National tax国税

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

電子計算機を使用して作成する国税関係帳簿書類の保存方法等の特例に関する法律（でんしけいさんきをしようしてさくせいするこくぜいかんけいちょうぼしょるいのほぞんほうほうとうのとくれいにかんするほうりつ）

Lets anyone who must keep books and documents for national tax keep most of them as electronic records instead of on paper — made on a computer, or scanned — and requires those keeping books for income tax (other than tax withheld at source) or corporation tax to keep the electronic records of transactions they carry out electronically.

Text in force since
Promulgated
Articles: 8
Amendments on the way: 1

Read the text Open on e-Gov

What this law does

A person who must keep books and documents for income tax (other than income tax withheld at source) or corporation tax, and who carries out an electronic transaction, must keep the electronic record (電磁的記録) of that transaction's information, as a Ministry of Finance Order (財務省令) sets. An electronic transaction (電子取引) is one in which the information usually written on orders, contracts, shipping invoices (送り状), receipts, quotations and similar documents is given or received by electronic means.(Art. 7(1), Art. 2(1)(v), Art. 2(1)(iii)) (the provisions it rests on)

Read the full overview

A person the national tax Acts require to keep books (保存義務者) may keep and store them as electronic records instead of on paper, where they make the books on a computer themselves, throughout, from the first entry onward, as a Ministry of Finance Order sets. Books that Order names cannot be kept this way.(Art. 4(1), Art. 2(1)(ii), Art. 2(1)(iv)) (the provisions it rests on)
Documents that must be kept for national tax and that the person makes on a computer themselves, throughout, may likewise be kept as electronic records instead of on paper, as a Ministry of Finance Order sets.(Art. 4(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
Paper documents that must be kept for national tax, other than those a Ministry of Finance Order names, may instead be kept as electronic records by recording their contents with a device the Order names — a scanner, under the Act's enforcement regulation. If that record is not kept as the Order requires and the paper is not kept either, the record must still be kept to the requirements the Order sets, such as the period for which it is kept.(Art. 4(3), 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 Art. 2(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
Books and documents made on a computer throughout may also be kept as microfilm output from the computer (電子計算機出力マイクロフィルム) instead of on paper, as a Ministry of Finance Order sets, and a person already keeping them as electronic records may, in cases that Order sets, keep that microfilm in place of the electronic records.(Art. 5(1), Art. 5(2), Art. 5(3), Art. 2(1)(vi)) (the provisions it rests on)
For the rest of the national tax Acts, electronic records or microfilm kept as the Ministry of Finance Order requires count as the books and documents they replace, and electronic transaction records kept as that Order requires count as documents other than those books and documents.(Art. 8(1), Art. 8(2), Art. 3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Article 1 sets out what this Act covers (趣旨)

Electronic transaction recordsKeeping tax books electronicallyScanning paper documentsComputer output microfilmPenalty tax for understatement and heavy penalty taxDefinitions

Amendments

A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . This law has 1 amendment on the way — , but . Its latest amendments are below. This law's amendments page lists every amendment e-Gov records and, for those whose changes this site has read, shows them provision by provision, in Japanese and English.

1 January 2027

in 2 months

Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

The whole text as it will read, on e-Gov

See what it changes (2 provisions)

8 amendments already in force

1 April 2025
The text on this site
Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.
所得税法等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
1 April 2022
Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.
所得税法等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
1 January 2022
Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.
所得税法等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
1 April 2020
Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.
所得税法等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
16 December 2019
Act Partially Amending the Act on Use of Information and Communications Technology in Administrative Procedures, etc., and Other Acts to Improve Convenience for Persons Concerned in Administrative Procedures, etc. and to Simplify and Streamline Administrative Operations through the Use of Information and Communications Technology
情報通信技術の活用による行政手続等に係る関係者の利便性の向上並びに行政運営の簡素化及び効率化を図るための行政手続等における情報通信の技術の利用に関する法律等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
30 September 2019
Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.
所得税法等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
1 April 2019
Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.
所得税法等の一部を改正する法律
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov
30 September 2007
e-Gov gives no title for this amendment
The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

Who it applies to

It applies to

Anyone the national tax Acts require to keep books and documents (保存義務者), who may use the electronic and microfilm methods of keeping them.(Art. 2(1)(iv), Art. 4(1), Art. 5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Those who must keep books and documents for income tax (other than income tax withheld at source) or corporation tax, who must keep the records of their electronic transactions.(Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

Special rules and exceptions (6)

A business is spared the Ministry of Finance Order's search requirements for its electronic transaction records if it can produce the records when the tax authorities ask for them and either its sales in the base period — the year before last, or for a corporation the business year before last (where that business year was shorter than a year, the business years that began in a one-year window, taken together) — were 50 million yen or less, or it can also produce clear printouts of them arranged by date and by business partner.(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 Art. 4(1), 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 Art. 4(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
A person who could not keep electronic transaction records to the Ministry of Finance Order's requirements may keep them anyway if they prove a disaster or other unavoidable circumstance prevented it, or the district director accepts there was good reason, and they can produce the records and clear printouts of them when asked — unless they would have failed even without that circumstance or reason.(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 Art. 4(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
Articles 3 and 4 of the Act on the use of information technology in keeping documents by private businesses (民間事業者等が行う書面の保存等における情報通信の技術の利用に関する法律, Act No. 149 of 2004), which allow documents to be kept and made as electronic records, do not apply to books and documents related to national tax.(Art. 6(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
The books the Act on the collection of domestic consumption taxes on imported goods (輸入品に対する内国消費税の徴収等に関する法律) requires under its Article 16(11), for work in bonded factories, are not books related to national tax under this Act.(Art. 2(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
The current rules on keeping books and documents electronically or on microfilm apply only to books first kept, and documents kept, on or after 1 January 2022, and the duty to keep electronic transaction records only to transactions on or after that day; books, documents and transactions from before it stay under the Act's earlier wording (なお従前の例による), as do books and documents that then held an approval under it.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(5), Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
Two rules carry approvals under the earlier wording over: for the 5% reduction of the penalty tax for understatement, books (or their microfilm) approved under the earlier wording are treated as kept to the requirements that reduction asks for; for the 10% increase of heavy penalty tax, scanned-document records approved under the earlier wording are treated as kept as Article 4(3) requires, and electronic transaction records kept under the earlier wording count as records kept under Article 7, except where printouts were kept instead.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(7), Suppl. Prov. Art. 82(8)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it is enforced (4)

The Act sets no criminal penalty (罰則) and works through the tax Acts. Where books, documents or electronic transaction records are not kept as its Articles 4, 5 and 7 and the Ministry of Finance Order under them require, the district director () may refuse an application for approval to file blue returns (青色申告), or cancel an approval back to the year (or business year) of the failure, under the Income Tax Act and the Corporation Tax Act. Under the Corporation Tax Act, the Commissioner of the National Tax Agency () may also refuse an application for group tax sharing approval (通算承認) where they are not expected to be kept that way.(Art. 8(3)(i), Art. 8(3)(ii), Art. 8(3)(iii), Income Tax Act Art. 145(1)(i), Income Tax Act Art. 150(1), Corporation Tax Act Art. 123(1)(i), Corporation Tax Act Art. 127(1), Corporation Tax Act Art. 64-9(3)(iii)(b)) (the provisions it rests on)
Where an amended return (修正申告書) or a reassessment (更正) concerns entries in books kept electronically, or electronically and on microfilm, that a Ministry of Finance Order names, that meet the further requirements the Order sets for proper tax compliance continuously from a day a Cabinet Order sets, and for which the person filed a notification with the district director in advance, the penalty tax for understatement (過少申告加算税) is reduced by 5% of the tax arising from those entries. This does not apply where facts behind that tax were concealed or falsified.(Art. 8(4), Art. 8(4)(i), Art. 8(4)(ii), 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 Art. 5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Where heavy penalty tax (重加算税) applies to a return filed after the due date, an amended return, a reassessment, a determination (決定), a notice of tax payment (納税の告知) or a payment made without one, and it concerns entries in scanned document records or electronic transaction records, the heavy penalty tax is increased by 10% of the tax arising from the concealed or falsified facts recorded there.This is the rule until 31 December 2026.(Art. 8(5), Art. 4(3), 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 Art. 2(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
Where heavy penalty tax (重加算税) applies to a return filed after the due date, an amended return, a reassessment, a determination (決定), a notice of tax payment (納税の告知) or a payment made without one, and it concerns entries in scanned document records or electronic transaction records, the heavy penalty tax is increased by 10% of the tax arising from the concealed or falsified facts recorded there. Electronic transaction records kept to further requirements a Ministry of Finance Order sets for proper tax compliance, continuously from the day they were first kept, and for which the person filed a notification with the district director in advance, are left out of the increase. For income tax (other than income tax withheld at source) and corporation tax, this rule applies where the statutory return due date (法定申告期限) falls on or after 1 January 2027; where it fell earlier, the earlier rule continues.This is the rule from 1 January 2027.(Art. 8(5), Art. 4(3), 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 Art. 2(5), 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 Art. 5(6) from 1 January 2027, Suppl. Prov. Art. 61(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1)(v)) (the provisions it rests on)

How it connects to other laws

Cites this lawLawThis law cites it

It also names 10 laws not yet held here.

Where the translation comes from

The Ministry of Justice's translation is shown only where the Japanese it translates matches the law in force today. Everywhere else the English is a machine translation, marked on the paragraph itself.

Only the Japanese is the law, and no lawyer has reviewed the machine translation.

Sources

Everything this page rests on

e-Gov (Digital Agency)電子計算機を使用して作成する国税関係帳簿書類の保存方法等の特例に関する法律 — the text in force from 2025-04-01Original
e-Gov (Digital Agency)電子計算機を使用して作成する国税関係帳簿書類の保存方法等の特例に関する法律 — revision historyOriginal
Japanese Law Translation, Ministry of Justice電子計算機を使用して作成する国税関係帳簿書類の保存方法等の特例に関する法律 — its English title as the Ministry of Justice's translation database lists itOriginal
Machine translation, not official
Machine translation, corrected on review, not official
Written for this site with AIEnglish titles of amending laws, written for this site
Written for this site with AIDescriptions of each law, written for this site
Worked out by this site from e-Gov's text

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