Jul 03 (Japan Today) - Japan's tax revenue hit a record 60.36 trillion yen ($557 billion) in fiscal 2018 on the back of higher wages and dividend payments, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
Tax revenue in the year through March increased 2.7 percent from a year earlier, surpassing a government estimate of 59.93 trillion yen, according to the ministry.
The previous highest amount of tax revenue collected came in fiscal 1990, at the end of the country's asset-inflated bubble economy, when the level was 60.11 trillion.
Following the global financial crisis in 2008, revenue plunged to 38.73 trillion yen in fiscal 2009, its lowest level in the post-bubble economy period.
In fiscal 2019, the government expects tax revenue of 62.50 trillion yen as a result of the planned consumption tax increase to 10 percent from the current 8 percent in October.
But it is uncertain whether corporate earnings, an important component of the entire tax revenue, will continue to grow amid escalating U.S.-China trade tensions.
