The Foreign tax credit system is designed to avoid international double taxation. It allows a corporation to deduct, within certain limits, the amount of foreign corporate income tax paid or withheld abroad from its corporate tax liability. A domestic corporation and a foreign corporation which has a permanent establishment in Japan are allowed to take advantage of the foreign tax credit. The following explanations are for a domestic corporation. A foreign corporation is able to take foreign tax credit for eligible foreign taxes on income attributable to a permanent establishment in Japan.

The corporations subject to the size-based business taxation have been revised with the 2024 (Reiwa 6) tax reform.

Pillar Two presents a complex web of rules, Income Inclusion Rule (IIR), Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT), and the Undertaxed Profits Rules (UTPR), formerly known as the Undertaxed Payments Rule. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Japan will need to understand the interaction of each rule enacted under Japan's domestic legislation.

With the COVID-19 travel restrictions lifted, business travel has increased significantly. Some companies assume their employees are tax-exempt if their home country has an income tax treaty with the host country and the employee spends not more than 183 days in aggregate there.How to count the days can easily create confusion. This edition of the tax bulletin explains how to count 183 days and pitfalls you need to be aware of when counting travel days to Japan.