Stamp Tax Act

• A "written contract" (契約書) in Nos. 1, 2, 7 and 12 to 15 of the Table is any document that proves a contract, or an agreement to make one, was formed, replaced by a new one (更改), changed or added to, whatever it is called — including a memorandum (念書), letter of acceptance (請書) or other document only one party makes, or one missing all or some of the parties' signatures, where the parties' understanding or business custom treats it as proving the contract. A document recording the matters of more than one number is taxed under only one, which the Table's general rules choose: as a rule No. 1 or 2 over Nos. 3 to 17, No. 1 over No. 2, the lowest number among Nos. 3 to 17, and a passbook or receipt book of Nos. 18 to 20 over Nos. 1 to 17 — with exceptions, among them that a document recording sales proceeds received over 1 million yen can fall under No. 17 instead.(Appended Table 1(vi), Appended Table 1(iii), Appended Table 1(iv), Appended Table 1(iv)(a), Appended Table 1(iv)(b), Appended Table 1(iv)(c), Appended Table 1(iv)(d), Appended Table 1(iv)(e)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For a written contract of No. 1 — transferring real property, mining rights (鉱業権), storage rights (貯留権) and test-drilling rights (試掘権) for carbon dioxide storage, intangible property, ships, aircraft or a business; surface rights or land leases; loans; and transport, charter parties included — the tax rises with the contract amount written in it, from 200 yen for 100,000 yen or less to 600,000 yen for over 5 billion yen; a written contract for over 10 million and up to 50 million yen, for example, pays 20,000 yen. For a written contract for work (No. 2) the 200 yen band runs up to 1 million yen, and from over 5 million yen the amounts are the same as for No. 1; a written contract of either number with no amount written pays 200 yen, and one with an amount under 10,000 yen pays none, unless it is classed under No. 1 or 2 only because it also records a matter of Nos. 3 to 17. A separate Act, the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation (租税特別措置法), lowers the tax on written contracts for transferring real property and for construction work made by 31 March 2027.(Appended Table 1, Appended Table 1(iv)(a), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91(1), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where the tax depends on the amount written in a document (記載金額), several amounts under the same number are added together, and an amount in a foreign currency is converted into yen at the base or cross exchange rate the Minister of Finance has set under a separate Act, the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (外国為替及び外国貿易法), for the day the document is made. A document proving a change to a contract, where a document with the earlier amount is known to have been made and the change in amount is shown, is taxed on the increase only, or as having no amount written if the change lowers it. An amount that can be worked out from unit prices and quantities in the document, from a quotation, order or similar document a written contract of No. 1 or 2 refers to, or from an invoice or payment notice a receipt for sales proceeds refers to, counts as written in it where the reference makes the amount clear between the parties.(Appended Table 1(v), Appended Table 1(v)(a), Appended Table 1(v)(d), Appended Table 1(v)(e), Appended Table 1(v)(f)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A receipt for money or securities received as sales proceeds (売上代金) — the price of selling or letting out assets or of providing services, deposits (手付け) included, but not the price of securities, insurance premiums or the other items the Table and a Cabinet Order leave out — pays 200 yen for 1 million yen or less, rising with the amount to 200,000 yen for over 1 billion yen; any other receipt for money or securities pays 200 yen. No tax is charged on a receipt for less than 50,000 yen, on a receipt not given in the course of a business (営業, as the Table defines it), or on one written onto a security, a deposit certificate, a trust contract, a contract for depositing money or securities, or a dividend receipt or dividend transfer notice.(Appended Table 1) (the provisions it rests on)
• Unless one of the special payment methods of Articles 9 to 12 applies, the maker of a taxable document pays the tax by sticking revenue stamps (印紙) for the amount owed on the document by the time it is made. The maker must then cancel each stamp clearly, across the document and the stamp's pattern, in the way a Cabinet Order (政令) sets.(Art. 8(1), Art. 8(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Instead of stamps, the maker may ask the district director (税務署長) of a tax office a Ministry of Finance Order (財務省令) names to press a tax seal (税印) on the document, paying the tax before it is pressed, or, with the district director's approval, install a stamp tax payment meter (印紙税納付計器) and print the tax with it, paying in advance for the total the meter can print. With approval, documents of one form made every month or in large numbers on one day, whose making can be checked later, can be paid for in cash on a return (申告書) by the end of the month after they are made; so can deposit passbooks and the other passbooks a Cabinet Order names (預貯金通帳等), counted by the number of accounts, on a return within one month of the start of each tax period from 1 April to 31 March.(Art. 9(1), Art. 9(2), Art. 10(1), Art. 10(3), Art. 10(4), Art. 11(1), Art. 11(4), Art. 11(5), Art. 12(1), Art. 12(4), Art. 12(5), Art. 12(6)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 1 October 2026

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  Science Council of Japan Act

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• 1 October 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

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• 3 June 2026

  Act on the Development of Related Acts for the Promotion of Reform to Enhance Regional Autonomy and Independence

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• 1 June 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

  所得税法等の一部を改正する法律

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• 1 April 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Act on the Promotion of a Smooth Transition to a Decarbonized Growth-Oriented Economic Structure and the Act on the Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources

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• 1 April 2026

  Act Partially Amending the Income Tax Act, etc.

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• 1 October 2025

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

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• 4 August 2025

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• 1 June 2025

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

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• 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 43 amendments already in force

• The Table's non-taxable column (非課税物件) frees some documents of a taxed kind, among them bills for under 100,000 yen or with no amount written; written contracts of fidelity guarantee (身元保証) under the Act on Fidelity Guarantee (身元保証ニ関スル法律); dividend receipts for less than 3,000 yen; deposit passbooks made by Shinkin banks (信用金庫) and the other financial institutions a Cabinet Order names; and articles of incorporation of a stock or mutual company other than the copy a notary keeps under the Notary Act (公証人法).(Art. 5(1)(i), Appended Table 1) (the provisions it rests on)
• Documents listed in Appended Table 3 (別表第三) are not taxed when made by the persons listed beside them. Among them are documents on handling the State's or local governments' public money, made by the Bank of Japan and others who handle it under the law; documents on the student loans and grants (学資) of the Japan Student Services Organization, made by it, those it entrusts the work to or the students; documents on interest-free or low-interest loans to people in financial hardship under the Social Welfare Act (社会福祉法), made by the lender or the borrower; and receipts for refunds of labour insurance premiums, made by the employer or a labour insurance affairs association.(Art. 5(1)(iii), Appended Table 3) (the provisions it rests on)
• Where the State, a local government or a body of Appended Table 2 makes a document together with someone else, the copy the public side or a notary keeps counts as made by the other party, while the copy the other party keeps counts as made by the public side, whose documents are not taxed. The same holds for a document of Appended Table 3 made jointly by the person listed beside it and someone else.(Art. 4(5), Art. 4(6), Art. 5(1)(ii), Art. 5(1)(iii)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Under a separate Act, the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation (租税特別措置法), written contracts for transferring real property made from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2027 with an amount over 100,000 yen, and written contracts for construction work (建設工事, as the Construction Business Act defines it) made in the same period with an amount over 1 million yen, pay a lower tax than Appended Table 1 sets. For example, a written contract for over 10 million and up to 50 million yen pays 10,000 yen instead of 20,000 yen, and one for over 5 billion yen pays 480,000 yen instead of 600,000 yen.(Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91(1), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91(2), Appended Table 1) (the provisions it rests on)
• The same Act frees from stamp tax the written contracts for transferring real property or for construction work that victims of a natural disaster, or their heirs and others, of the kinds Cabinet Orders define, make within five years of the disaster to sell the land where a building destroyed or demolished after damage stood, sell a damaged building, acquire land for a replacement building, buy or build that replacement, or repair the damaged building; where such a contract is made with someone else, only the copy the victim keeps is free. It also frees the written loan contracts, made within five years of the disaster, for the loans on specially favourable terms a Cabinet Order names that local governments, the Japan Finance Corporation and other lenders a Cabinet Order names make to those hit, or that banks and other financial institutions a Cabinet Order names make to victims a Cabinet Order names — but only after a disaster designated a severe disaster (激甚災害) for which the measures of Article 12 of the Act on special fiscal aid for severe disasters (激甚災害に対処するための特別の財政援助等に関する法律) are also designated.(Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91-2(1), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91-2(2), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91-4(1), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91-4(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The same Act also frees from stamp tax the written loan contracts for interest-free student loans that prefectures, or the public interest incorporated associations or foundations of the kinds a Cabinet Order names that run such loans in their place, make to high-school and similar students. Contracts made from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2028 for the interest-free student loans a Cabinet Order names, to those students or to the university and other students a Cabinet Order names, are free too if they carry the mark a Ministry of Finance Order sets.(Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91-3(1), Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 91-3(2)) (the provisions it rests on)

• If the maker of a document that must be paid for with stamps has not paid by the time the document is made, the district director of the tax office for the place for tax payment (納税地) collects a negligence tax (過怠税) of the unpaid tax plus twice that amount — three times the tax in all. Where the maker comes forward to the district director to say the tax was not paid, other than in anticipation of an assessment after a tax investigation, the negligence tax is the unpaid tax plus 10%.(Art. 20(1), Art. 20(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A maker who stuck stamps on but did not cancel them pays a negligence tax equal to the face value of the uncancelled stamps. Negligence tax is at least 1,000 yen in total, unless all of it is the reduced kind for coming forward, and it counts as stamp tax. The district director's notice of assessment (賦課決定通知書), sent under a separate Act, the Act on General Rules for National Taxes (国税通則法), must state the kind of document and the other matters a Cabinet Order sets.(Art. 20(3), Art. 20(4), Art. 20(5), Art. 20(6), Art. 20(7)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Evading stamp tax, or getting a refund of it, by deception or other wrongful acts — or attempting either — is punishable by imprisonment (拘禁刑) of up to three years, a fine of up to 1 million yen, or both. Where three times the tax or refund is more than 1 million yen, the fine may, depending on the circumstances, go up to that amount.(Art. 21(1), Art. 21(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Not sticking on the stamps owed, not filing a return by its deadline, making, selling or holding payment meters or payment seals without approval, and failing to keep, falsifying or hiding the required books are punishable by imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. Not cancelling stamps, not marking documents as an approved payment method requires, and not reporting a meter or payment-seal business or the removal of a meter carry a fine of up to 300,000 yen. Where a representative or employee commits any offence of Articles 21 to 23 in the business or over the property of a company or person, that company or person is fined as well.(Art. 22(1), Art. 23(1), Art. 24(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The district director may refuse a request for a tax seal where the amount in the document is unclear or it is otherwise unsuitable for securing the tax, refuse approval to pay in cash on returns where the applicant does not give security when ordered or it is otherwise unsuitable for securing the tax, revoke approval of a payment meter when the holder breaks the laws on stamp tax or it is otherwise unsuitable for enforcing them, and seal a meter where securing the tax needs it, as a Cabinet Order sets. Where they find it necessary to secure the tax, the Commissioner of the National Tax Agency (国税庁長官), a regional commissioner of a Regional Taxation Bureau (国税局長) or a district director may order an applicant for the cash-payment methods to give security for the tax, of an amount and for a period they set and may later change.(Art. 9(3), Art. 11(2), Art. 12(2), Art. 10(5), Art. 10(6), Art. 15(1), Art. 15(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Someone who wants a refund of stamp tax overpaid or paid by mistake — including tax paid in advance for a payment meter that no longer has to be paid, as when the meter is taken out of use — must first have the district director for the place for tax payment confirm the overpayment, as a Cabinet Order sets; this is not needed for tax paid on the returns of Articles 11 and 12 or collected as negligence tax. Someone who pays by tax seal or meter may instead ask the district director they pay through to confirm an overpayment and set it against the tax they now owe. A confirmed or offset overpayment is treated as made at that time for the rules on refunds, offsets and interest on refunds (還付加算金) in the Act on General Rules for National Taxes, a separate Act.(Art. 14(1), Art. 14(2), Art. 14(3)) (the provisions it rests on)