Japan's Qualified Invoice System: the rules and what Guliel covers

Japan's Qualified Invoice System (適格請求書等保存方式, usually called インボイス制度) has applied since 1 October 2023. A business buyer can deduct the consumption tax it paid only when it holds a qualified invoice from a registered supplier, so an unregistered supplier costs its business customers money. Guliel is accounting and finance-operations software that runs invoicing, expenses, purchasing, payroll, reporting and a double-entry general ledger on one engine. Japan is one of its 39 supported countries: a Japanese organisation issues English PDF invoices that carry its registration number, with one consumption-tax rate per document.

The rules in short

• The National Tax Agency (NTA, 国税庁) runs the system. A registered business gets a registration number (登録番号): T followed by 13 digits, for example T1234567890123.
• Only registered businesses issue qualified invoices. A business with base-period taxable sales of ¥10 million or less is exempt from consumption tax; registering to issue qualified invoices makes it a consumption-tax payer.
• A registered business must issue a qualified invoice when a registered business customer asks for one, and keep a copy for seven years.
• Purchases from unregistered suppliers get only a partial deduction under transitional measures: 80% from October 2023 to September 2026, lower after that. Check the current percentage with the NTA or your 税理士.
• The buyer's registration number is not required, unlike the buyer's VAT number on an EU B2B invoice.

What a qualified invoice must show

Required item	Guliel's Japan PDF today
Issuer's name and registration number	Organisation name; the number entered as the Qualified Invoice Issuer Number prints in the header (live)
Transaction date	Issue date (live)
Description, with reduced-rate items marked	Line descriptions (live); no reduced-rate marker (not built)
Total per tax rate, with the rate	One rate per document: subtotal and rate (live); per-rate totals on a mixed invoice (not built)
Consumption tax per rate	One tax line with the amount (live)
Buyer's name	Customer name under "Bill To" (live)

Two related formats exist: the qualified simplified invoice (適格簡易請求書) for retail, restaurants and taxis, which may omit the buyer's name, and the qualified return invoice (適格返還請求書) for refunds and discounts. Guliel has no separate layout for either; it issues the full invoice, and credit notes (live) in the same format.

Consumption tax: 10% and 8%

• 10% standard rate: most goods and services.
• 8% reduced rate: food and drink other than alcohol and restaurant dining (takeout and delivery qualify), and newspapers published at least twice a week under subscription.

An invoice with items at both rates must show the taxable total and the tax for each rate, and mark the reduced-rate items. Tax is rounded once per invoice for each rate, not line by line.

What Guliel does for a business in Japan

Live today:

• Documents. Invoices and credit notes as English PDF in the minimal commercial format, one of Guliel's 10 format families. A receipt can be issued when a payment is recorded. Numbering happens at issue; totals come from the line items. JPY is the default currency; other currencies carry a stored exchange rate. More on invoicing.
• Registration number. A Japanese organisation enters its T-number in the Qualified Invoice Issuer Number field at setup, and it prints on every document.
• Ledger. Documents, payments, approved expenses and payroll post to a double-entry general ledger on a fixed chart of accounts. Manual journal entries must balance. Trial balance, balance sheet, general ledger, income statement and cash flow are built in; a manager sets the books lock date; the ledger exports as CSV for your 税理士.
• Expenses. OCR scans, or capture from Gmail, Outlook, IMAP and POP3 inboxes. AI assigns a category from your own list; nothing reaches the ledger until a person approves it. See expenses.
• Suppliers. Purchase orders, supplier invitations by email, and supplier invoices linked to the order they bill.
• Payroll. Gross-to-net payroll with payslip PDFs, posted to the ledger. It calculates no Japanese statutory items: no income-tax withholding (源泉徴収), social insurance (社会保険) or year-end adjustment (年末調整). See payroll.
• Reports. 49 report definitions, including a tax report by period, AR aging and expenses by vendor.
• AI. Any MCP client (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot) connects through OAuth 2.1 and acts within your role and scopes; a built-in AI companion works inside the app. See MCP.

What is not built for Japan

• Mixed-rate invoices. One consumption-tax rate per document, so an invoice mixing 10% and 8% items cannot be issued yet. If you sell reduced-rate goods, do not rely on Guliel for those invoices.
• Simplified and return-invoice layouts, and a reduced-rate marker on lines.
• Japanese-language documents. Japanese organisations' documents render in English.
• A Japan-specific tax report. The tax report uses the generic layout; country adapters exist for Israel, Singapore and the USA.
• Structured e-invoices. Documents are PDF; Guliel does not produce JP PINT, Japan's voluntary Peppol specification. Structured e-invoice output is planned.
• Custom accounts. The chart of accounts is fixed; custom accounts (for the 勘定科目 your 税理士 prefers) are planned.
• Electronic Bookkeeping Act review. Scanned and emailed bills stay attached to their expenses, but Guliel has not been assessed against the 電子帳簿保存法 storage rules. Ask your 税理士.

What stays with you and your 税理士

• NTA registration. You apply directly; Guliel does not register on your behalf.
• The consumption-tax return (消費税申告) and corporate tax return. Guliel does not prepare or file tax returns. It supplies the tax report, the ledger and the documents behind them.
• Review. Expenses wait for a person's approval, a manager sets the lock date, and each user has a role (manager, contributor or viewer). A sign-off queue where an accountant approves AI work is planned. More for accountants.

Starting out

Run Guliel beside the software you use today: issue new documents and capture expenses in Guliel, and send the ledger CSV to your 税理士. There is no importer for Japanese accounting software, and none for QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, Wave, FreshBooks, Invoice Ninja, Stripe or Shopify either; connectors for all eight are planned. Customers come in through Guliel's spreadsheet template (name, tax ID, email, phone, address, city), with a column check and a staged review before anything is saved. Move the rest when you are ready.

Pricing is per organisation, not per seat. Free is $0 a month with 200 invoices, 100 expense scans, 10 reports and 5 automations. Standard ($20) and Premium ($99) are published prices; paid plans are not on sale yet. See pricing.

FAQ

Is the Qualified Invoice System mandatory?

It has applied since October 2023. Registration is voluntary, but business customers cannot take the full consumption-tax deduction on an unregistered supplier's invoices (80% under transitional measures until September 2026, lower after that). For B2B sales, registration is close to required.

What does a registration number look like?

T followed by 13 digits, for example T1234567890123. The NTA issues it after registration. For a corporation, the 13 digits are its corporate number (法人番号).

What consumption-tax rates apply?

10% standard and 8% reduced. The 8% rate covers food and drink other than alcohol and restaurant dining, and subscription newspapers. A mixed-rate invoice must show the total and the tax for each rate.

Can Guliel issue a qualified invoice?

For single-rate sales, the English PDF carries the required items: your name and registration number, the date, line descriptions, the rate, the tax amount and the buyer's name. Mixed 10% and 8% invoices, simplified invoices and Japanese-language documents are not built.

Is Guliel accounting software or only invoicing?

Accounting software. Guliel keeps a double-entry general ledger with manual journal entries, a trial balance, balance sheet, income statement, cash flow and a books lock date. Invoicing, expenses, purchasing, payroll and reports run on the same engine.

Does Guliel register me with the NTA or file my consumption-tax return?

No. You register directly with the NTA, and your 税理士 or a filing tool files the 消費税申告. Guliel supplies the tax report, the ledger as CSV and the documents behind them.

Does Guliel send Peppol (JP PINT) e-invoices?

Not today. Documents are PDF. Guliel's own Peppol access point is built and awaiting OpenPeppol certification, and is not yet connected to the app. Structured e-invoice output is planned.

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