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Tax

October 10, 2019

In this country, the government raised the consumption tax from 8 % to 10 % from this month. They added two new policies that would try to absorb possible negative economical effects, because the last time when they raised the consumption tax from 5% to 8%, consumers purchased less. And therefore, companies' profit went down, and the economy became bad. It was the government's trauma.   The new tax were thus: First: food items (except alcohol) remained at 8%, unless it was eaten in restaurants. Maybe they thought alcohol and eating out is a kind of luxury.   However, the second policy was a little more complicated. In this country, people used cash rather than credit cards to pay for items more than other countries. The government wanted to change this because they thought that if cashless checkouts proceeded, then less workers would be needed. This was because that in this country the labor shortage was a big problem. So the government decided to pay back 5 % of cashless purchases to the person who bought in certain registered stores. The conditions to be registered were like this: 1. Retailing shops and other "life-based services", like restaurants, barbershops, dentists, clinics, etc. 2. The size of shops should be under X sales, Y workers 3. The government gave a subsidy for the companies if they bought prepaid register machines for this. 4. The refund's period would be from this month to the end of next June. "5 %!" He was happy and looked forward to it. He would go there once a week or so. He check the poster on the wall. It read that if one used the prepaid card that they issued, 5 % would be refunded. He filled out the form that included his name, address, and phone number. He then received a prepaid card. He went to a prepaid card machine and put a 100 dollars on it. He then did some shopping, and then went to the checkout register. He showed the lady his card. The cashier urged him to put it in the small machine. He did. Soon a beep sound like "clink" happened. He took the card out, was handed a receipt. He checked the receipt, but there was no mention of a refund. He asked the clerk, she explained that the refund would be done in one month. He felt a little bit unsatisfied. The next day after work, he went to the gym. After finishing at the gym, he stopped by Y supermarket. He picked up an application form for their prepaid card, and filled it in and then gave it to a clerk. When he received the card, he asked her when the 5% refund would be processed. She said that it would be done at the register simultaneously. He put 50 dollars on it and then went shopping. He paid by the card and looked at the receipt. It included 5% refund. He was happy. On this day, he went to Z supermarket, which was nearest to his apartment. He checked their poster that read that this shop accepted his credit card. His credit card also had electric money. Different from credit cards, electric money doesn't demand a signature or password, just like money.   At the time of purchase, he showed the lady his card, then put his card in the machine. He received a receipt. But, there was no refund. He couldn't understand. When he arrived at home he checked on the government's website about the 5% refund rules. The page said that there were 500,000 shops that were registered in the whole country, and if you downloaded the app on your smartphone, you could check each registered shop around your area. He did. Soon he was able to see his living area's map, and marks of each of the shops that appeared, but there was no that supermarket. Maybe the Z supermarket was too big to be included for the new policy. However, he came to know that there were about 2000 shops that were registered in his city. "2000!" He wondered whether it would be a good thing to check if each shop had this deal before he went to the shop. It seemed like a waste of time. But 5% wasn't chump change, it would only last for 9 month.

*consumption :消費の
*trauma :トラウマ
*thus :それゆえに
*unless :しない限り
*checkout :生産
*resister :登録する
*subsidy :補助金
*refund :払い戻し
*simultaneously :同時に
*chump change :取るに足らない額