Tax panel chief hopes cuts in '99 equal, top 4 trillion yen

Next year’s individual income tax cuts will hopefully equal 4 trillion yen or more, Hiroshi Kato, chairman of the government’s Tax Commission, said Tuesday.

“It is not a good time to raise taxes,” he told a news conference after a subpanel meeting, apparently meaning next year’s tax cuts should at least be equivalent to those implemented this year.

The government has either implemented or plans temporary cuts in income and residential taxes worth 4 trillion yen this year. Kato said that repeating one-time tax cuts would further distort the tax system, implying future tax reductions, if any, should be permanent.

But he stressed that the government panel, seeking to map out comprehensive reform of individual income taxes, assumes no foregone conclusions. Regardless of politicians’ ideas, his panel will try to draft a tax reform plan that is logically consistent, said Kato, who is also president of Chiba University of Commerce.

OSAKA — Osaka Prefectural Police arrested a former contract worker for Naito Securities Co. on Tuesday on suspicion of swindling 30 million yen from a client, investigators said.

Investigators alleged that Kazutoshi Matsuura, 39, told the 49-year-old client that if a customer conducts stock transactions with Naito Securities, profits made by the brokerage’s own stock trading account could be transferred to the client.

The 30 million yen the client subsequently handed over to Matsuura was used to compensate for losses the suspect incurred in accounts for other clients, investigators said. Matsuura is also suspected of similarly swindling other clients, and in effect committing fraud amounting to over 100 million yen, they said.

Initially an employee with another brokerage, Matsuura became a contract worker for Naito Securities in 1995. His contract was annulled in May.