Tax and Accounting: As noted on the Translation Industry Rates page, independent translators satisfying certain conditions are not required to remit consumption tax under Japanese tax law. Consumption tax is therefore not added to invoiced amounts. Instead, Japanese tax is deducted at the rate of 10.21% (10% withholding tax + 0.21% disaster reconstruction tax). Accordingly, users of my services have no tax burden.

Invoices: Invoices are sent shortly after the close of each month and cover all assignments delivered within the month. They are sent via email (and post if desired). A sample invoice through the month of August is set forth below. The client in this example assigns a (regular) biweekly report each month. This month, the client assigns a smaller irregular report as well.

Please note that tax and charge computations for individual translation assignments are provided solely as reference for the convenience of organizations (such as law firms) who need to know the share which each individual assignment accounts for in the total charge for the month. As explained on the cw-translation.net Rates page, the charge for translation under the Monthly Agreement is calculated according to the formula A=14b+17(t-b), with t representing the total number of characters of all assignments translated and delivered within the invoiced month. The above formula is therefore not applied to the character count subtotals for each individual assignment but to the total monthly character count at the bottom of column (3). It is this value which corresponds to t, as noted in the explanation on the bottom-left of the invoice. In this case, t = 4,270. Since the formula used is A=14b+17(t-b), the function used to calculate the Gross Amount at the bottom of column (4) (substituting the variables for cell references) is: =IF(t<=b,14*t,14*b+17*(t-b)). Since 4,270<4,540, the result is 14*4270=59,780. This total is then used to calculate the final per-character rate for the month, which is given at the above-right of the monthly invoice. (In this example it is 14 yen per character since t<b.) The charge and tax amounts for each assignment are then calculated by multiplying each character count subtotal in column (3) by the final per-character rate.

Assignment Management Indicators: Below is the second page of the monthly invoice showing Assignment Management Indicators which clients may (if they wish) use to manage the flow of assignments to minimize translation cost. The Assignment Management Indicators are explained in detail on the cw-translation.net Rates page.

Please note that clients need make no computations whatever in order to use these indicators. All of the calculations are performed in Excel. The value for t is updated each month and all other indicators, including the diagram, are updated automatically by Excel.

Year-End Summary: At the end of the year, I send your accounting staff an Excel workbook containing a complete summary of all work performed and transactions conducted, together with copies of all invoices sent during the year. Your accounting staff may then refer to the summary when preparing the Japanese payment statement (shiharai chosho) to be sent in January of the following year.

U.S. Entities: If your organization is a United States entity, please note that I provide my services as an independent contractor under the U.S.-Japan Income Tax Convention and the U.S.-Japan Social Security Agreement.