Best practices for setting up invoices in Japan
We recommend the following best practices when you make sales to business customers because Business-to-Business (B2B) sales require compliant invoices (適格請求書) under the Qualified Invoice System (適格請求書等保存方式, aka インボイス制度) in order to claim tax credit. There’s no obligation to issue invoices for Business-to-Consumer (B2C) sales.
Key invoice fields
We don’t automatically populate all of the fields on an invoice. In Japan, a missed or improperly added field can render an invoice noncompliant. Make sure that you include the noted fields when you prepare your invoices.
How to add an invoice field
The following table explains the ways that you can populate different invoice fields. To make sure that your invoices are compliant and adhere to geographic and business regulations, we recommend that you consult with your tax and legal advisors.
| Key | Field | Requirements | How to populate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Invoice number | There’s no requirement to show invoice numbers. | Stripe populates this by default. You can change how invoices are numbered (customer or account level) in the Invoice template. |
| 2 | Date of issue | You must use this field as 取引年月日 or set line item supply dates. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 3 | Date due | There’s no requirement to display the date that a customer must pay an invoice by. However, it’s a best practice. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 4a | Business company name (適格請求書発行事業者の氏名又は名称) | This is always required. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 4b | Business company address | There’s no requirement to display your address. | Enter your Support address under Public business information. You can also default to your business address as listed in your account settings. |
| 5 | Business registration number | Invoices require a business registration number (適格請求書発行事業者の登録番号). | Add your business registration number as JP TRN in your invoice settings. |
| 6a | Recipient name (書類の交付を受ける事業者の氏名又は名称) | This is always required. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 6b | Recipient address | There’s no requirement to display the recipient address. | You can add this field by clicking the Additional details button when you first create a customer. |
| 7 | Name of the good or service (取引内容) | This is always required. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 8 | Invoice line item supply date (取引年月日) | This is always required when the supply date of individual line items is different from the invoice send date. | You can display line item supply dates by clicking the toggle under Item options. |
| 9 | Price of the good or service | It’s best practice to show the unit price, quantity, and total payable amount for each invoice line item. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 10 | Invoice line item tax rate percentage | This is always required to indicate if an item is 軽減税率. It’s sufficient to display the tax percentage amount for an invoice line item. You aren’t required to display the cash amount per invoice line item. | You can determine the tax to display on an invoice by:
|
| 11 | Invoice subtotal (excludes VAT) | This is always required. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 12 | Total tax amounts and rates (税率ごとに区分して合計した対価の額、適用税率、消費税額) | This is always required. | Stripe populates this by default. |
| 13 | Invoice total (includes VAT) | This is always required. | Stripe populates this by default. |
Facilitate customer payment
After you set up your invoices to meet Japanese regulations and requirements, facilitate customer payment by:
- Adding the most popular Japanese payment methods. By accepting a wider range of payment methods, such as Bank Transfers, you can lower your costs and increase conversions (especially with large customers).
- Using the Hosted Invoice Page.
- Localizing your Invoices to the language of your customers.