07.04.21

Further details of new ‘Qualified Invoice Retention System’

Japan will introduce a new qualified invoice regime for Japanese Consumption Tax (JCT) with effect from 1 October 2023. This will bring the JCT regime more closely in line with European-style VAT regimes, and in order to claim input tax credit, the purchaser will be required to retain ‘qualified invoices’ issued by ‘qualified invoice issuers’. Only taxable persons are eligible to register as qualified invoice issuers, and cannot be JCT exempt enterprises (i.e. they cannot be exempt from the obligation to file a JCT return and remit JCT). Unlike the current system, this requirement applies even if the enterprise’s taxable sales for the base period are JPY 10 million or less. Registration to become a qualified invoice issuer opens on 1 October 2021.