Une proposition de réforme au Japon serait la cause de la hausse du YEN.

[Realtime Forex]

Cet article, pourtant publié le 4 mai, circule dans le marché. En gros, les ministères de l'économie, du commerce et l'industrie japonais ont indiqué qu'ils inviteraient le ministère des finances à exempter des revenus des sociétés d'impôts de leurs filiales d'outre-mer à partir de l'exercice budgétaire de l'année prochaine.

L'article complet :

12 tril. yen held by Japan firms' overseas arms / Tax exemption eyed for funds repatriated

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A recent survey by The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry found revenues that Japanese companies' overseas affiliates generated abroad but did not transfer to their headquarters had accumulated to at least 12 trillion yen as of fiscal 2005, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Saturday.

The finding has prompted the ministry to move forward on plans to exempt repatriated revenues from taxation.

The country's tax system has failed to be sufficiently responsive to companies' increasingly global activities, which is believed to inhibit the firms' overseas affiliates from sending home to Japan revenues earned abroad.

The situation may have adverse effects to the country's economic growth, such as companies making insufficient domestic capital investment.

In response to the situation, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari indicated he intended to urge the government and ruling parties to discuss changing the tax system to exempt the transferred revenues from taxation.

In response to domestic firms' complaints about the tax system, the ministry conducted a survey earlier this year.

According to the survey, Japanese companies' overseas affiliates generated 7.6 trillion yen in pretax profits in fiscal 2005, while only about 860 billion yen was repatriated to Japanese parent companies in fiscal 2004.

The survey found the overseas affiliates became increasingly reluctant to repatriate their revenues in fiscal 2003, and that outstanding revenues kept by them increased by about 2 trillion yen annually since then.

Japanese companies have maintained their international competitive edge by investing in research and development of advanced technologies. To remain globally competitive, they will have to expand such investment. Analysts believe the repatriation of overseas revenues will be a key means of supporting advanced R&D.

The industrial sector--worried that the current tax system could impede domestic R&D--is demanding the ministry change the country's tax system.

Twenty-one of the 46 companies that responded to the ministry's survey said that if exempting overseas revenues from tax was introduced, they would use the repatriated revenues for investment into domestic facilities and R&D.

Under the current tax system, when a parent company in Japan repatriates revenues from its affiliate abroad, in many cases it is required to pay more taxes in the foreign country and Japan than if it kept the revenue at its overseas affiliate.

Therefore, the ministry intends to include in the tax system reform next fiscal year a system exempting from tax revenues received by a Japanese parent company from its overseas affiliates.

Many Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development member countries employ such an approach.

Amari said, "It's important to encourage companies to repatriate revenues from their overseas affiliates to support Japanese economic growth and help overcome various problems, such as the shrinking population and the government's financial difficulties."

He plans to urge the government and ruling parties to coordinate policies to facilitate the tax system revision.
(May. 4, 2008)