Tax revenues see 1.3 trillion yen deficit

Corporate tax revenues received for the fiscal 2009 first half--April to September--had a deficit of 1.3 trillion yen, mainly because the government had to pay out 2.7 trillion yen in tax refunds for the same period, Finance Ministry officials said Monday.

Companies typically pay half of the corporate taxes they owe after the first half of their accounting year based on profits from the previous year.

Because of poor second-half 2008 performances among many companies, however, corporate taxes due ended up totaling far less than the amount the companies paid out, leading to the refunds.

It was the first time corporate taxes have recorded a deficit in the first half since statistics were first collected in 1960.

For April to September 2008, corporate tax revenues reached about 900 billion yen.

Total tax revenues for the first half of fiscal 2009 fell to 10.1 trillion yen, a drop of 3.3 trillion yen over the same period last year.(IHT/Asahi: November 4,2009)