The principal financial regulator of Japan, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), has decided to take crypto regulation into its own hands by proposing to change the tax code regarding digital assets.
The FSA submitted the request on Aug. 31. The most notable suggestion in the 16-page document is a bid to free domestic firms from the end-of-the-year “unrealized gains” tax on crypto. In some national legislation, the legal entities have to pay taxes only after the crypto assets are sold to fiat, but in Japan, they are taxed on a regular yearly basis.
The amendment proposed by the FSA could be accepted, as the agency states that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has already supported it.
As the FSA explains in its release, the reform will “improve the environment for the promotion of Web3 and promote business startups that make use of blockchain technology.”
Advocates of the crypto industry in Japan have been demanding a revision of the national tax regime around digital assets for some time. At the end of July, the Japan Blockchain Association (JBA), a non-government group, asked the government of Japan to make three major changes to crypto regulation.
The elimination of the year-end unrealized gains tax on corporations holding crypto assets was the first one. The other two include switching from personal crypto asset trading profits taxation to self-assessment separate taxation, with a uniform tax rate of 20%, and the elimination of income tax on the profits generated each time an individual exchanges crypto assets.
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Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.
The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.
She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.
In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.
“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.
Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
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Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.
She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.
“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”
Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.
Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.
Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.