消費税の負担に関する一考察 / A Study on the Burden of the Japanese Consumption Tax

The Japanese Consumption Tax, which is an indirect tax, obliges each business that sells a product or service to pay some specified amount to the government, with the expectation that the business transfers the burden to the buyer by raising the price and that the consumer finally bears the whole burden. Several public surveys indicate that the expected price raise does not completely occur in reality, and for that reason, some argue the taxation has the property of being a direct tax borne by the business itself. To discuss the issue, this paper first shows that the general measure used in discussions on the taxation does not properly express tax burden perceived by businesses and consumers as economic entities, and proposes two burden measures that are more proper from the viewpoints of those entities as well as from the aspects of legal theory. By the measures the paper demonstrates that the taxation is nothing but a direct tax borne by businesses in terms of law, and that burden at issue in general discussions regarded as being borne by consumers instead of businesses is different from legal burden. 消費税は，その納税義務は事業者が負うが，事業者は税額を価格に上乗せして買い手に税負担を転嫁し，最終的に税負担が消費者に帰着することを予定した間接税である。いくつかの公の調査によって，事業者による税負担の価格への転嫁は，現実には完全には行われていないと見られており，それを理由として，消費税は納税義務者が自らそれを負担する直接税の性質を持っているとの指摘がある。 これに対して本稿では，まず消費税についての議論で用いられている負担の尺度が，経済主体たる事業者や消費者の側から見た負担を適切に表さないことを示し，より法的および経済主体の視点から適切と思われる2つの尺度を提案する。それらによって消費税は，法的には事業者が負担する直接税に他ならないこと，そして一般的な議論において，事業者が負わず消費者が負うと見なされている負担が，法的な負担とは異なることを示す。