Act on General Rules for National Taxes

• A taxpayer under the self-assessment system must file a tax return with the district director of the tax office for their place of tax payment (納税地) by the statutory tax return due date (法定申告期限). A return filed after the due date (期限後申告書) is still accepted until the tax office makes a determination (決定), and a taxpayer who declared too little tax can file an amended return (修正申告書) until the office makes a reassessment (更正).(Art. 17(1), Art. 21(1), Art. 18(1), Art. 19(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A taxpayer whose return declared too much tax, or too little loss or refund, because the calculation broke the tax Acts or was simply wrong, can make a request for reassessment (更正の請求) within five years of the statutory tax return due date — ten years for a corporation-tax loss. A later court judgment that the facts were different, and some similar events, open a further two months from the day after they happen. Making the request does not stop the tax from being collected, unless the tax office finds good reason to hold collection back.(Art. 23(1), Art. 23(2), Art. 23(5)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Tax on a return filed by the due date is paid by the statutory payment due date (法定納期限); extra tax from a late or amended return is paid on the day it is filed, and from a reassessment or determination within a month of the day after the notice is sent. Tax paid late carries delinquent tax (延滞税) from the day after the statutory payment due date until it is paid: 14.6% a year, but 7.3% up to the due date for payment (納期限) and for the two months after it. In any year a special base rate for delinquent tax (延滞税特例基準割合), worked out from average short-term bank lending rates, is below 7.3%, the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation (租税特別措置法), Article 94(1), replaces both rates with rates worked out from that base rate.(Art. 35(1), Art. 35(2), Art. 60(1), Art. 60(2), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 94(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A taxpayer who cannot pay at once because of a disaster or theft, their own illness or that of a relative sharing their household, closing or suspending their business, or heavy business losses — or whose tax was fixed more than a year after its statutory due date — can apply for a tax payment grace period (納税の猶予); the tax office may grant up to a year for the amount it finds they cannot pay at once, and extend it to two years in all. A disaster that caused a substantial loss of property also allows a grace period of up to a year for tax falling due within a year of the loss, if applied for within two months after the disaster ends; security is required only for the other grace periods, and even then not where the amount is 1 million yen or less, the period is three months or less, or there are special circumstances. The office can cancel or shorten a grace period, for example where an instalment is missed without an unavoidable reason or the taxpayer falls into arrears on another tax, as a rule after hearing them.(Art. 46(2), Art. 46(3), Art. 46(7), Art. 46(1), Art. 46(5), Art. 49(1), Art. 49(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A refund or tax overpaid is paid back in money without delay, or is first applied to other national tax the person owes. Interest on the refund (還付加算金) is added at 7.3% a year under this Act, counted from a date that depends on how the refund arose, unless another Act on national taxes sets a different period. In any year the special base rate for interest on refunds (還付加算金特例基準割合), worked out from average short-term bank lending rates, is below 7.3%, the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation (租税特別措置法), Article 95(1), replaces the 7.3% with that base rate.(Art. 56(1), Art. 57(1), Art. 58(1), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 95(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 1 November 2026

  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

  Act No. 13 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 24 June 2026

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Civil Code, etc.

  民法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整備等に関する法律

  Act No. 46 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 25 May 2026

  Act on the Promotion of Business Financing, etc.

  事業性融資の推進等に関する法律

  Act No. 52 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 21 May 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 3 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 12 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 13 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 October 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts to Promote the Use of Information and Communications Technology in Civil Procedures, etc.

  民事関係手続等における情報通信技術の活用等の推進を図るための関係法律の整備に関する法律

  Act No. 53 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 6 June 2025

  Act on the Arrangement, etc. of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act on Security Assignment Contracts and Retention of Title Contracts

  譲渡担保契約及び所有権留保契約に関する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整備等に関する法律

  Act No. 57 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 June 2025

  Act on the Arrangement of Related Acts upon the Enforcement of the Act Partially Amending the Penal Code, etc. (extract)

  刑法等の一部を改正する法律の施行に伴う関係法律の整理等に関する法律　抄

  Act No. 68 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2025

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

  Act No. 13 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 48 amendments already in force

• Where another Act on national taxes provides otherwise on a matter this Act covers, that Act's rule applies.(Art. 4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Penalty tax for understatement is not charged on the part of the extra tax resting on facts that there was a justifiable reason (正当な理由) for leaving out, and penalty tax for failure to file and for non-payment is not charged at all where there was a justifiable reason for the late filing or payment. Nor is penalty tax for failure to file charged on a return filed within one month of the statutory tax return due date, or penalty tax for non-payment on withholding tax paid within one month of the statutory payment due date, where the circumstances a Cabinet Order sets show the person meant to file or pay on time and they did not act in anticipation of the outcome of an inquiry.(Art. 65(5)(i), Art. 66(1), Art. 67(1), Art. 66(9), Art. 67(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For tax from an amended return or a reassessment, delinquent tax does not run from one year after the statutory tax return due date (or after a late return was filed) until the amended return is filed or the reassessment notice is sent, unless tax was evaded or a refund obtained by deception or other wrongful acts. The same one-year cut-off applies to tax collected at source that is paid, or for which a notice is sent, more than a year after the statutory payment due date, unless there was deception.(Art. 61(1), Art. 61(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Delinquent tax for a grace period is waived in full when the grace was granted for disaster, theft or illness, and by half (for the time more than two months after the due date) when it was granted for closing or losses of the business; the office may withhold the waiver for the time after a ground for cancelling the grace arises. In any year the special base rate for grace periods (猶予特例基準割合), worked out from average short-term bank lending rates, is below this Act's lower rate of delinquent tax, the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation (租税特別措置法), Article 94(2), changes the half waiver: it then drops the two-month limit and leaves only the delinquent tax that base rate would give.(Art. 63(1), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 94(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A deadline under the tax Acts that falls on a Sunday, a national holiday, another general holiday or a day a Cabinet Order sets moves to the next day, except a deadline set as a time of day and others a Cabinet Order excludes. Where a disaster or other unavoidable cause prevents filing or paying on time, the tax authorities can extend the deadline to a date no later than two months after the cause ends, and the delinquent tax for the extension is waived.(Art. 10(2), Art. 11(1), Art. 63(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The chapters of the Administrative Procedure Act, a separate Act, on how applications are dealt with and on adverse dispositions do not apply to dispositions under the Acts on national taxes, except its rules that the reasons must be given (Articles 8 and 14 of that Act). This does not cover licences under Chapter 2 of the Liquor Tax Act.(Art. 74-14(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Appeals against dispositions on liquor licences under Chapter 2 of the Liquor Tax Act, a separate Act, follow the Administrative Complaint Review Act instead of this Act's appeal rules.(Art. 80(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The present rules on penalty tax for failure to file, and the increase in heavy penalty tax for repeat cases, apply to tax whose statutory tax return due date fell on or after 1 January 2024, and the present heavy penalty tax rules as a whole to tax whose due date fell on or after 1 January 2025. Tax whose due date fell earlier stays under the rules in force before those dates.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 23(3), Suppl. Prov. Art. 19(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The district director of the tax office reassesses (更正) a return whose figures break the tax Acts or differ from the office's inquiry, and makes a determination (決定) of the tax of a person who should have filed a return and did not; either is made by serving a written notice. Neither can be made more than five years after the statutory tax return due date — ten years for a corporation-tax loss, seven where tax was evaded or a refund obtained by deception or other wrongful acts — subject to the extensions in Article 70(3) and Article 71, such as after a request for reassessment or an appeal decision. The State's right to collect a tax lapses if unused for five years from the statutory payment due date, and does not start to run for up to two years where tax was evaded by deception; a claim to a refund lapses after five years.(Art. 24(1), Art. 25(1), Art. 28(1), Art. 70(1), Art. 70(2), Art. 70(3), Art. 70(5), Art. 71(1), Art. 72(1), Art. 73(3), Art. 74(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Officials of the National Tax Agency (国税庁), a Regional Taxation Bureau (国税局) or a tax office may, where an inquiry into income tax, corporation tax, local corporation tax or consumption tax needs it, question the taxpayer and people who paid or were paid by them, inspect their business books and other items, and ask for those to be shown or handed over; similar powers cover inheritance, gift, liquor and other national taxes. These powers must not be read as given for criminal investigation.(Art. 74-2(1), Art. 74-3(1), Art. 74-4(1), Art. 74-5(1), Art. 74-8(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Before an on-site inquiry (by customs officials, only one made after goods leave a bonded area or into the international tourist tax) the tax authorities are to tell the taxpayer, and their tax representative (税務代理人: a licensed tax accountant (税理士) or tax accountant corporation that has filed a written authority to act for them, or a lawyer or law firm that has given the notice the Certified Public Tax Accountant Act (税理士法) requires to do tax work) if they have one, that it will take place, the date and time it starts, the place, its purpose, the taxes and periods it covers, the books and other items to be examined and other matters a Cabinet Order sets — unless information they hold makes them judge that notice could hinder the inquiry; where the taxpayer has consented in a way a Ministry of Finance Order (財務省令) sets, the notice meant for the taxpayer may go to their tax representative alone; where the taxpayer has several representatives and has named one to act for them all as such an Order sets, the notice meant for the representatives may go to that one alone; the taxpayer may ask, with reasonable grounds, for the date or place to be changed, and the authorities are to try to consult on it; and officials who find suspected errors outside what was notified may question and inspect on those too, without notice. When an on-site inquiry finds nothing calling for a reassessment or determination, the authorities notify the taxpayer who was questioned or inspected, in writing, that none is called for at that point; where any inquiry finds one called for, officials explain what they found, with the amount and the reasons, and may recommend an amended return or a late return (期限後申告), telling the taxpayer, and giving them a document saying, that filing one means they cannot appeal against it, though they can still ask for the tax to be corrected (更正の請求) — and after an on-site inquiry, where the taxpayer agrees, these notices, explanations and documents can go to their tax representative instead. Even after the taxpayer has been told in writing that no reassessment is called for, or, after an on-site inquiry, has filed an amended or late return or paid, or after a reassessment or determination, officials can question and inspect the taxpayer again if new information shows an error.(Art. 74-9(1), Art. 74-9(2), Art. 74-9(3), Art. 74-9(4), Art. 74-10(1), Art. 74-11(1), Art. 74-11(2), Art. 74-11(3), Art. 74-11(4), Art. 74-11(5), Art. 74-9(5), Art. 74-9(6)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Penalty tax for understatement (過少申告加算税) is charged when an amended return or a reassessment raises the tax on a return filed by the due date — after a late first return, penalty tax for failure to file is charged instead: 10% of the extra tax, plus 5% of the part above the greater of the tax first declared and 500,000 yen. The rate is 5% if the amended return was not filed in anticipation of a reassessment after an inquiry, and nothing is charged if it was also filed before the taxpayer was notified of the inquiry.(Art. 65(1), Art. 65(2), Art. 65(6), Art. 66(1)(ii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Penalty tax for failure to file (無申告加算税) is charged on the tax due from a return filed after the due date or from a determination, and from any later amended return or reassessment: 15% of the tax up to 500,000 yen, 20% of the part from 500,000 to 3 million yen and 30% of the part above that. The rates are 5 points lower where the return was not filed in anticipation of a reassessment or determination after an inquiry, and the charge is a flat 5% if it was also filed before the taxpayer was notified of the inquiry. They rise by 10 points where the return was filed in anticipation of a reassessment or determination after an inquiry, or the tax was reassessed or determined, and within the previous five years the taxpayer had been charged, on the same kind of tax, heavy penalty tax or penalty tax for failure to file (other than one charged on a return filed without anticipating an inquiry); and, unless the return was filed without anticipating an inquiry and before notice of one, where penalty tax for failure to file (other than at the flat 5%), or heavy penalty tax in its place, was charged or is due on the same kind of tax for either of the two previous years.(Art. 66(1), Art. 66(2), Art. 66(3), Art. 66(6), Art. 66(6)(i), Art. 66(6)(ii), Art. 66(8), Art. 68(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Penalty tax for understatement or for failure to file rises by a further 10% of the tax concerned (5% where the entries were merely insufficient) where, before the amended return, late return, reassessment or determination, officials asked for the taxpayer's books and the taxpayer did not show them, or key entries in them were missing — for tax whose statutory tax return due date fell on or after 1 January 2024. Penalty tax for non-payment (不納付加算税) is 10% of tax that had to be collected at source and was not paid by the statutory payment due date, or 5% if it was paid late without a notice of tax payment and not in anticipation of one.(Art. 65(4), Art. 66(5), Suppl. Prov. Art. 20(2), Art. 2(1)(ii), Art. 67(1), Art. 67(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where the taxpayer concealed or disguised facts and filed, failed to file or failed to pay on that basis, heavy penalty tax (重加算税) is charged instead of the other penalty tax: 35% of the tax concerned, or 40% where it replaces penalty tax for failure to file. It is not charged in place of the penalty for understatement or failure to file where the return was filed of the taxpayer's own accord, not in anticipation of an inquiry's outcome. It rises by 10 points for a repeat case, such as one where a penalty tax for failure to file or a heavy penalty tax was charged on the same kind of tax within the previous five years.(Art. 68(1), Art. 68(2), Art. 68(3), Art. 68(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• If tax is not paid in full by its due date, the district director of the tax office sends a demand letter (督促状), as a rule within 50 days of that date — except for a tax the tax Acts collect at once when a set event happens, and a tax already brought forward or secured in advance under Article 38 or by protective seizure; if the tax is still unpaid ten days after the letter was sent, the delinquent tax collection procedure (滞納処分), in which property can be seized, follows under the National Tax Collection Act, a separate Act. Where a tax whose amount is fixed is found unlikely to be paid in full by its due date and one of the events Article 38 lists has happened — among them the taxpayer ceasing to live in the area where this Act is in force without appointing a tax agent (納税管理人), or being found to have evaded or tried to evade tax, or obtained a refund, by deception or other wrongful acts — the office can bring the due date forward to an earlier deadline (繰上請求); no demand letter is sent for that tax, and the delinquent tax collection procedure follows as soon as the earlier deadline passes unpaid. On the same events, where a tax the person already owes but whose amount is not yet fixed is found impossible to collect once it is fixed, the office can, before that tax's statutory filing deadline, set in advance the amount needed to secure collection, and officials can seize the person's property at once up to that amount; for that seizure the National Tax Collection Act's rules on protective seizure (保全差押え), a separate Act, apply, with a period of one year in them read as ten months.(Art. 37(1), Art. 37(2), Art. 40(1), Art. 48(2), Art. 38(1), Art. 38(2), Art. 38(3), Art. 38(4)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A person dissatisfied with a disposition of a district director of the tax office, a regional commissioner of a Regional Taxation Bureau (国税局長) or a director-general of customs may choose between a request for reinvestigation (再調査の請求) to the office that made it and a request for review (審査請求) to the head of the National Tax Tribunal (国税不服審判所長), and can still request review after a reinvestigation decision. Where the notice of a district director's disposition says officials of a Regional Taxation Bureau or of the National Tax Agency did the investigation, it counts as a disposition of that regional commissioner, with the same choice, or of the Commissioner of the National Tax Agency, when the only appeal is a request for review to the Commissioner. The appeal must be made within three months of learning of the disposition (one month after the reinvestigation decision is served, for the later review), and never more than a year after the disposition, unless there is a justifiable reason.(Art. 75(1), Art. 75(2), Art. 75(3), Art. 77(1), Art. 77(2), Art. 77(3)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A court action to cancel a tax disposition can be brought only after the request for review has been decided, unless three months pass without a decision or another listed exception applies. An appeal does not stop the disposition or its enforcement, but property seized for the tax is not sold until the appeal is decided, unless its value may fall sharply or the appellant asks for the sale.(Art. 115(1), Art. 105(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The crimes this Act itself sets are: inciting taxpayers not to file, to file falsely or not to pay, or using violence or threats to that end (up to three years' imprisonment (拘禁刑) or a fine of up to 200,000 yen); refusing to answer, answering falsely or obstructing inspection in a tax inquiry, failing without justifiable reason to show or hand over items asked for, or filing a false request for reassessment (up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 yen); obstructing the inquiries of the National Tax Tribunal, other than by the appellant themselves (a fine of up to 300,000 yen); and tax officials leaking or misusing secrets learned in their work (up to two years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 1 million yen). Where a representative or employee commits an offence in Article 128 or 129 in the course of a business, the business is fined as well.This is the rule until 30 September 2027.(Art. 126(1), Art. 126(2), Art. 128(1), Art. 129(1), Art. 127(1), Art. 130(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The crimes this Act itself sets are: inciting taxpayers not to file, to file falsely or not to pay, or using violence or threats to that end (up to three years' imprisonment (拘禁刑) or a fine of up to 200,000 yen); refusing to answer, answering falsely or obstructing inspection in a tax inquiry, failing without justifiable reason to show or hand over items asked for, or filing a false request for reassessment (up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 yen); breaching, without justifiable reason, an order in a criminal tax case to provide electronic records (電磁的記録提供命令) or an order to keep it secret (up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 3,000,000 yen); obstructing the inquiries of the National Tax Tribunal, other than by the appellant themselves (a fine of up to 300,000 yen); and tax officials leaking or misusing secrets learned in their work (up to two years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 1 million yen). Where a representative or employee commits an offence in Article 127-2, 128 or 129 in the course of a business, the business is fined as well.This is the rule from 1 October 2027.(Art. 126(1), Art. 126(2), Art. 127-2(1), Art. 128(1), Art. 129(1), Art. 127(1), Art. 130(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• In a criminal tax case (犯則事件), officials of the National Tax Agency, a Regional Taxation Bureau or a tax office may ask suspects and witnesses to appear and question them, and, with a warrant a judge issues in advance — or, in an indirect-tax case where the offence is being or has just been committed and there is no time to get one, without it — inspect premises, search and seize. For taxes other than indirect taxes (間接国税), and some indirect-tax cases, they must file an accusation with a public prosecutor when they believe an offence was committed. For other indirect-tax cases the regional commissioner or district director as a rule instead notifies the offender to pay an amount equal to the fine (通告処分); an offender who complies is not prosecuted for that case, and one who does not comply within 20 days is reported to a prosecutor.This is the rule until 30 September 2027.(Art. 131(1), Art. 132(1), Art. 135(1), Art. 135(2), Art. 155(1), Art. 157(1), Art. 157(5), Art. 158(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• In a criminal tax case (犯則事件), officials of the National Tax Agency, a Regional Taxation Bureau or a tax office may ask suspects and witnesses to appear and question them, and, with a warrant a judge issues in advance — or, in an indirect-tax case where the offence is being or has just been committed and there is no time to get one, without it — inspect premises, search and seize; with a warrant they may also order a person who keeps electronic records, or has authority to use them, to provide the records the order names (電磁的記録提供命令). For taxes other than indirect taxes (間接国税), and some indirect-tax cases, they must file an accusation with a public prosecutor when they believe an offence was committed. For other indirect-tax cases the regional commissioner or district director as a rule instead notifies the offender to pay an amount equal to the fine (通告処分); an offender who complies is not prosecuted for that case, and one who does not comply within 20 days is reported to a prosecutor.This is the rule from 1 October 2027.(Art. 131(1), Art. 132(1), Art. 135(1), Art. 135(2), Art. 155(1), Art. 157(1), Art. 157(5), Art. 158(1)) (the provisions it rests on)