Why tax professionals oppose the “invoice system,” which is the same as the “miner card” and has not been properly discussed.

510,000 signatures against the project exceeded the number of signatures for the Tokyo Olympics! Lawyers, tax accountants, and judicial scriveners gathered…

The “invoice system (qualified invoice)” will start on October 1, 2011.

Despite its imminence, how many people in Japan have a correct understanding of its contents?

The following comment made by Takafumi Horie on X (formerly Twitter) on September 5 in response to a report of more than 360,000 signatures signed by a volunteer group of freelance tax collectors brought the real situation into sharp relief.

I say, ‘You’ve been ‘embezzling’ consumption tax until now. Pay up!

This comment was met with harsh criticism on social networking sites and Internet message boards, such as “This person has no understanding of how the consumption tax works,” and “What does a guy who was arrested (in the Livedoor case) have to say about that?

The aforementioned signatures refer to the online signatures for the “STOP! Invoice” campaign against the invoice system organized by the “Freelancers’ Association for the Invoice System. This is the largest number of online signatures in the history of online petitions, surpassing the 465,000 online petitions against the Tokyo Olympics, which is said to be the largest in Japan.

He said, “We have been submitting letters of opposition to the National Tax Agency and the Ministry of Finance for a long time, and until now there has been very little reaction.”

However, while there are so many voices of opposition, why is it that statements such as the one made by Mr. Horie above can be found in some quarters? The fact is that the invoice system is too complicated and too difficult to understand.

Under these circumstances, on September 14, the “National Three Youth Associations,” consisting of lawyers, certified tax accountants, and judicial scriveners, held a press conference calling for the abolition of the invoice system. Why are these professionals making a statement against the invoice system? We interviewed five members of the National Federation of Young Certified Public Tax Accountants to find out.

The invoice system is a tax system that will increase the burden not only on freelancers and other sole proprietors, but on the entire nation. We felt that we had to make this more known and work toward its abolition, so we took action to make a statement of opposition.

Why now? Some people may ask, “Why now?” But we have been submitting written opinions opposing invoicing to the National Tax Agency and the Ministry of Finance for a long time, and until now there has been almost no reaction. (Ryuichi Yamada, former president of the federation )

For example, Mr. Yamada explains the common misconception of the “pro-invoice” camp as follows.

“There is an opinion that it is a ‘profit tax’ (a part of the consumption tax paid by the consumer to the vendor becomes the profit of the vendor without being paid) or that the problem is that tax-exempt businesses do not pay consumption tax, but from a tax accountant’s point of view, this is a complete misunderstanding; there is no such thing as a ‘profit tax.

In addition, on February 10, 2011, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance Kaneko clearly stated at a meeting of the House of Representatives Cabinet Committee that “the consumption tax is a deposit-type tax, and is not a deposit tax. In other words, he admits that there is no such thing as a ‘deposit tax’ or ‘profit tax.

In other words, the “elimination of profit tax” that proponents have repeatedly argued as the basis for the introduction of invoicing has collapsed from the bottom up.