https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2023/09/25/how-tos/freelancer-tax-system/

 
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September 27, 2023
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The Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos

Freelancers aren't happy with Japan's new invoice system

 
The new invoice system, which goes into effect Oct. 1, is forcing
many freelancers in Japan to choose between raising their prices or
suffer a 10% loss in revenue.
The new invoice system, which goes into effect Oct. 1, is forcing
many freelancers in Japan to choose between raising their prices or
suffer a 10% loss in revenue. | GETTY IMAGES
By Eric Margolis
Contributing writer
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Sep 25, 2023

From Oct. 1, a new tax regulation decades in the making will go into
effect -- and hundreds of thousands of workers in Japan are angry.

The Qualified Invoicing System, which requires taxable businesses to
issue invoices containing tax information for transactions, has
generated a full-fledged movement against it. A petition on
Change.org to halt the regulation has received nearly 450,000
signatures. The social movement #STOPinboisu (invoice) has held
regular demonstrations and conferences advocating against the law,
alongside significant protest from the world of pop culture:
Animators, filmmakers, voice actors, manga artists and V-tubers of
all stripes have joined together against it.

While the law is complex, the reason it's hated is not: It's
effectively a tax increase. While the system was created to ensure
that businesses will properly pay consumption tax, for many
freelancers and small businesses the result will amount to a 10%
increase in taxes -- a high enough jump to potentially devastate
creatives who already make a living by the narrowest of margins.

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