Major news in Japan on Jun 29: Japan considering taxing music, books downloaded from overseas sites

Top news in <Kyodo News>: Japan considering taxing music, books downloaded from overseas sites

The Finance Ministry is considering imposing the consumption tax on electronic books, music and other contents downloadable from websites operated by overseas vendors, sources close to the issue said Friday.

The ministry is eyeing taxing these currently tax-free products from overseas businesses possibly when it plans to raise the tax rate to 8% in April 2014, hoping it would offer a fair playground of competition for domestic providers of online contents, the sources said.

The ministry will set up a panel as early as next month to discuss a collection system for the tax, they said.

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