half respondents are against the consumption tax hike scheduled in October 2019. While trust in government is not suitable to explain the mechanism behind tax morale in Japan, we suggest that it has a weak but negative relationship with the approval for the consumption tax increase. This implies that the skepticism with regard to the Japanese government and the politicians may be a culprit of the tax resistance we define here. The Japanese government should entrench the consumption tax system so that the citizens do not have any misgiving regarding the system.