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

In fact, confusion at the field level has already begun, according to former Director of the Legal Affairs Department, Ms. Isako Fujiwara.

The invoice system is very complicated, and it does not end with just obtaining a registration number and paying consumption tax. The contents are too complicated for businesses to deal with.

I have customers in their 60s and 70s who are working hard and making invoices by hand, but they are using invoices that are not Kokuyo invoice-compliant. We are still in the process of buying them in bulk and still have a surplus in stock.

Kokuyo explains that the invoices can be used as they are after October 2011 if the invoices are sent out with the registration number on both invoices for the 8% tax rate and the 10% tax rate separately. However, the recipients of the invoices do not understand this, so they demand that we change the invoices or install a system instead of writing them by hand.

As a tax accountant, I explain properly to my clients, but they are still worried that they may not continue to do business with us if they are judged to be unable to respond due to their incorrect understanding. I want to tell them that the field is already in turmoil.”

When the invoice system was first introduced, what was the reaction among tax accountants and other specialists?

It is no exaggeration to say that almost all tax accountants were opposed to the invoice system when it was first decided. Even the Japan Federation of Certified Public Tax Accountants’ Associations (JFTA), at first, kept saying ‘invoice should be abolished,’ but for some reason they suddenly changed their opinion last year, just before the system was decided. The opinion of the Japanese Federation of Certified Public Tax Accountants was not the consensus of the members at all, and the opinions of us tax accountants in the field were not reflected at all, but only the top management decided on their own to provide mitigation measures for small, medium, and micro businesses as an alternative proposal.

From the tax accountant’s point of view, this system is completely meaningless. It will only increase the burden on the public as a whole and will not increase tax revenues much, so I wonder what the point is of this system and who will benefit from it. I wonder who benefits from this system. The financial bureaucrats have only a plus/minus perspective on the numbers, and they are not paying any attention to the administrative burden on the public, which is seen as a problem even among tax accountants” (Takayuki Kamekawa).

The tax system reform that was promoted without experts, and for whom and what…

When asked who and how the system was created in the first place, Mr. Kamegawa adds, “There are almost no practitioners in the field of tax reform.

I think it’s also very problematic that the tax reform process rarely includes practicing tax accountants. In the end, I often feel that tax system reform is being carried out to lobby legislators or to target industries with large amounts of donations.

In fact, there are almost no tax accountants among the members of the Government Tax Commission and the LDP Tax Commission.

As was the case with the Electronic Bookkeeping Law a short while ago, I feel that decisions are being made by people who are not on the ground, or rather, are just sitting on their desks. Furthermore, I wonder how many members of the Diet have a firm understanding of the invoice bill,” said Takayuki Kamekawa.