Article 9Exemption from Tax Liability for Small-Scale Business Operators

①With respect to a business operator whose taxable sales in the base period for its taxable period are 10 million yen or less (excluding a qualified invoice issuer), notwithstanding Article 5, paragraph (1), the obligation to pay consumption tax is exempted for the taxable transfers, etc. of assets and specified taxable purchases conducted in Japan during that taxable period; provided, however, that this does not apply where otherwise provided for in this Act.

②The taxable sales in the base period prescribed in the preceding paragraph means the amount specified in the following items for the category of business operators set forth in those items:

③The number of months in item (ii) of the preceding paragraph is to be calculated according to the calendar, and if a fraction of less than one month arises, it is to be counted as one month.

④Where a business operator that would be exempted from the obligation to pay consumption tax under the main clause of paragraph (1) submits to the district director having jurisdiction over its place for tax payment, for a taxable period in which its taxable sales in the base period (meaning the taxable sales in the base period prescribed in that paragraph; the same applies hereafter in this Chapter, except in Article 11, paragraph (4) and Article 12, paragraph (3)) are 10 million yen or less, a written notification stating that it will not be subject to the application of the main clause of paragraph (1), the main clause of that paragraph does not apply to taxable transfers, etc. of assets and specified taxable purchases conducted in Japan by the business operator that made that submission during each taxable period from the taxable period following the taxable period that includes the day of that submission (or, where the taxable period that includes the day of that submission is the taxable period that includes the day on which the business was commenced or any other taxable period specified by Cabinet Order, from that taxable period) onward (excluding a taxable period in which its taxable sales in the base period exceed 10 million yen).

⑤A business operator that has submitted a written notification under the provisions of the preceding paragraph must, when it intends to cease to be subject to the application of that paragraph or when it has discontinued its business, submit to the district director having jurisdiction over its place for tax payment a written notification to that effect.

⑥In the case referred to in the preceding paragraph, a business operator that has submitted a written notification under the provisions of paragraph (4) may, except where it has discontinued its business, submit a written notification stating that it intends to cease to be subject to the application of that paragraph only on or after the first day of the taxable period that includes the day on which two years have elapsed from the first day of the following taxable period prescribed in that paragraph.

⑦In the case referred to in paragraph (5), where a business operator that has submitted a written notification under the provisions of paragraph (4) has, during any taxable period beginning during the period from the first day of the following taxable period prescribed in that paragraph to the day on which two years have elapsed from that day (excluding a taxable period to which Article 37, paragraph (1) applies), made a taxable purchase of an adjustment-target fixed asset in Japan or taken out of a bonded area taxable goods that fall under adjustment-target fixed assets (excluding those for which consumption tax is exempted under the provisions of another Act or a treaty; the same applies in paragraph (9), Article 12-2, paragraph (4) and Article 12-4) (hereinafter in this paragraph, Article 12-2, paragraph (2) and Article 12-3, paragraph (3) referred to as a "purchase, etc. of an adjustment-target fixed asset") (including where it made that purchase, etc. of an adjustment-target fixed asset before the submission of that written notification in the taxable period specified by Cabinet Order prescribed in paragraph (4)), then, notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, except where it has discontinued its business, it may submit a written notification stating that it intends to cease to be subject to the application of the provisions of paragraph (4) only on or after the first day of the taxable period that includes the day on which three years have elapsed from the first day of the taxable period that includes the day of that purchase, etc. of an adjustment-target fixed asset (meaning the day specified in each item of Article 30, paragraph (1) for the category of cases set forth in that item pertaining to that purchase, etc. of an adjustment-target fixed asset; the same applies hereafter in this paragraph and Article 12-2, paragraph (2)). In this case, if, during the period from the first day of the taxable period that includes the day of that purchase, etc. of an adjustment-target fixed asset to the day of that purchase, etc. of an adjustment-target fixed asset, it has submitted to the district director having jurisdiction over its place for tax payment a written notification stating that it intends to cease to be subject to the application of the provisions of paragraph (4), then, for the purpose of the application of the provisions of the following paragraph, the submission of that written notification is deemed not to have been made.

⑧When a written notification under the provisions of paragraph (5) has been submitted, the notification under the provisions of paragraph (4) ceases to be effective on or after the day following the last day of the taxable period that includes the day of that submission.

⑨Special provisions on the application of paragraph (4) or the preceding paragraph in the case where, due to unavoidable circumstances, the written notification under the provisions of paragraph (4) or (5) could not be submitted by the day before the first day of the taxable period for which the business operator intends to become subject to, or to cease to be subject to, the application of the provisions of paragraph (4), and other matters necessary for the application of paragraph (7) in the case where the purchase, etc. of an adjustment-target fixed asset prescribed in that paragraph is the taking out of a bonded area of taxable goods pertaining to the submission of a special return, or in other cases, are specified by Cabinet Order.