Cash register makers seek 1% food tax rate, citing extra time needed for 0% rate (japantimes.co.jp)

> Whereas a zero-percent tax rate would require building new systems from scratch, a tax rate cut to 1% would only need three to six months for cash register system revisions, according to an industry source.

Wat.

We all wonder how bad all the future, AI-written code will be, yet we forget how bad majority of the existing software actually already is.

A year to not include a line item based off of a simple condition is an incredible claim.

I’m calling horseshit. Every job I worked in the past that required handling a register was a Japanese cash register where we could just not charge tax, and which had multiple options depending on what kind of tax it was (drive-thrus for example have a different rate, I never had to deal with that personally but I came across it in the manual when we were setting up a new one). It was an extra key to charge tax.

This shit isn’t lost technology, and while I understand why The Japan Times might be reluctant to name names, given that they’re not naming which manufacturer or manufacturers it is that is crying about how this is “too hard”, I just don’t believe them.

I think the government should make the new 0% tax rate optional. Stores can either continue to collect 8% or drop the rate to 0%.

I think that might help motivate these companies to move things a long a lot quicker. They might even find it doesn’t take 1 year after all.