# Japan Consumption Tax Calculator 2026 — 10% / 8%

Source page: https://valem.run/calculators/japan/vat

Japanese consumption tax is 10%, with a reduced 8% on food and drink — excluding alcohol and dining out — and subscription newspapers issued twice a week or more.

**Tax year:** 2026

## How it is calculated

The National Tax Agency publishes two rates, in force since 1 October 2019: 10% standard and 8% reduced. The reduced rate covers *"(1) Food and drink excluding alcoholic drink and dining out (2) Newspapers issued twice a week or more (restricted to those by subscription)"*.

**The eat-in boundary is where this gets expensive.** The same bento box is 8% to take away and 10% to eat in, because dining out is excluded from the reduced rate — the same trap Sweden has with restaurant meals, arrived at from the opposite direction. Alcohol is excluded too, so a convenience-store basket can legitimately carry both rates.

Both rates are **composites**: the 10% is a 7.8% national consumption tax plus a 2.2% local one, and the 8% is 6.24% plus 1.76%. That is why the 8% band appears unchanged by the 2019 reform while its internal split did change — the old 8% was 6.3% + 1.7%. The headline figure is what you charge; the split is what gets apportioned.

The exemption threshold is unusual and worth reading twice: a business is exempt if taxable sales **in the Base Period** are 10 million yen or less, and the base period is generally the fiscal year **two years before** the one being taxed. So liability now follows from sales the year before last, not from current trading — a business that has shrunk can still be liable, and a fast-growing one can trade untaxed for two years. A second test uses the first six months of the preceding year.

## Worked example

With Amount of 1,000, this model computes Vat Amount of 100.

## Inputs

| Name | Label | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `amount` | Amount | number |
| `direction` | Direction | string |
| `category` | What is being supplied | string |
| `annualTurnover` | Taxable sales in the base period | number |
| `reverseCharge` | B2B reverse charge applies | boolean |

## Sources

- [National Tax Agency - Consumption Tax: 10% standard, 8% reduced](https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/consumption_tax/01.htm) (checked 2026-10-05)
- [National Tax Agency - exemption where base-period taxable sales are 10 million yen or less](https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/consumption_tax/01.htm) (checked 2026-10-05)

## What this page claims

The Valem engine reproduces this model's formula through 6 self-test cases. That shows internal consistency, not that the formula matches current law; the cited sources are the evidence for that. Estimate, not tax advice.

## For agents

- Model manifest (formula, constants, test vectors): https://valem.run/calculators/japan/vat.json
- Compute by URL: https://valem.run/calculators/japan/vat.json?amount=1000
- MCP: https://valem.run/mcp/calculators (call `calculate` with calculator `japan/vat`)