[Understand in 5 Minutes] Want to Search for Invoice System Registration Numbers? Explaining What You Can Verify

What Is the Invoice System?

The Invoice System (Qualified Invoice Preservation Method), which came into effect on October 1, 2023, is a system for the purchase tax credit of consumption tax.
An invoice (qualified invoice) is a means for sellers to communicate the accurate applicable tax rate and consumption tax amount to buyers, and refers to documents or data that include the following information in addition to the current standard invoices:

• Registration Number
• Applicable Tax Rate
• Consumption Tax Amount Categorized by Tax Rate

Disadvantages of Doing Business with Suppliers Who Are Not Qualified Invoice Issuers

What are the disadvantages of doing business with suppliers who are not invoice issuers (qualified invoice issuers) after the system begins?

Under the purchase tax credit system, businesses can deduct the consumption tax on purchases from their sales when paying consumption tax. After the system begins, purchase tax credits can only be claimed if an invoice is issued. As mentioned above, only taxable businesses registered as invoice issuers can issue invoices. Suppose your company purchases products for 500,000 yen (50,000 yen in consumption tax) from a supplier and sells them to a customer for 1,500,000 yen (150,000 yen in consumption tax). The supplier is a tax-exempt business not registered as an invoice issuer.

Before the system began, the consumption tax your company paid to the tax office was 150,000 yen (consumption tax from the customer) - 50,000 yen (deduction: consumption tax paid to the supplier) = 100,000 yen. However, after the system begins, the consumption tax paid to the supplier is not eligible for deduction. Therefore, even if you pay the 50,000 yen consumption tax to the supplier as you did before the system began, the consumption tax paid to the tax office becomes 150,000 yen (consumption tax from the customer) - 0 yen (deduction: none) = 150,000 yen, which increases the amount of consumption tax your company must bear.

Because of these disadvantages, after the system begins, you may need to reduce transactions with unregistered suppliers or review your terms of trade. For suppliers, there is also a risk that business partners may terminate contracts, leading to reduced income. Transitional measures are in place for several years after the system begins, allowing for a certain percentage of purchase tax credits. However, in the future, you may be required to request price discounts or ask them to register as an invoice issuer.

How to Confirm or Search for Invoice Issuers?

How can you confirm whether a business partner is an invoice issuer? We will explain how to check and search for registration status.

Searching by Registration Number

You can search by registration number on the Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Site. Once you access the site, prepare the invoice provided by your business partner and check the registration number listed on it.
Below the "Search for Registration Number" item on the home screen, there is a field to enter the registration number (number entry area). In the number entry area, please enter the 13-digit alphanumeric number excluding the "T" prefix. Next to the number entry area, the system indicates which digit you are currently entering. Additionally, if you click the "Bulk Entry by Registration Number" field, you can search for multiple registration numbers at once.

After entering, click the "Search" button. If the corresponding registration number does not exist, "The registration number you are searching for does not exist" will be displayed. By searching for a registration number, you can confirm the following items:

• The number listed on the document provided by the business partner is the correct registration number.
• The listed registration number is valid at the time of the transaction.

You can search for a registration number only after the application for invoice issuer registration has been submitted and processed. Once processed, you will receive a registration notification containing the registration number. If you search immediately after submitting the registration application, it will not be displayed.
Regarding the period from submitting the registration application to acceptance, the National Tax Agency's official website provides the following estimates:

• For e-Tax submission: Approximately 3 weeks.
• For paper submission: Approximately 2 months.

If there are errors in the application form, it will take longer, so please ensure there are no mistakes.

[Reference] Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Site

Downloading the Full List of Businesses

You can download the full list of businesses from the National Tax Agency website.
The download method is as follows:

- Navigate to the "Publication Information Download" page from the "Download Web-API" tab on the site screen.
- Select and click "Download All Data" or "Download Differential Data".
- Choose the relevant file from the three types: CSV, XML, or JSON format.
- Save the downloaded file.

After downloading, unzip the file and confirm that it contains both the download file and the signature file.
However, as of September 22, 2022, the download of differential data files is unavailable.

Published Information of Invoice Issuers

The National Tax Agency's official website publishes the following information regarding invoice issuers:

• Name of the qualified invoice issuer and registration number.
• Registration date.
• Registration cancellation date, registration expiration date.
• For corporations (excluding non-juridical organizations, etc.), the location of the head office or principal office.
• For foreign businesses other than specified foreign businesses (foreign businesses that do not have an office, place of business, or equivalent in Japan related to asset transfers, etc., conducted within Japan), the location of the office, place of business, or equivalent related to asset transfers, etc., conducted within Japan.

While all information is published for corporations, in the case of sole proprietors, the address is not published, but the name is published.
For sole proprietors, the principal trade name and office location are generally not published. Therefore, if there is a sole proprietor with the same name or if they primarily use a trade name, it may cause confusion.
Sole proprietors or non-juridical organizations can choose to publish their principal trade name and principal office location in addition to the above information. To publish additional information, you must submit a "Notification of Publication (Change) of Publication Items for Qualified Invoice Issuers".

The above publication details are current as of now, and if the system changes in the future, the publication details may also change.

If You Want to Search by Business Name, First Search for the Corporate Number

The aforementioned Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Site does not allow searching by corporate name, business name, or location. Therefore, if you want to search by corporate name or business name, please access the National Tax Agency's Corporate Number Publication Site and search for the corporate number in advance. You can confirm whether they are a registered business from the company name in the search results.

The Corporate Number Publication Site allows for the following searches:

• Find the corporate number from the corporate name, location, etc.
• Find the corporate name, location, etc., from the corporate number.
• Search for multiple corporate numbers in bulk.

Regarding corporate name searches, partial match and prefix match searches are possible, and it also supports searches by reading (kana) or English notation. Regarding location, you can search by specifying conditions such as prefecture or postal code. Furthermore, as shown below, you can set conditions in detail.

• Corporate Type (National government agencies, local public entities, joint-stock companies, limited liability companies, general/limited/limited liability partnerships, other registered corporations, foreign companies, etc.)
• Change History (You can choose whether to include change history since publication in the search).
• Search Exclusion (You can choose whether to include excluded corporations in the search).
• Registration Closure, etc. (You can choose whether to include corporations with closed registration records in the search).
• Change Date (You can search by the date the corporate number was assigned).

How to Search for an Invoice Registration Number by Company Name

1. Search on the Corporate Number Publication Site

As mentioned above, you can search using the company name on the Corporate Number Publication Site. By searching for the corporate number on the publication site first, and then using that corporate number to search for the invoice registration number, you can search for an invoice registration number using the company name.

2. Search on the Full List of Businesses File

The aforementioned full list of businesses file includes business names (company names), so you can confirm the invoice registration number by searching within the file. However, since company names are often duplicated, it is important to also check the location to determine if the business hit in the search is the one you were looking for. If you cannot determine it from the company name and location, the method of searching from the corporate number in step 1 may be safer.

For Remaining Search Challenges, Find a Fundamental Solution

Even with the methods mentioned above, challenges remain, such as the difficulty of searching for businesses that have multiple invoice registration numbers for each corporate number, or unsuccessful searches because the notation of public information does not match your internal master data.

For a fundamental solution, why not review your "Internal Data Maintenance"? uSonar can comprehensively solve issues that you have been concerned about but postponed due to low perceived benefits.
First, please try the "Practical Guide to Assigning Invoice Registration Numbers".

Summary

Under the Invoice System, issuing an invoice is necessary for the purchase tax credit of consumption tax. If you do business with a supplier who is not an invoice issuer, the consumption tax paid to the supplier will not be eligible for deduction, which may increase your consumption tax payment amount. You can search for registration numbers of invoice issuers on the site and confirm them by downloading the full list of businesses.

Checking the registration status and numbers of business partners every time is very time-consuming and may hinder business operations. With uSonar's corporate data LBC, we can support the assignment of invoice registration numbers. Therefore, it is very convenient and recommended as you can easily search and confirm the registration status of your suppliers.

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