The receipt only knows the total. The ¥10,000 line is decided per head — before the next round.
In Japan, a meal with a client or supplier is fully deductible as 会議費 (meeting expense) when it comes to ¥10,000 or less per person — one yen over and the whole bill becomes 交際費 (entertainment expense), not just the excess. Split The Bill divides the running total by headcount as the meal goes, then turns it into the record the 国税庁 (NTA) requires: date, who attended and their relationship to you, headcount, venue and amount — signed, locked, exported as a PDF.
Not a substitute for your 税理士 (tax adviser) — check with them if anything looks borderline.
A 会議費 (meeting expense) record is the document Japan's tax authority requires for a meal with clients, suppliers or other business contacts to be excluded from 交際費 (entertainment expense) and deducted in full — provided the cost per person is ¥10,000 or less (措置法61条の4, for meals from 1 April 2024). It must state the date, the external attendees' names and their relationship to the business, the headcount, the amount, and the restaurant's name and address. Split The Bill builds this record while the meal is still going: register the participants and headcount, and every update to the total shows the per-person figure against the threshold for that date, on your company's tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive basis. Once signed, it is locked and exported as a PDF for the tax file.
How the 会議費 record gets built
- 1
Add the venue, headcount and participants
Enter the external guests — name, company, relationship (client, supplier) — and your own attendees. The venue's name and address come from the receipt photo or manual entry, the same way as any split.
- 2
Watch the per-head amount as you order
Every time the total changes, the app divides it by headcount and shows the per-person figure: "¥9,400 a head — one more round crosses the line." You decide before ordering, not after paying. Whether the test uses the tax-inclusive (税込) or tax-exclusive (税抜) figure is a per-record choice that follows your company's bookkeeping method.
- 3
State the purpose, see the outcome
Add the business purpose and the app checks the per-head amount against the threshold that applied on the meal's date (¥10,000 from 1 April 2024) — fully deductible as 会議費, or the whole bill reclassified as 交際費.
- 4
Sign it and file the PDF
Once signed, the record is locked and can't be edited. The PDF carries the date, participants, headcount, venue, amount and purpose your tax adviser needs for the file.
What the record covers
The five items the NTA requires
Date of the meal; names of the clients, suppliers or other business contacts who attended and their relationship to you; headcount; the amount plus the restaurant's name and address; and anything else that shows it was a business meal. The ¥10,000 treatment (措置法61条の4) applies only if a document with these items is kept — the record has all five from the start.
The threshold keyed to the meal's date
The per-head line is looked up by the date of the meal, not today: ¥5,000 for meals on or before 31 March 2024, ¥10,000 from 1 April 2024. The same total and headcount can pass on one date and fail on another.
Tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive — your bookkeeping decides
The NTA ties the ¥10,000 test to the consumption-tax method your company already uses for its books (税込 or 税抜). You pick which applies on each record; the app never silently assumes one.
Over the line, the whole bill is 交際費 — stated plainly
Above ¥10,000 per head, the entire meal — not the excess — becomes 交際費. How much of that is then deductible depends on the company's capital: up to ¥100M, the smaller of an ¥8M annual allowance or 50% of food-and-drink spend; over ¥100M up to ¥10B, the 50% rule only; above ¥10B, none. The record states the outcome so nobody books it as 会議費 out of habit.
See the ¥10,000 line at your next business meal
Create a free account and try it at your next client dinner. Signing the record and exporting the PDF is part of Pro.
Create a free accountNot a substitute for your 税理士 (tax adviser) — check with them if anything looks borderline.
Who actually needs this
Book a client dinner as 会議費, not 交際費
A sales lead takes two people from a client out — four at the table. At ¥36,000 the meal is ¥9,000 a head and fully deductible as 会議費. At ¥40,800 it is ¥10,200 a head and the whole ¥40,800 becomes 交際費, not the ¥800 excess. The record settles this from headcount and total on the spot.
Decide about "one more round" before ordering it
Five at the table, ¥47,000 so far — ¥9,400 a head. Anything over ¥600 more per person crosses the line. Because the per-head figure updates with the total, the decision happens before the order, not when the receipt arrives.
Stop chasing incomplete receipts as the accountant
Sales hands in a receipt with no note of who attended or how many — and the ¥10,000 treatment applies only if those details are kept. The record carries names, relationship, headcount, venue, address and purpose from the start, so fewer expense claims bounce at month-end.
Handle several client meals a month
One record per meal, created on the day, replaces reconciling a diary against a stack of receipts at month-end. Each record is locked once signed and handed over as a PDF.
Why this beats a diary note and a receipt
The decision happens before the bill
The per-person total is visible during the meal, so whether you cross the line is known before you order — not discovered from the receipt.
Required details captured on the day
Names, relationship, headcount, venue, date and amount — the items the NTA requires are recorded while they are fresh, not reconstructed from memory at month-end.
Nobody has to remember the rule
The ¥5,000-to-¥10,000 change, the lookup by meal date, the tax-inclusive/exclusive choice — the record handles them instead of someone recalling the rule over a calculator.
Signed once, locked after that
A signed record can't have its amount or participants changed later. A later correction to the underlying bill never alters a record that is already signed.
A diary note vs. a generated record
Both are meant to keep the same required details. The difference is how reliably — and how early — they actually do.
| A diary note vs. a generated record | ✗ | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| Per-person amount | Worked out from the receipt after paying — too late if the line was crossed. | Shown on every update to the total, before the next order. |
| Attendees and their relationship | Often reconstructed at month-end from a diary and a stack of business cards. | Registered on the day and written into the record. |
| Tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive test | Applied differently by whoever is doing the sums that day. | Chosen per record to match the company's bookkeeping and applied consistently. |
| Later corrections | A note can be overwritten or lost at any time. | Locked once signed and kept as a PDF. |
Related guides and tools
Frequently asked questions
- When is a business meal deductible as 会議費 in Japan?
- When at least one external business contact — a client, supplier or other person related to the business — attended, and the cost divided by the number of attendees is ¥10,000 or less per person. Such meals are excluded from 交際費 and fully deductible (措置法61条の4). The ¥10,000 figure applies to meals from 1 April 2024; before that it was ¥5,000. The measure has been extended to fiscal years beginning on or before 31 March 2027.
- What happens above ¥10,000 per person?
- The whole cost of that meal becomes 交際費 (entertainment expense), not just the amount over the line. How much is then deductible depends on the company's capital: up to ¥100 million, the smaller of an ¥8 million annual allowance or 50% of food-and-drink entertainment spend; over ¥100 million up to ¥10 billion, the 50% rule only; over ¥10 billion, none of it.
- Is the ¥10,000 test on the tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive amount?
- Whichever consumption-tax method your company uses for its books. The NTA states that the ¥10,000 determination follows the corporation's own accounting treatment — 税込経理方式 (tax-inclusive) or 税抜経理方式 (tax-exclusive). Split The Bill asks which applies on each record rather than assuming one.
- Does a staff-only dinner count as 会議費?
- No. Meals held exclusively for the company's own officers, employees or their relatives are excluded from the ¥10,000 treatment regardless of the amount. The app marks a record with no external attendee as outside this rule.
- What must the record contain?
- The date of the meal; the names of the clients, suppliers or other business-related attendees and their relationship to the business; the number of attendees; the amount and the restaurant's name and address; and anything else needed to show it was a business meal (措規21条の18の4). The ¥10,000 treatment applies only where a document with these items is kept. The generated record includes all of them.
- Does this record replace tax advice?
- No. It applies the NTA's published rules transparently to what you enter, but it is not tax advice and doesn't replace your 税理士's review. Separate categories — refreshments and box lunches at an actual meeting, or whether a staff event counts as 福利厚生費 (welfare expense) — are outside what the record decides.
