Business start-up and tax compliance services
When foreign corporations establish a physical presence in Japan to start up operations, they must consider various issues and procedures, such as the selection of office space and banks, consideration of the type of entity they want to establish (a branch or a local corporation), the filing of various reports with local tax offices, and enrollment in the social insurance and labor insurance systems.
However, at the initial stage of setting up operations, it may not be economical to hire personnel who are knowledgeable in these procedures. To assist with these challenges, PwC Outsourcing Services LLC provides a variety of one-stop services to foreign corporations doing business in Japan, in cooperation with PwC Tax Japan, PwC Labor and Social Security Attorney Corporation and PwC Legal Japan as necessary. Our services include accounting- and tax-related administrative work, as well as tax consulting services. We provide these high quality services through PwC’s global Pathfinder programme, utilising our connections with the PwC global network and overseas Pathfinder groups.
Advice for entity establishment
By reviewing your company’s information and policies and interviewing key personnel, we can provide the necessary advice to help you determine the best business structure in Japan to satisfy your business development needs and tax strategies. We can also work with PwC Legal Japan or your existing legal advisor to help you register your company or branch in Japan.
Submission of tax reports to tax offices
After your local company has been registered, we can prepare the various tax and other reports that may be required depending on the nature of your business. We can also provide advice on consumption tax issues, including whether your company should elect to be a consumption taxpayer, if applicable.
Labor and social insurance procedures
Newly established companies are required to enrol in the social insurance system, including health insurance, long-term care insurance and welfare pension insurance, and the labour insurance system, including employment insurance and industrial accident compensation insurance. We can perform the necessary administrative procedures to help you with initial enrollment into the social insurance and labour insurance systems, as well as with the procedures for individual employees (and their dependents) when they are hired or leave the company.
We can also help you file the required annual reports for both social and labor insurance premiums.We also provide consulting services on various issues related to the social and labor insurance systems.
If your company has ten or more employees, you will also be required to prepare official rules of employment and file them with the appropriate administrative office. Labour management issues related to working hours, mental health, sexual harassment, abuse of power, resignation and discharge and non-competition are becoming increasingly prominent. To help you prevent such labour-related problems before they occur, we can prepare work regulations, other various rules and employment agreements to reflect your own corporate philosophy.
We are also able to provide labour insurance-related services through PwC Labor and Social Security Attorney Corporation.
Salary calculation
We provide services to calculate the gross salary, withholding tax, social insurance, labor insurance and other withholding amounts for each employee based on your company’s salary structure, from which we calculate the net salary for each employee and prepare a salary breakdown. Upon request, we can also handle the payment of salary and bonuses to each employee’s bank account, and handle the payment of withholding tax and inhabitants tax on your behalf. When an employee resigns, we can also perform the appropriate administrative measures to collect withholding tax from the employee’s retirement allowance.
We also provide annual services including year-end withholding tax adjustment procedures, preparation of a salary and withholding tax statement, preparation and submission of the salary payment report for inhabitant tax purposes, and preparation of a schedule that provides a breakdown of any salary, compensation and rent paid out during a given fiscal year.
Preparation of books and accounting records
We provide services related to the preparation of a general ledger and sub-ledger based on your company’s accounting records, by using a chart of accounts that you provide. These services include bookkeeping services based on invoices and receipts and the preparation of a monthly trial balance, balance sheet and income statement. We also verify that the accounting records that we prepare are tax compliant, and can notify you of any potential tax risks in advance. At the end of each fiscal year, we can also prepare the financial statements to be attached to your final corporate tax return, and prepare reporting packages to be submitted to your head office outside Japan.
Tax compliance services
Our tax compliance and outsourcing services can be catered to your company’s particular circumstances. Tax outsourcing services can be expanded to include a full range of tax outsourcing, strategic and planning functions as well as tax reporting, forecasting and managing your relationship with the tax authorities.
We deliver managed tax compliance outsourcing services including:
- Preparation of tax returns and tax reports for corporate tax (including consolidated corporation tax filing), consumption tax and more
- On-site support for tax audits, including the negotiation of complex technical issues with the tax authorities and strategies for dispute resolution
Corporate secretarial services
At your request, we can prepare the registration documents you need to establish or dissolve a local company (or a local branch of a foreign corporation), board of directors’ meeting minutes or shareholders’ meeting minutes for each term, registration documents related to the appointment or resignation of officers, and other various documents related to your company’s operations, as well as provide other advisory services. Corporate secretarial services are provided in cooperation with PwC Legal Japan or your existing lawyers and/or judicial scriveners, who handle commercial registration procedures and related legal work.
