Blue-Form vs. White-Form Tax Returns

A blue-form tax return Japan filers call aoiro shinkoku is the approval-based filing status that can cut a sole proprietor's taxable income by up to 650,000 JPY before rates even apply.¹² Its default alternative, the white-form return (shiroiro shinkoku), needs no approval and keeps bookkeeping simple, but it offers no special deduction and no loss carryforward.¹³ This article compares the two side by side so a first-time filer can choose with eyes open.

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the National Tax Agency site. This article is general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed zeirishi (税理士, tax accountant).

Overview

This article is for sole proprietors filing business income for the first time, typically after opening as a 個人事業主 (kojin jigyōnushi, "sole proprietor").⁴ It covers the income types that face the blue-or-white choice, the four blue advantages, what white keeps simple, and the deadlines that lock the choice in.

The choice exists only for business income (事業所得, jigyō shotoku, "business income"), real-estate income, and forestry income (山林所得, sanrin shotoku, "forestry income"). Salary-only earners and miscellaneous-income filers never face it.¹ A 確定申告 (kakutei shinkoku, "final income-tax return") is the annual return both statuses file; blue versus white only changes what goes inside it.⁴

The rules below are national income-tax law. They apply identically in every prefecture and municipality, and residence-tax assessment follows the income-tax filing automatically, so no ward office applies a different version.¹³

Who files which return

Anyone with eligible income who has obtained blue approval files blue; everyone else with the same income files white by default.¹³ Blue approval means submitting the 青色申告承認申請書 (aoiro shinkoku shōnin shinseisho, "application for approval of blue return") to the local tax office, generally by March 15 of the year to be filed blue, or within 2 months of opening where the business began on or after January 16 of that year.¹⁴

The business-opening notification itself follows a separate deadline. Under current NTA guidance it is due by the filing deadline of the year containing the opening date.⁴

Blue-Form Advantages: The Four Benefits

The NTA lists four headline blue benefits: the special deduction, deductible family-employee salary, a bad-debt reserve, and net-loss carryforward or carryback.¹ The first, second, and fourth do most of the work for a first-time filer, plus the small-asset immediate-expensing rule (少額減価償却資産の特例, shōgaku genka shōkyaku shisan no tokurei, "special rule for small depreciable assets") covered below.

The 650K, 550K, and 100K special deduction tiers

The top tier deducts up to 550,000 JPY from business or real-estate income for a blue filer who keeps books under regular principles (generally double-entry) and attaches the balance sheet and profit-and-loss statement to a return filed by the deadline (as of 2025-04-01; confirm current figures with the National Tax Agency).²

The ceiling rises to 650,000 JPY where that filer additionally files the return plus statements via e-Tax by the deadline, or keeps qualifying electronic books (journal and general ledger) with the required notification (as of 2025-04-01).² Blue filers meeting neither set of conditions still deduct up to 100,000 JPY across business, real-estate, and forestry income (as of 2025-04-01).²

Tier	Ceiling	What it takes	As of	Source
Double-entry plus e-Tax or approved e-books	650,000 JPY	Regular books, statements attached, filed by deadline, plus e-Tax filing or qualifying electronic-book keeping	2025-04-01	2
Double-entry, paper filing	550,000 JPY	Regular books, statements attached, filed by deadline	2025-04-01	2
Blue filer below those standards	100,000 JPY	Blue approval without meeting the above tiers	2025-04-01	2
White filer	No deduction	Default status	2025-04-01	3

The table ceilings above reflect NTA figures current as stated; where the underlying income total is smaller than the tier ceiling, the deduction is capped at that income total computed before loss offsets (as of 2025-04-01).²

Refund returns still face the March 15 statements deadline

Even a filer owed a refund only keeps the 550K or 650K tier by attaching the double-entry statements and filing by March 15 (as of 2025-04-01).² A late refund claim preserves the refund but forfeits the upper tiers.

Loss carryforward 3 years and carryback

A blue filer whose net loss (純損失, jun sonshitsu, "net loss") survives the offset rules may carry it forward for up to 3 years, deducting it from each subsequent year's income.¹ Alternatively, a filer who also filed blue the prior year may carry the loss back 1 year instead and claim a refund of prior-year tax.¹

White filers have no equivalent mechanism; a white-year deficit simply vanishes for tax purposes.¹ Losses from a designated specified extraordinary disaster may extend the blue carryforward to 5 years under stated asset-loss-ratio conditions.¹

Family-employee salary deductibility

A blue filer may deduct salary paid to a cohabiting spouse or relative aged 15 or older who works exclusively in the business, within the amount stated in a pre-filed notice and only so far as reasonable for the work performed (as of 2025-04-01; confirm current figures with the National Tax Agency).⁵ Amounts judged excessive are not deductible (as of 2025-04-01).⁵

The paperwork is the 青色事業専従者給与に関する届出書 (aoiro jigyō senjūsha kyūyo ni kansuru todokesho, "notice of blue business dependent salary"), due by March 15 of the year, or within 2 months where the business or the dependent arrangement newly began on or after January 16.⁵ The dependent must serve exclusively through more than 6 months of the year, be paid by the stated method within the stated amount, and gives up cohabiting-spouse or dependent-relative exemption status while receiving the salary.⁵

White filers cannot deduct family wages at all. They get a fixed substitute instead, the 事業専従者控除 (jigyō senjūsha kōjo, "business dependent deduction"): at most 860,000 JPY for a spouse and 500,000 JPY per other qualifying relative, further capped where the income-based formula yields less (as of 2025-04-01).⁵

Status	Treatment	Cap	As of	Source
Blue	Deduct actual salary as an expense	Amount in the prior notice; must be reasonable for the work	2025-04-01	5
White, spouse	Fixed deduction, not a wage deduction	860,000 JPY max, or the income-based cap if lower	2025-04-01	5
White, other relative	Fixed deduction, not a wage deduction	500,000 JPY max per person, or the income-based cap if lower	2025-04-01	5

The caps in this table are current as stated; the surrounding notice and exclusivity conditions are structural rules, not figures.⁵

Depreciation flexibility

Equipment costing under 100,000 JPY, or usable for under a year, is expensed in full in the year of use regardless of status.⁶ Assets costing 100,000 JPY or more but under 200,000 JPY may be pooled and expensed one-third per year over 3 years, again regardless of status.⁶

The blue-only immediate-expensing rule goes further: a qualifying blue filer may expense assets costing 100,000 JPY or more but under 300,000 JPY immediately in the year of use, up to 3,000,000 JPY in total per year, for assets acquired between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2026 (as of 2025-04-01; confirm current figures with the National Tax Agency).⁶ Assets acquired on or after April 1, 2024 for lending use (outside a principal lending business) are excluded from all three treatments.⁶

White-Form Simplicity: What You Give Up and What You Keep

White gives up the special deduction, the loss carryforward and carryback, deductible family wages, and the immediate-expensing rule.¹²⁵⁶ What it keeps is a lighter compliance load and no approval paperwork.

White bookkeeping records the date, counterparty, amount, and daily totals for sales, purchases, and expenses. Transaction-by-transaction detail is not required; entering daily aggregate totals is acceptable, kept orderly and legible.³ No balance sheet is required and no prior approval is filed.¹³

Simpler bookkeeping and the income-statement attachment

The white-form package is simplified books plus the attached 収支内訳書 (shūshi uchiwakesho, "statement of revenue and expenses").³ The blue full-tier package is double-entry books producing a balance sheet and profit-and-loss statement, filed as the 青色申告決算書 (aoiro shinkoku kessansho, "blue return settlement statement"), with books retained 7 years in principle.¹

Retention is not optional under either status. White statutory books are kept 7 years; other books, settlement documents, invoices, and receipts are kept 5 years at the domicile or place of business.³

Deficient white sales books now attract heavier surcharges

Since the 2023-tax-year amendment cycle, unkept or deficient sales books found in audit add 5 or 10 percent to understatement or non-filing additional tax.³ Keep the simplified books current through the year rather than reconstructing them at filing season.

Side-by-Side Comparison

The table below compresses the verified differences; the flowchart beneath it turns the table into a first-filer decision.¹²⁵³⁶

Dimension	Blue form	White form
Special deduction	650K / 550K / 100K JPY tiers by bookkeeping and filing method (as of 2025-04-01)2	None3
Loss year	Carry forward up to 3 years, or carry back 1 year1	No carryforward or carryback1
Family help	Deduct actual reasonable salary with prior notice5	Fixed dependent deduction only, capped at 860K / 500K JPY (as of 2025-04-01)5
Equipment under 300K JPY	Immediate expensing up to 3M JPY yearly (as of 2025-04-01)6	Standard schedules only6
Books	Double-entry with balance sheet and P/L1	Simplified daily-total books plus income statement3
Approval	Application by March 15 or within 2 months of opening14	None; the default3

A loss year, family payroll, or equipment purchases tilt an already favorable blue calculation further, since those are the dimensions where white has no equivalent.¹⁵⁶

Choosing and Filing: Deadlines and Bookkeeping

Blue pays for itself almost immediately at any income level worth filing for, because even the 100,000 JPY tier exceeds the cost of the simplified-to-double-entry step once software handles the books (as of 2025-04-01 for the tier figures).² The binding constraint is timing, not money: miss the approval window and the year's filing defaults to white.¹⁴

Approval application deadlines

File the blue approval application at the local tax office by March 15 of the year to be filed blue, or within 2 months of opening where the business began on or after January 16 of that year.¹⁴ The family-salary notice follows the same March 15 or 2-month pattern, with later changes filed via change notice without delay.⁵ Leaving blue works in reverse: file the withdrawal notice by March 15 of the year after withdrawal.¹

Bookkeeping options that make blue practical

Cloud accounting software has absorbed most of the double-entry burden behind blue's upper tiers. MoneyForward Cloud supports both blue and white filings, generates returns, blue settlement statements, and white income statements from imported bank and credit data, and files via e-Tax (vendor function coverage as of 2026-09-06).⁷

Yayoi's cloud blue-return software generates double-entry books from entered data, files via e-Tax, imports bank data automatically, keeps approved electronic books under JIIMA certification, and can also prepare white filings (vendor function coverage as of 2026-09-06).⁸ freee offers accounting and return products for individual businesses alongside opening-form support (vendor function coverage as of 2026-09-06).⁹ Plan prices and campaign terms change too fast to cite; compare current plans directly rather than relying on any quoted fee.

Pick software before the first receipt piles up

All three major platforms import bank and card feeds and generate the statements each status requires, so the practical difference between blue and white bookkeeping is setup choices in January, not hours in March (vendor function coverage as of 2026-09-06).⁷⁸⁹ A zeirishi can confirm which tier the setup qualifies for.

Good to know

Missing the blue approval deadline defaults you to white for the year

A new business that misses the 2-month approval window files its first year white.¹⁴ File the approval by the next March 15 and the second year starts blue; nothing about the white first year blocks the switch.

The 650K tier needs both double-entry books and e-Tax or approved electronic books

Double-entry books filed on paper yield 550,000 JPY, not 650,000 JPY (as of 2025-04-01).² The extra 100,000 JPY needs timely e-Tax filing of the return plus statements, or qualifying electronic-book keeping with the required notification (as of 2025-04-01).²

White filers still keep books; simpler does not mean none

White filers with business, real-estate, or forestry income must still keep simplified books and retain them for the statutory periods.³ Deficient sales books now attract weighted surcharges in audit, so the "no bookkeeping" reading of white is the costliest misunderstanding on this page.³

A loss year is where blue pays most visibly

A startup-year deficit offsets future income for up to 3 years only under blue; under white that loss value is lost entirely.¹ Equipment-heavy or slow-ramp first years are therefore the strongest blue cases, not the weakest.

Family salary needs paperwork before payroll, not after

Paying a cohabiting spouse for help without the pre-filed dependent-salary notice creates no blue deduction, and white caps the substitute at 860,000 JPY for a spouse or 500,000 JPY per other relative (as of 2025-04-01).⁵ File the notice first, then run payroll against it.

Vendor sources describe a scheduled increase of the top blue deduction to 750,000 JPY for 2027-tax-year filings conditional on excellent electronic books plus e-Tax, but the NTA pages fetched for this article (current as of 2025-04-01) still state 650,000 JPY, so treat the higher figure as unconfirmed until the NTA publishes it (vendor claim as of 2026-09-06).⁸

See also

• Registering as a Sole Proprietor (Kojin Jigyounushi)
• Can You Freelance on Your Visa?
• Invoicing and the Qualified Invoice (Inbosu) System
• Client-Side Withholding (Gensen Choshu)
• Health Insurance and Pension for Freelancers
• Year-End Adjustment vs. Kakutei Shinkoku: Which You File

References

Footnotes

1. 国税庁 (National Tax Agency). 「No.2070 青色申告制度」. NTA Tax Answer, current as of 2025-04-01. https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/2070.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵

2. 国税庁 (National Tax Agency). 「No.2072 青色申告特別控除」. NTA Tax Answer, current as of 2025-04-01. https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/2072.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. 国税庁 (National Tax Agency). 「No.2080 白色申告者の記帳・帳簿等保存制度」. NTA Tax Answer, current as of 2025-04-01. https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/2080.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

4. 国税庁 (National Tax Agency). 「No.2090 新たに事業を始めたときの届出など」. NTA Tax Answer, current as of 2026-01-01. https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/2090.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. 国税庁 (National Tax Agency). 「No.2075 青色事業専従者給与と事業専従者控除」. NTA Tax Answer, current as of 2025-04-01. https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/2075.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

6. 国税庁 (National Tax Agency). 「No.2100 減価償却のあらまし」. NTA Tax Answer, current as of 2025-04-01. https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/shotoku/2100.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

7. MoneyForward, Inc. 「確定申告ソフト マネーフォワード クラウド確定申告」. Vendor product page, accessed 2026-09-06. https://biz.moneyforward.com/tax_return/ ↩ ↩²

8. Yayoi Co., Ltd. 「クラウド青色申告ソフト やよいの青色申告 オンライン」. Vendor product page, accessed 2026-09-06. https://www.yayoi-kk.co.jp/shinkoku/aoiroshinkoku/ ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. freee K.K. 「クラウド会計ソフト freee (top page)」. Vendor site, accessed 2026-09-06. https://www.freee.co.jp/ ↩ ↩²