Tax invoice in Japan Part.2|Free tax consultation in Sapporo, please contact Kumagai Nobuyasu accountant office!

I explain about the required items in tax invoices in detail. If there are some lack of required items, it is considered as invalid tax invoice. The lack of required items make your customer unable to apply the purchase tax credit and need the additional tax payment, and by extension you may lose cumtomer's trust.
I hope you understand the required items in detail by reading this articleand introduce tax invoice system smoothly.

The composition of the series is as follows.
Part.1 Overview of the tax invoice system
Part.2 Required items for tax invoice(this article)
Part.3 Schedule for the introduction of tax invoice
Part.4 Office works and consumption tax return after the introduction
This article is based on the tax laws and Q&A from the national tax agency as of November 2022.

Let's review the required items in tax invoice, which was explained in Part.1.

1. The name or title of the tax invoice issuer, and the issuer registration number
2. The date of transferring taxable assets
3. The content of transfered taxable assets or services(When a part of taxable assets is assets applied mitigated tax rate,the fact of asset applied mitigated tax rate)
4. Total amount of tax excluding price or tax including price distinct by tax rate, and applied tax rate
5. Consumption tax amount distinct by tax rate
6. The name or title of the tax invoice recipient

As long as there are the required items in payment documents, that documents are considered as tax invoices though those title does not include "invoice". 

I explain the required items in detail from the following sections.I explain 1.The name or title of the tax invoice issuer, and the issuer registration number in detail.
For example, a private store displays not its name, but the title or the nickname on invoices. In that case, does it need display its name in tax invoices? According to invoice Q&A No.46 from the National Tax Agency, it is OK to display the title or the nickname as long as enable to specify the tax invoice issuer with displaying the telephone number etc. And if there is a customer code system that both seller and buyer share, it is OK to display the customer code on tax invoices without the registered name or title. (invoice Q&A No.47)
Considering the above guidelines, it meets the requirement "1.The name or title of the tax invoice issuer, and the issuer registration number" if it can indentify the tax invoice issuer each other. However, third party may confirm tax invoices in case of tax inspection, accounting audit etc., it is better to devise to identify tax invoice issuers by third party; for example, preparing a customer code list in case of display the customer code only.
 

I explain the issuer registration number in this section.The issuer registration number is an identification number given to a tax invoice issuer by the National Tax Agency. We can identify formally invoice issuer by this identification number.
The rule of the issuer registration number is "T+ 13 digits of the registered cooperate number" in case of juridical person and "T+ 13 digits of a new unique number" in case of private operator. The issuer registration number is given at the time of the invoice issuer registration. The detail of registration procedure will be explained in Part.3.
It is a matter of course that it is invalid it does not displays the issuer registration number on tax invoices even if it can be identified with the title etc., and it is invalid it displays unregistered issuer registration number on tax invoices too. Perhaps, some operators may pretend as the tax invoice issuer or falsify tax invoices by displaying fictiotious number. So that avoiding such misconduct, the National Tax Agency publishes the list of registered tax invoice issuer in the official site of the National Tax Agency since October 2021.
Once it is registered as the tax invoice issuer to the National Tax Agency, it can display the issuer registration number on invoices etc. before the introduction of tax invoice syetem in October 2023. It already displays the issuer refistration number on invoices and receipts that our office issues.
 

I explain 2.The date of transferring taxable assets in this section.
It requires that item on invoices, receipts etc. in present consumption tax law. It is enough that it displays the actual date of  transfered taxable assets or services in any kind of way. For expample, it displays the transaction date on a column of detail of the invoice, displays month of transaction. If an operator issues an tax invoice on the date which is diffrent from the issuance date, displaying the issunance date only is invald. Please be careful not to forget to display the transaction date in each transaction when an operator issues invoices after the next day of transaction date.
 

I explain 4.Total amount of tax excluding price or tax including price distinct by tax rates, and applied tax rate and 5.Consumption tax amount distinct by tax rates in this section.The display rule of tax rates and tax amounts under the present consumption tax law is to display the tax included amounts for each tax rates;
Example 
8% of tax rate applyed 1,080JPY(tax-included)
10% of tax rate applyed 1,100JPY(tax-included)
However, some operators display both the tax amounts and the tax excluded amounts in  practice;
Example
8% of tax rate applyed 1,000JPY(tax-encluded, tax 80JPY)
10% of tax rate applyed 1,000JPY(tax-excluded, tax 100JPY)
After introducing the tax invoice system, it is invalid that no tax amount distinct by tax rates are displayed. Therefore it needs to display tax amounts on invoices;it displays tax amounts written together either tax included amounts or tax excluded amounts.
Example
8% of tax rate applyed 1,080JPY(tax-included, tax 80JPY)
10% of tax rate applyed 1,100JPY(tax-ixcluded, tax 100JPY)
 

I explained the details of required items.However, it is heavy burden for stores which there are unspecified number of people like supermarket, transportation. So that, the operators listed below can issue eligible simple tax invoice that required simpler items.

1. Retail business
2. Restaurant business
3. Photograpy
4. Travel industry
5. Taxi business
6. Parking lot business
7. Other businesses similar to these businesses that transfer assets to unspecified numbers of people 

Note that, 6.Parking lot business is limited that unspecified numbers of people can use only. So, parking lots which only restricted users can use need to issue the not simple tax invoice.On the other hand in case of 1.～5., even if the operators serving to only restricted users, they can issue eligible simple tax invoices(invoice Q&A No.24)
The required items of eligible simple tax invoice are listed below.

1. The name or title of the tax invoice issuer, and the issuer registration number
2. The date of transferring taxable assets
3. The content of transfered taxable assets or services(When a part of taxable assets is assets applied mitigated tax rate,the fact of asset applied mitigated tax rate)
4. Total amount of tax excluding price or tax including price distinct by tax rate, and applied tax rate
5. Consumption tax amount distinct by tax rate

It says "simple", it need not to display "6.The name or title of the tax invoice recipient", but it lightenes burden for the operators for unspecified number of people. As mentioned above, it is enough to fill the required items to receipts etc. In other words, the additional required items for present receipt are only the issuer registration number and consumption tax amount.
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I explained the required items on the tax invoice in this article. In order to receive the purchase tax deduction for consumption tax, it is necessary to fill in all the items listed. However, with the introduction of the invoice system this time, I think there are some business operators who will significantly review the format. When doing so, carefully weigh the costs and benefits of the review. I will explain the preparation work and timing for introduction of the tax invoice system in part 3, so please take a look at it as well.