Members of Japan's government tax commission have approved the ruling Democratic Party's plan to raise the consumption tax, starting in 2014.

They held a general meeting Friday to discuss the plan, which the DPJ approved earlier in the day.

The 5-percent consumption tax is expected to be raised to 8 percent in April 2014 and 10 percent in October 2015.

The commission also decided to propose increasing the maximum income tax rate to 45 percent from the current 40 percent. That would be applied to annual incomes of 50 million yen, or about 640,000 dollars, and higher.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and members of the DPJ-led government are scheduled to attend a meeting of the joint task force on social services next week and adopt a plan of tax and social services reforms.

The Democrats hope to finalize the outline of the reform plan by the end of January after consulting with opposition parties, and then submit relevant bills to the Diet by the end of March.

Source: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111230_18.html

Image credit: http://the-diplomat.com/a-new-japan/files/2011/04/Taxing-Times-for-Japan-400x266.jpg