Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation

租税特別措置法（そぜいとくべつそちほう）

The exceptions, for the time being, to Japan's main tax Acts: taxes lowered, exempted or refunded, and other rules on who owes a tax and how it is worked out, filed and collected.

Text in force since
Promulgated
Articles: 496
Amendments on the way: 15

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What this law does

For the time being (当分の間), this Act sets exceptions (特例) to the Acts that impose Japan's national taxes — among them the Income Tax Act, the Corporation Tax Act, the Inheritance Tax Act and the Consumption Tax Act — and to the Act on General Rules for National Taxes and the National Tax Collection Act. Its chapters follow those Acts: Chapter 2 holds the income tax measures, Chapter 3 corporation tax, Chapter 4 inheritance and gift tax, Chapter 4-2 land value tax, Chapter 5 registration and license tax, Chapter 6 consumption tax and other taxes, among them liquor tax and stamp duty, and Chapter 7 the rates of interest tax, delinquent tax and interest on refunds. Many measures apply in place of the main Act's rule, and many apply only within a period the provision itself names.(Art. 1(1), Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 4-2, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Art. 3(1), Art. 41(1), Art. 42-3-2(1), Art. 70-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

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Most interest (利子等) that a resident, or a nonresident with a permanent establishment (恒久的施設) in Japan, receives in Japan is taxed apart from their other income at 15% of the amount received — though not interest on specified bonds (特定公社債) or publicly offered bond investment trusts, nor certain interest from a family company (同族会社) the receiver controls. Interest and dividends on listed shares, publicly offered investment trusts and specified bonds, among others, are also taxed apart from other income at 15%, without the dividend credit, unless the receiver, alone or together with a family company it controls, holds 3% or more of the Japanese company paying the dividend (Article 8-4). Such a resident or nonresident may leave out of the final return (確定申告書) these listed-share dividends and interest, and any dividend from a Japanese company of no more than 100,000 yen a payment for a twelve-month dividend period, more or less in proportion for a longer or shorter one (Article 8-5).(Art. 3(1), Art. 8-4(1), Art. 8-5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
Gains from selling land or buildings are taxed apart from other income: at 15% where the seller had owned the property for more than five years on 1 January of the year of sale, and at 30% otherwise; a loss of one kind is first set against a gain of the other kind that year, and what remains is treated as not having arisen. Selling one's home owned for more than ten years lowers the 15% to 10% on the first 60,000,000 yen of the taxable gain, on the conditions of Article 31-3; selling the home one lives in — or one moved out of, if sold by 31 December of the year in which three years have passed since moving out — takes up to 30,000,000 yen off the gain, but not for a sale to a spouse or another closely related person, nor where this or certain other home-sale measures were used in either of the two previous years. Both reliefs are given only if claimed on the final return (確定申告書) for the year of sale with the documents a Ministry of Finance Order (財務省令) names, unless the district tax office director () accepts a late claim for unavoidable reasons.(Art. 31(1), Art. 31(2), Art. 32(1), Art. 31-3(1), Art. 31-3(3), Art. 31-3(4), Art. 35(1), Art. 35(2), Art. 35(12), Art. 35(13)) (the provisions it rests on)
Gains from selling shares are taxed apart from other income at 15%, with listed shares (上場株式等) and other shares (一般株式等) each counted on their own, and a loss on either is treated as not having arisen. A loss on listed shares sold through or to a securities firm, or in the other ways Article 37-12-2(2) lists, can, on a final return (確定申告書), be set against that year's listed-share dividends and interest taxed under Article 8-4.(Art. 37-10(1), Art. 37-11(1), Art. 37-12-2(1), Art. 37-12-2(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
Gains on selling, and dividends on, listed shares and investment trusts held in a tax-exempt account (非課税口座) at a securities firm or other financial business (金融商品取引業者等) are not taxed — dividends only where that business is a payment handler in Japan of the kind a Cabinet Order (政令) sets. A resident, or a nonresident with a permanent establishment in Japan, who is 18 or over on 1 January can open one; each year it takes up to 1,200,000 yen, at purchase price, of investment trusts and the like bought in regular fixed-amount purchases through its specified accumulation investment account (特定累積投資勘定), and up to 2,400,000 yen through its specified tax-exempt management account (特定非課税管理勘定). Nothing goes in that would take what the two hold above 18,000,000 yen at purchase price, or what the second holds above 12,000,000 yen.This is the rule until 31 December 2026.(Art. 37-14(1), Art. 9-8(1), Art. 37-14(5)(i), Art. 37-14(5)(vi)) (the provisions it rests on)
Gains on selling, and dividends on, listed shares and investment trusts held in a tax-exempt account (非課税口座) at a securities firm or other financial business (金融商品取引業者等) are not taxed — dividends only where that business is a payment handler in Japan of the kind a Cabinet Order (政令) sets. For a holder 18 or over on 1 January, each year the account takes up to 1,200,000 yen, at purchase price, of investment trusts and the like bought in regular fixed-amount purchases through its specified accumulation investment account (特定累積投資勘定) and up to 2,400,000 yen through its specified tax-exempt management account (特定非課税管理勘定), but nothing that would take what the two hold above 18,000,000 yen at purchase price, or what the second holds above 12,000,000 yen. A child under 18 on 1 January, or born that year, can have only an accumulation account for minors (未成年者特定累積投資勘定), taking up to 600,000 yen a year and 6,000,000 yen in all, from which nothing may be taken out before the year the child is 18 on 31 March — except everything at once for a disaster, illness or another cause a Cabinet Order names, or, from the year the child is 12 on 31 March, on a written request to the financial business to pay the child's education or living costs — and a withdrawal for a disaster, or any other breach of these terms, closes the account.This is the rule from 1 January 2027.(Art. 37-14(1), Art. 9-8(1), Art. 37-14(4)(i), Art. 37-14(5)(i), Art. 37-14(5)(vi), Art. 37-14(5)(vii), Art. 37-14(5)(viii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1)(v)(b)) (the provisions it rests on)
Someone who builds, buys or improves a home in Japan — not bought from a spouse or another closely related person, nor received by gift — with a loan from a financial institution or another lender the Article names, or instalment debt for the home, repayable over ten years or more, and moves in within six months, between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2030, takes a housing-loan credit off their income tax for each year they still live there, for ten years from the year they moved in (thirteen for a new home, or a renovated used home bought from a real estate dealer (買取再販住宅), moved into in 2022 or 2023), if they claim it on a final return (確定申告書) with the documents a Ministry of Finance Order (財務省令) names. The credit is 0.7% of the loan balance on 31 December (1% where they moved in by 2021), counted up to a borrowing limit (借入限度額) that depends on the year and the kind of home; none is given in a year their total income (合計所得金額) is above 20,000,000 yen, and certified homes (認定住宅等) have rules of their own under Article 41(6). No credit is given for any of the years for a new or never-used home that a Cabinet Order (政令) classes as not energy-efficient (特定居住用家屋), if it is moved into on or after 1 January 2024.(Art. 41(1), Art. 41(2), Art. 41(3), Art. 41(4), Art. 41(6), Art. 41(24), Art. 41(36)) (the provisions it rests on)
For the tax for 2025 and 2026, a resident whose total income (合計所得金額) is 6,550,000 yen or less adds to the basic deduction (基礎控除) of the Income Tax Act: 370,000 yen with total income of 1,320,000 yen or less, 300,000 yen up to 3,360,000 yen, 100,000 yen up to 4,890,000 yen, and 50,000 yen up to 6,550,000 yen. From the tax for 2027, only a resident whose total income is 1,320,000 yen or less gets an addition, of 370,000 yen.This is the rule until 30 November 2026.(Art. 41-16-2(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
For the tax for 2026 and 2027, a resident whose total income (合計所得金額) is 6,550,000 yen or less adds to the basic deduction (基礎控除) of the Income Tax Act 420,000 yen with total income of 4,890,000 yen or less, and 50,000 yen above that; from the tax for 2028, only a resident whose total income is 1,320,000 yen or less gets an addition, of 370,000 yen. The tax for 2025 keeps the additions of the earlier wording. Someone who, before this rule came into force, filed a final return (確定申告書) for 2026 for a person who died during the year or on leaving Japan, or received a determination (決定) of their 2026 tax, may within five years of that day make a request for reassessment (更正の請求) under Article 23(1) of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes to get the new amount.This is the rule from 1 December 2026.(Art. 41-16-2(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 45(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 45(4), Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1)(iv)(b), Act on General Rules for National Taxes Art. 23(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
For business years beginning by 31 March 2027, a company with capital of 100,000,000 yen or less, or with none, and an association without legal personality, is charged 15% (17% in a business year its income is above 1,000,000,000 yen a year) only where Article 66(2) of the Corporation Tax Act, a separate Act, charges 19%; and entertainment expenses (交際費等) are not deductible, except half of the costs of food and drink for entertaining (接待飲食費) for a company with capital of 10,000,000,000 yen or less. With no end date — for business years beginning on or after 1 April 1986 — where a corporation receives less than the arm's length price (独立企業間価格) from a foreign affiliate (国外関連者), or pays it more, the transaction is taxed as if made at that price. Chapter 3 also gives a corporation that files a blue return (青色申告書) credits against corporation tax, among them for research and development (Article 42-4) and for raising pay (Article 42-12-5).(Art. 42-3-2(1), Art. 61-4(1), Art. 66-4(1), Art. 42-4(1), Art. 42-12-5(1), Corporation Tax Act Art. 66(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
For inheritance tax, a person who receives land by inheritance or bequest may choose to count land that the deceased, or a relative who shared their living, used for a home or a business at 20% of its value, up to 330 square meters for a home and 400 square meters for a business, and land let out at 50% up to 200 square meters, with any home or business land also chosen counted towards that 200 at a reduced rate. Home land counts only if it goes to the spouse, or to a relative who lived in the home or shared the deceased's living, keeps the land until the filing deadline (申告期限) and still lives there, or to a relative without a home of their own on the conditions of Article 69-4(3)(ii); business or let land counts only if it goes to a relative who keeps the land until that deadline and carries on the business on it — or, for land a company the family controls uses, while that company does — and land first put to a business or to letting within three years before the death is, with exceptions, left out. The relief is given only for land divided among the heirs by the filing deadline, or within three years after it (later with the district tax office director's approval for unavoidable reasons a Cabinet Order (政令) names), and only if claimed on the inheritance tax return with the documents a Ministry of Finance Order (財務省令) names.(Art. 69-4(1), Art. 69-4(2), Art. 69-4(3), Art. 69-4(4), Art. 69-4(7)) (the provisions it rests on)
Gift tax is worked out after taking 1,100,000 yen off the taxable value, in place of the gift tax basic deduction in Article 21-5 of the Inheritance Tax Act, a separate Act. Money that a recipient 18 or over on 1 January of the year, with total income (合計所得金額) of 20,000,000 yen or less (10,000,000 yen for a smaller home), among other conditions (特定受贈者), is given by a parent, grandparent or other direct ascendant (直系尊属) between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2026 to build, buy or improve a home is free of gift tax up to a limit, if it is all spent on the home and the recipient lives there, or is certain to soon, by 15 March of the next year.(Art. 70-2-4(1), Art. 70-2(1), Art. 70-2(2)(i)) (the provisions it rests on)

Article 1 sets out what this Act covers (趣旨)

Separate taxation of interestSelling land and buildingsGains on listed sharesTax-exempt investment accountsHousing-loan creditAddition to the basic deductionSmall residential land for inheritance taxRate of delinquent tax

496 11090 3701 489 4565

Amendments

A Japanese law is changed by another law or order that rewrites it — an . This law has 15 amendments on the way — , but . Its amendment history is below. The amendments this site has read the changes of are on this law's amendments page, provision by provision, in Japanese and English.

16 October 2026

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地域公共交通の活性化及び再生に関する法律の一部を改正する法律

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