Government mulls increasing new NISA investment limit to ¥18 million

The Yomiuri Shimbun

2:00 JST, December 14, 2022

The government and the ruling parties have begun discussions on revising the Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA) investment scheme by integrating two different types of NISA with a lifetime investment limit of ¥18 million.

The plan will be included in the ruling parties’ tax reform plan for fiscal 2023, and will be the centerpiece of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan to double asset income.

Currently, investors can choose to open either an installment-type or a general NISA. The installment-type NISA is designed for medium- to long-term asset building and allows investment through trusts, while the general NISA allows investors to purchase stocks.

In the plan, the lifetime investment limit of the general NISA will be ¥12 million, or two-thirds of the total lifetime investment, and the annual investment limit will be ¥2.4 million, double the current limit. The annual investment limit for the installment-type will be tripled from ¥400,000 to ¥1.2 million.

The government will make the system permanent after 2024, and income and capital gains from financial products managed under NISA will be exempted from tax indefinitely.

At an executive meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Research Commission on the Tax System on Monday, a proposal was discussed to set the lifetime investment limit at ¥15 million and the new general NISA limit at half that amount, ¥7.5 million. It is believed that subsequent discussion with the government resulted in an increase in the cap.