Japan qualified invoice: the required entries

The six entries a Japanese qualified invoice must carry, how the registration number is written, how amounts are split by tax rate and rounded, and when a simplified invoice is allowed.

The six entries a qualified invoice must carry

Under the qualified invoice system that began on 1 October 2023, a buyer generally needs to keep the qualified invoice the seller issued in order to claim an input consumption-tax credit. A missing entry therefore costs your counterparty, not you — which is why the document comes back before the payment does.

The layout itself is free. An invoice, a delivery note or a receipt all qualify as long as the six entries below are present; conversely, a well-formatted document that omits the registration number or the applicable rate does not meet the requirement.

  • The name of the registered invoice issuer and their registration number.
  • The date the taxable supply was made.
  • What was supplied, including a marking where the reduced rate applies.
  • The amounts totalled separately for each tax rate, and the rate applied.
  • The consumption tax amount for each tax rate.
  • The name of the business receiving the document.

The registration number is "T" plus 13 digits

A registration number is the letter T followed by thirteen digits. For a company the digits are its corporate number; sole proprietors and unincorporated associations are assigned a separate thirteen-digit number. A business that is not registered cannot issue a qualified invoice at all.

You can confirm a counterparty's registration number on the National Tax Agency's published register. For an ongoing relationship it is worth re-checking occasionally rather than only once, since a registration can be cancelled.

Splitting by rate, and rounding once

The standard rate is 10% and the reduced rate is 8%. The reduced rate covers food and drink other than alcohol and eating out, and newspapers supplied under a subscription; items at the reduced rate must be marked as such, which a symbol explained in a footnote satisfies.

Rounding happens once per invoice per tax rate. Calculating tax line by line and adding the results is not accepted, and that is exactly what an older spreadsheet format tends to do — the requirement is easy to miss when a familiar layout is reused.

Buying from an unregistered business, and the transitional relief

A taxable purchase from a supplier who is not a registered invoice issuer does not, as a rule, qualify for an input tax credit. Transitional relief softens that: 80% of the equivalent input tax from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2026, and 50% from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2029.

Claiming the relief requires keeping a document carrying the same entries as the earlier classified invoice, and noting in the books that the relief is being applied. Around the date the percentage changes, which period the purchase falls in decides which rate applies.

When a simplified invoice is allowed

Businesses that sell to the general public — retail, restaurants, photography, travel, taxis, parking and similar — may issue a simplified qualified invoice. It does not need the recipient's name, and it may carry either the applicable rate or the tax amount per rate rather than both.

The simplified form is allowed because of the nature of the business, not because a shorter document would be convenient. Check the National Tax Agency guidance to confirm whether your business is in scope.

Check before sending

In QuoteBill you set the document country and tax rate before reviewing the preview. The Japanese template supplies the structure and the field labels; the registration number and the description of the supply are yours to enter. Check the following against the finished PDF before sending.

  • Is the registration number written as T followed by thirteen digits?
  • Are the transaction date and a description of the supply both present?
  • Where reduced-rate items appear, are they marked as such?
  • Are amounts totalled separately per rate, with the rate shown?
  • Is the tax rounded once per rate rather than line by line?
  • Is the recipient business named correctly, unless a simplified invoice applies?

Sources

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