Receipts from overseas SaaS without a Japanese invoice number — the small-amount exception and keeping the data
A receipt from an overseas SaaS provider without a Japanese invoice registration number is still a deductible expense for income tax and corporate tax. For consumption tax, a business under general taxation normally needs a qualified invoice to take the input tax credit, but a transaction under 10,000 yen including tax qualifies under the small-amount exception with ledger entries alone.
Updated 2026-09-18. Based on public materials from Japan's National Tax Agency (Tax Answer pages, the outline of the small-amount exception, and the Electronic Books Preservation Act Q&A [Electronic transactions], July 2026). "Q" numbers refer to that Q&A. Tax outcomes differ from business to business, so check anything you are unsure about with a tax accountant or your tax office.
Key points
- Even if a receipt has no registration number (T + 13 digits), a payment made for the business is a deductible expense for income tax and corporate tax. Qualified invoices are a consumption tax matter.
- For tax-exempt businesses and businesses on the simplified taxation system, the consumption tax you pay does not change whether or not your purchases come with qualified invoices.
- Even under general taxation, a transaction under 10,000 yen including tax qualifies for the "small-amount exception": the input tax credit is allowed with ledger entries alone (for transactions up to 30 September 2029, subject to a sales threshold).
- Even when you do not need to keep a qualified invoice, the receipt PDF you received by email or online must still be kept under the Electronic Books Preservation Act.
- That obligation requires the data to be searchable by date, amount and counterparty, which you can meet by putting the three in the file name. How to name English receipts is covered below.
Deductible expenses and input tax credit are two different questions
"Is it a deductible expense?" is an income tax and corporate tax question. You need to show with your books and supporting documents that it was spent for the business; whether the seller is a registered qualified invoice issuer is irrelevant.
"Input tax credit" is a consumption tax question. Consumption tax payable is the tax collected on sales minus the tax paid on purchases. Since October 2023, the purchase side of that subtraction requires keeping a qualified invoice and ledger entries (Tax Answer No. 6498, in Japanese). A missing invoice from an overseas service only matters for this subtraction.
Your category decides whether it matters at all
| Consumption tax category | Effect of a missing invoice from an overseas service |
|---|---|
| Tax-exempt business (taxable sales of 10 million yen or less, not registered) | You do not pay consumption tax, so it does not matter |
| Simplified taxation system | Tax payable is a fixed percentage of the tax on sales. Purchase invoices are not used, so it does not matter |
| General taxation | Input tax credit requires a qualified invoice. The rest of this page applies to you |
The "20% special rule" for businesses that became taxable because of the invoice system (tax periods that include a day up to 30 September 2026) and the "30% special rule" that follows it for sole proprietors (tax years 2027 and 2028) also compute tax as 20% or 30% of the tax on sales, so purchase invoices have no effect there either.
Under general taxation: overseas web services are "provision of electronic services"
Under the Consumption Tax Act, services that overseas businesses provide over the internet are "provision of electronic services" and fall into two groups (Tax Answer No. 6118, in Japanese).
- Business-to-business (where the terms limit the customer to businesses): the Japanese recipient files and pays the tax instead, under the "reverse charge" mechanism. However, for tax periods under general taxation with a taxable sales ratio of 95% or more, periods under the simplified system, and periods under the 20% or 30% special rule, this is "deemed not to have occurred for the time being", so most small businesses do not file it in practice.
- Business-to-consumer (anyone can sign up on the website; almost every SaaS a sole proprietor uses is here): the overseas provider files and pays the tax. For the recipient to take the input tax credit, a qualified invoice is required.
So a business under general taxation that wants to deduct the consumption tax on an overseas SaaS needs that provider to be registered as a qualified invoice issuer and to issue receipts with its registration number. Some overseas providers are registered and some are not. Look for a 13-digit number starting with T on the receipt, or look the number up on the National Tax Agency's qualified invoice issuer public site.
The transitional measure for purchases from tax-exempt businesses (which lets you deduct 80% down to 30% of the tax amount: 80% until 30 September 2026, then 70%, 50% and 30% in stages until 30 September 2031) does not apply to business-to-consumer electronic services from overseas providers (National Tax Agency, "Consumption tax on cross-border provision of services", in Japanese). What you can use is the small-amount exception below.
The small-amount exception: under 10,000 yen including tax, ledger entries are enough
The key points from the National Tax Agency's outline of the small-amount exception (in Japanese).
- For taxable purchases under 10,000 yen including tax, the input tax credit is allowed by keeping ledger entries with the prescribed items, even without a qualified invoice. It does not matter whether the seller is a qualified invoice issuer; purchases from tax-exempt businesses qualify too.
- It applies to businesses whose taxable sales in the base period (the year before last for individuals) were 100 million yen or less, or whose taxable sales in the specified period (January to June of the previous year for individuals) were 50 million yen or less.
- It covers taxable purchases made from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2029. Purchases on or after 1 October 2029 are excluded even in the middle of a tax period.
- The test is the tax-inclusive amount of one transaction, not of each item. Buying a 5,000 yen item and a 7,000 yen item together for 12,000 yen does not qualify.
Applied to overseas SaaS, a service billed at 1,000 to 3,000 yen a month is under 10,000 yen per charge, so it can be deducted with ledger entries alone even without a registration number. An annual plan paid in one charge of 10,000 yen or more does not qualify, so a business under general taxation that wants the credit may prefer monthly billing (whether each monthly charge counts as one transaction depends on the contract, so check if unsure).
The ledger needs the usual items: the seller's name, the date, a description and the amount. The outline page does not ask for any additional note.
Even under the small-amount exception, you must keep the receipt
What the small-amount exception removes is the need to keep a qualified invoice. A receipt PDF downloaded from email or the web is electronic transaction data under the Electronic Books Preservation Act and must be kept separately (Q30). That obligation requires the data to be searchable by transaction date, amount and counterparty (Q18); provided you can respond to a tax official's request for the data, you can meet it without dedicated software by putting the three fields in the file name in a fixed order (Q50). A measure against tampering, such as internal rules that you set and follow, is required separately (Q30, Q19). See the file naming rules and the search requirement explained.
How to name English receipts
Receipts from overseas services are in English, dates often look like "Jan 31, 2026", and amounts are often in dollars. To name them by the same rule as Japanese documents, decide the following three things.
| Field | How to decide | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Convert "Jan 31, 2026" or "01/31/2026" (US style puts the month first) to YYYYMMDD, the same as Japanese documents. | 20260131 |
| Counterparty | Use the issuer's name on the receipt. Decide whether to drop the legal suffix ("Notion Labs, Inc." to "Notion Labs") and write the same service the same way every time. | Notion Labs |
| Amount | Enter the yen amount recorded in your books. For a receipt in dollars, use the yen amount settled on your card statement. If Japanese consumption tax is itemised (an overseas provider registered in Japan), use the tax-inclusive amount. | 3300 |
Put together, you get something like 20260131_Notion Labs_3300.pdf. Spaces in an English counterparty name are fine, but replace any characters Windows does not allow in file names (\ / : * ? " < > |).
Summary
| Your category | When an overseas SaaS receipt has no registration number |
|---|---|
| Tax-exempt business | No effect on consumption tax. Keep the receipt |
| Simplified system, 20% special rule or 30% special rule | No effect on consumption tax. Keep the receipt |
| General taxation, one payment under 10,000 yen including tax | Deductible with ledger entries alone under the small-amount exception (until 30 September 2029, subject to a sales threshold). Keep the receipt |
| General taxation, one payment of 10,000 yen or more including tax | Not deductible unless the seller is a qualified invoice issuer. The transitional measure (80% down to 30%) does not apply either |
It is not "not a deductible expense" but "whether the consumption tax can be credited", and for most small businesses it makes no difference. With that straight, choosing overseas services becomes much less stressful.
Name English receipts with Dencho Rename
Drop receipt PDFs into Dencho Rename and it reads the date, amount and counterparty from the text, renames every file by the rule in the table above, and returns them as a ZIP. English dates are converted to YYYYMMDD. When it finds a total in a foreign currency, it leaves the amount blank and asks you to enter the yen amount. PDFs with embedded text can be renamed for free (up to 5 files at a time). Files are processed only inside your browser and never uploaded.
Sources
- National Tax Agency, Tax Answer No. 6498, Qualified invoice retention system (invoice system) (in Japanese)
- National Tax Agency, Tax Answer No. 6118, Consumption tax on cross-border provision of services (in Japanese)
- National Tax Agency, Outline of the small-amount exception (in Japanese)
- National Tax Agency, Consumption tax on cross-border services (in Japanese)
- National Tax Agency, 2026 tax reform special page on the invoice system (extension of the transitional measure and the 30% special rule; in Japanese)
- National Tax Agency, Qualified invoice issuer public site (in Japanese)
- National Tax Agency, Electronic Books Preservation Act Q&A [Electronic transactions] (July 2026, in Japanese)