Cases in Japan
General incorporated association Council for Promoting Electronic Local Tax Return was established by all the prefectures and the cities designated by ordinance, for the promotion of electronic tax return concerning local tax. The Council started operating of eLTAX which enables tax return using the internet from Jan. 2005.
In this system, one can attach a financial statement in XBRL by using accounting programs on sale. On the other hand, local autonomies can confirm the submitted financial reports in the form of XBRL. (Please refer to the chart below.)
Figure Confirm financial reports in the form of XBRL
In case of tax return to several local governments, one had to report to each local government for tax return respectively, but eLTAX made it possible to report to a local tax office for tax return even in case of reporting more than two local autonomies. This is a major characteristic of the eLTAX system.
From January 2005, eLTAX was introduced and started tax return using XBRL step by step, in all the prefectures and in the cities designated by ordinance. After that, the number of local autonomies introducing eLTAX has been gradually increasing. As of October 2007, electronic tax reporting is possible in 46 prefectures and 16 designated cities concerning corporation local tax, corporation business tax, corporation local residents’ tax, fixed assets tax (depreciable assets). Among these tax items, XBRL format is applied to the three items of corporate related tax.
For the future, the council intends to expand the applied area of eLTAX nationwide, and to extend the function of electronic tax payment and tax report.
