The Nihon Mangaka Kyokai (Japan Cartoonists Association) has stated its opposition to the introduction of the new billing system.
Most of the manga artists in Japan engage in freelance creative activities. Many of them fall into the category of so-called “ tax-exempt activities ” , with taxable income of less than 10 million yen ( more than 73.16 thousand US dollars ) in the previous two tax years.
Under the new billing system (officially known as the "Qualified Billing System"), so that publishers and other order issuers can deduct tax on purchases ( that is, they can add artists' commissions to their spending on their fiscal resolution ), they need to obtain an invoice ( qualified invoice ) with a registration number of the commercial company that represents the cartoonist .
So cartoonists have to register with the competent tax office to be able to issue those invoices, which means that tax-exempt persons will be forced to change to taxable persons. Failure to issue an invoice may lead to a deterioration in the relationship between the payer (publisher) and the cartoonist or, worse, the risk of the transaction being rescinded due to the cartoonist's tax-exempt status .
Even if they become a taxable person, there is also concern that the administrative burden of issuing invoices without the introduction of a system and professional support will increase, which could hamper the creative activities of cartoonists.
In addition, the report notes that for cartoonists, who often work under pseudonyms, becoming an invoice issuer means their real names are published on the “qualified invoice issuing company publishing website”, so many cartoonists they are concerned about the protection of their personal data since anyone can review that list.
The association aims to promote the health of manga and foster creative manga activities, thereby contributing to the development of Japanese culture, and states that it cannot overlook the introduction of the billing system in its current form unless they can allay some of the concerns mentioned.
Source: Yahoo! News Japan | Japan
