[Understand in 5 Minutes] How to Search for Invoice System Registration Numbers: A Guide to Verifiable Information

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 credit on purchases related to consumption tax.
An invoice (qualified invoice) is a means for sellers to accurately communicate applicable tax rates and consumption tax amounts to buyers. It refers to documents or data that include the following information in addition to the current itemized 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 client 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 sales) - 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 the 50,000 JPY consumption tax to the supplier as before, the consumption tax paid to the tax office becomes: 150,000 JPY (consumption tax from sales) - 0 JPY (deduction: none) = 150,000 JPY, which increases the consumption tax burden on your company.

Due to 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 experiencing 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, actions such as price reductions or registering as an invoice issuer may be required.

How to Confirm and 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.
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 half-width numeric string, excluding the "T" prefix. Next to the input area, the system indicates the digit position of the number being entered. Additionally, you can click the "Bulk Search by Registration Number" field to search for multiple registration numbers at once.

After entering, 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 a registration number, you can confirm the following items:

• The number listed 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 invoice issuer registration 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 registration application, the National Tax Agency's official website provides the following estimates:

• e-Tax Submission: Approximately 3 weeks
• 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 Business Entity List

You can download the full list of business entities 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 Delta Data."
• Choose the appropriate file from the three types: CSV, XML, and JSON formats.
• 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, downloading delta data files is currently 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 Registration Number
• Registration Date
• Registration Cancellation Date, Registration Expiration Date
• For corporations (excluding non-juridical organizations, etc.), 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 are sole proprietors 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 primary trade name and principal office address in addition to the information above. To publish additional information, it is necessary to submit a "Notification of Publication (Change) of Publication Items for Qualified Invoice Issuers."

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

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 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 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, address, etc.
• Find the corporate name, address, etc., from the corporate number.
• Bulk search for corporate numbers.

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

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

How to Search for Invoice Registration Numbers by Company Name

1. Searching via the Corporate Number Publication Site

As mentioned above, it is possible to search using a company name on the Corporate Number Publication Site. By following a two-step process—first searching for the Corporate Number on the publication site, and then using that Corporate Number to search for the Invoice Registration Number—you can successfully identify the Invoice Registration Number using the company name.

2. Searching via the Comprehensive Business Operator List File

The aforementioned comprehensive business operator list 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 verify the location to determine if the business operator found in the search is the one you were looking for. If you cannot determine the identity based on the company name and location, the method of searching via the Corporate Number in step 1 may be the safer approach.

Finding Fundamental Solutions for Persistent Search Challenges

Even with the methods mentioned above, challenges remain, such as the difficulty of searching for business operators that hold multiple Invoice Registration Numbers per Corporate Number, or search failures caused by discrepancies between public information and internal master data notation.

For a fundamental solution, why not reconsider your approach starting with "Internal Data Maintenance"? uSonar provides comprehensive solutions for challenges you may have been concerned about but previously postponed due to perceived low immediate benefits.
First, please try our "Practical Guide to Assigning Invoice Registration Numbers."

Summary

Under the Invoice System, issuing an invoice is required for the consumption tax deduction on purchases. If you conduct business with a supplier that is not an invoice-registered business operator, the consumption tax paid to that supplier will be ineligible for deduction, which may lead to an increase in your consumption tax payment obligations. Invoice-registered business operators can be searched by their registration number on the website, and a comprehensive list of all business operators 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 you in assigning Invoice Registration Numbers. This makes it very convenient and highly recommended, as it allows you to easily search and verify the registration status of your suppliers.

Invoice Number Assignment Available
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