[5-Minute Read] How to Search for Invoice System Registration Numbers: A Guide to 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 tax credits on purchases related to consumption tax.
An invoice (qualified invoice) is a means for sellers to accurately communicate the applicable tax rate and consumption tax amount to buyers. It refers to documents or data that include the following information in addition to the current categorized invoice requirements.

• 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 conducting 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 JPY (50,000 JPY in consumption tax) from a supplier and sells them to a customer for 1,500,000 JPY (150,000 JPY 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 JPY (consumption tax from the customer) - 50,000 JPY (deduction: consumption tax paid to the supplier) = 100,000 JPY. However, after the system begins, the consumption tax paid to the supplier is not eligible for deduction. Therefore, even if you pay 50,000 JPY in consumption tax to the supplier as you did before the system, the consumption tax paid to the tax office becomes: 150,000 JPY (consumption tax from the customer) - 0 JPY (deduction: none) = 150,000 JPY, which increases the consumption tax burden on your company.

Because of these disadvantages, after the system begins, companies will likely reduce transactions with unregistered suppliers or review their transaction terms. For suppliers, there is a risk of losing contracts and seeing a decrease in 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, they may be required to offer price discounts or register as invoice issuers.

How to Verify and Search for Invoice Issuers

How can you confirm whether a business partner is an invoice issuer? Here is an explanation of how to verify 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.
Below the "Search for Registration Number" section on the home screen, there is a field to enter the registration number. Please enter the 13-digit alphanumeric registration number, excluding the "T". Next to the input area, the system indicates which digit you are currently entering. Additionally, by clicking the "Bulk Search by Registration Number" field, you can search for multiple registration numbers at once.

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

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

You can only search for a registration number after the application for registration as an invoice issuer has been submitted and processed. Once processed, you will receive a registration notification containing the registration number. Searching immediately after submitting the application will yield no results.
Regarding the period from submission to acceptance of the application, the National Tax Agency's official website provides the following estimates:

• e-Tax submission: Approximately 3 weeks
• Paper submission: Approximately 2 months

Since errors in the application form will cause further delays, 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 appropriate file from the three formats: CSV, XML, or JSON.
• Save the downloaded file.

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

Published Information for Invoice Issuers

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

• Name of the Qualified Invoice Issuer and their registration number
• Date of registration
• Date of registration cancellation or expiration
• For corporations (excluding non-juridical organizations), the address of the head office or principal place of business
• 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 address 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.
For sole proprietors, the primary trade name and office address are generally not published. Therefore, if there is a sole proprietor with the same name, or if they primarily use a trade name, this may cause confusion.
Sole proprietors or non-juridical organizations can choose to publish their primary trade name and the address of their principal office in addition to the information above. To publish additional information, you must submit a "Notification of Publication (Change) of Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Items".

The above publication details are current as of now and may change if the system is revised in the future.

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

The aforementioned Qualified Invoice Issuer Publication Site does not allow searches by corporate name, business name, or address. Therefore, if you wish 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 verify 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, address, etc.
• Find the corporate name, address, etc., from the corporate number.
• Search for multiple corporate numbers at once.

For corporate name searches, partial match and prefix match searches are available, and it also supports searches by phonetic reading (kana) or English spelling. Regarding the address, you can specify conditions such as prefecture or postal code. Furthermore, as shown below, detailed condition settings are possible:

• 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 (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 effectively search for an invoice registration number using a company name.

2. Search via 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 address to determine if the business hit in the search is the one you were looking for. If you cannot determine the identity from the company name and address, the method of searching via the corporate number in step 1 may be safer.

Fundamental Solutions for Remaining Search Challenges

Even with the aforementioned methods, challenges remain, such as the difficulty of searching for businesses that hold multiple invoice registration numbers per corporate number, and unsuccessful searches due to discrepancies between public information and internal master data.

For a fundamental solution, why not reconsider your approach starting with Internal Data Maintenance? uSonar comprehensively resolves issues that you may have been concerned about but previously postponed due to perceived low priority.
First, please try our Practical Guide to Assigning Invoice Registration Numbers.

Summary

Under the invoice system, issuing an invoice is necessary for the consumption tax deduction of purchase amounts. If you conduct transactions with suppliers that are not invoice-issuing businesses, the consumption tax paid to those suppliers will be excluded from the deduction, which may lead to an increase in your consumption tax payment. Invoice-issuing businesses can search for registration numbers on the website, and a full list of all businesses can be downloaded for verification.

Checking the registration status and numbers of your business partners every time is extremely time-consuming and may cause operational delays. With uSonar's corporate data LBC, we can support the assignment of invoice registration numbers. Therefore, it is highly convenient and recommended as it allows you to easily search and verify the registration status of your suppliers.

Invoice Number Assignment Available
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