Regulation for Enforcement of the Act on Special Provisions concerning Preservation Methods for Books and Documents Related to National Tax Prepared by Means of Computers

together with the preservation of that computer output microfilm, to keep the following documents:

a document clarifying the administrative procedures for the preparation and preservation of that computer output microfilm;

a document stating the following matters:

a statement by the person required to preserve (where the person required to preserve is a juridical person (including an association or foundation without juridical personality prescribed in Article 2, item (viii) (Definitions) of the Corporation Tax Act; the same applies in (1) and in paragraph (2) of the following Article), the person who is responsible for administrative matters relating to the preservation of the books related to national tax of that juridical person) certifying that the electronic or magnetic records relating to those books related to national tax have been genuinely output and that that computer output microfilm has been prepared, and that person's name;

the name of the person responsible for preparing that computer output microfilm;

the date on which that computer output microfilm was prepared;

at the place where that computer output microfilm is preserved, to equip a microfilm reader-printer satisfying the standards prescribed in Japanese Industrial Standards B 7186 and operating manuals for it, and to make it possible to promptly output the contents of that computer output microfilm on the screen of that microfilm reader-printer and in writing in an orderly format and clear state.

The cases specified by Ministry of Finance Order prescribed in Article 5, paragraph (3) of the Act are cases where, with regard to all or part of the books related to national tax of a person required to preserve who substitutes the keeping and preservation of electronic or magnetic records relating to books related to national tax for the keeping and preservation of those books related to national tax pursuant to the provisions of Article 4, paragraph (1) of the Act, or the documents related to national tax of a person required to preserve who substitutes the preservation of electronic or magnetic records relating to documents related to national tax for the preservation of those documents related to national tax pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of that Article, the person intends to substitute preservation by computer output microfilm for the preservation of those electronic or magnetic records for the entire preservation period (meaning the period during which the preservation of books related to national tax or documents related to national tax is required under the provisions of laws concerning national tax) (limited to the period on or after the date on which the person intends to substitute preservation by computer output microfilm for the preservation of those electronic or magnetic records).

The provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) apply mutatis mutandis to the preservation by computer output microfilm of electronic or magnetic records relating to books related to national tax or documents related to national tax by a person required to preserve who intends, pursuant to the provisions of Article 5, paragraph (3) of the Act, to substitute the preservation by computer output microfilm of the electronic or magnetic records relating to those books related to national tax or those documents related to national tax for the preservation of those electronic or magnetic records.

to give and receive that transaction information after a time stamp has been attached to the recorded matters of those electronic or magnetic records;

to attach a time stamp to the recorded matters of those electronic or magnetic records by any of the following methods:

to attach a time stamp to the recorded matters of those electronic or magnetic records promptly after the giving and receiving of that transaction information;

to attach a time stamp to the recorded matters of those electronic or magnetic records promptly after the ordinary period for processing the relevant business has elapsed (limited to the case where rules on the processing of each task from the giving and receiving of that transaction information to the attachment of that time stamp to those recorded matters have been established);

to give and receive that transaction information and preserve those electronic or magnetic records using a computer processing system satisfying either of the following requirements:

where a correction or deletion has been made to the recorded matters of those electronic or magnetic records, it is possible to confirm those facts and their details;

it is not possible to make a correction or deletion to the recorded matters of those electronic or magnetic records;

to establish rules on administrative processing for preventing corrections and deletions without a justifiable reason to the recorded matters of those electronic or magnetic records, to operate in accordance with those rules, and to keep those rules together with the preservation of those electronic or magnetic records.

In the preceding paragraph and this paragraph, the meanings of the terms set forth in the following items are as prescribed in those items:

business operator: individual business operators (meaning individuals who conduct business; the same applies hereinafter in this paragraph) and corporations;

determination period: the period prescribed respectively below according to the following categories of business operators:

individual business operator: the period from January 1 to December 31 of the year that includes the day on which the electronic transaction was engaged in;

corporation: the business year that includes the day on which the electronic transaction was engaged in (meaning the business year prescribed in Articles 13 and 14 (Business Year) of the Corporation Tax Act; the same applies in the following item);

base period: for an individual business operator, the year before the previous year, and for a corporation, the second business year preceding its business year (for a corporation for which that second preceding business year is less than one year, the period combining each business year that began during the period from the day before the day two years before the first day of its business year until the day on which one year has elapsed from that day).

Where a person required to preserve prescribed in Article 7 of the Act, in the case where the person has engaged in an electronic transaction, proves that, due to a disaster or other unavoidable circumstances, the person was unable to preserve the electronic or magnetic records relating to the transaction information of that electronic transaction in accordance with the Ministry of Finance Order prescribed in that Article, or where the competent district director with jurisdiction over the place for tax payment, etc. finds that there are reasonable grounds for the person having been unable to preserve those electronic or magnetic records in accordance with that Ministry of Finance Order and the person required to preserve has made it possible to comply with a request under the provisions of laws concerning national tax to present or submit those electronic or magnetic records and documents prepared by outputting those electronic or magnetic records (limited to those output in an orderly format and clear state), the person may, notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (1), preserve those electronic or magnetic records; provided, however, that this does not apply where, had those circumstances not arisen or had those grounds not existed, it is found that the person would not have been able to preserve those electronic or magnetic records in accordance with that Ministry of Finance Order.