ECONTEXT Launches the QR Code-Based National Tax Collection Service at Convenience Stores to the National Tax Agency

ECONTEXT, INC. (HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Keizo Odori; ECONTEXT), a payment service provider and subsidiary of Digital Garage, Inc. (TSE first section: 4819; HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director, President Executive Officer and Group CEO: Kaoru Hayashi; DG), has been contracted by the National Tax Agency (NTA) to provide a QR Code-based tax collection service for convenience stores from January 4, 2019. The payment service will be available at major convenience stores franchises including FamilyMart, Lawson, and MINISTOP from January 4, 2019 to January 3, 2023.

■Background
National tax payments have been collected at convenience stores at the past, but the payer had to go to a tax office to receive a payment form with a barcode, or request one via postal mail, after filing their taxes. Convenience stores collecting payments also had to complete these tasks by hand, posing efficiency and convenience issues to both payer and store.

■ Overview of QR Code-based national tax payments at convenience stores
QR Codes will be used (including when filing taxes) for easy payments at convenience stores for most national taxes, such as income tax, corporate tax, and consumption tax_*1. The payer can enter the required information on the NTA website’s Final Income Tax Return Generation Page or Convenience Store Payment QR Code Generation Page to issue a QR Code containing the payment information. The payer displays and scans the QR Code on a smartphone or on a print out at the convenience store Multi-Kiosk Device to issue a payment document, and then pay at the cashier.

Payers no longer have to visit a tax office or receive payment forms by mail. They can use the QR Code displayed on the Final Income Tax Return Generation Page or the Convenience Store Payment QR Code Generation Page to pay taxes any time at more than 30,000 FamilyMart, Lawson, and MINISTOP stores across Japan_*2.

ECONTEXT provides the QR Code-based convenience store payments and process payment data utilizing multi-media kiosks at convenience stores.

■ Future developments
In its Future Investment Strategy 2017, the Japanese government stated it will work to cut administrative processing costs throughout the government, with national and regional taxes as priority fields. The Advanced Payment Government and Private Sector Promotion Committee (established to continuously increase the sophistication of payment and other tasks together with Fintech progress) has started public-private initiatives for more efficient tax and public fund collection and payment. Based on this trend, it is predicted that government ministries and local governments will increasingly adopt electronic collection services.

ECONTEXT, as a provider of payment services that have now grown into a basic social infrastructure, will work with DG Group member VeriTrans (another payment service provider) and offer payment solutions to the public fund realm to support more efficient tax and public fund collection for government agencies, and also to provide greater payment convenience to citizens.

【QR Code-based national tax payment process at convenience stores】

For applicable national tax types, please visit the NTA website (www.nta.go.jp).

_{*1: The maximum convenience store payment amount is 300,000 yen.
*2: Total number of convenience stores disclosed in 2018.}

_{* “QR Code” is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.}

【About ECONTEXT】 https://www.econtext.jp/
A payment provider that handles online payment initiatives within the Digital Garage Group. Through the efforts of ECONTEXT and VeriTrans, another company beneath the DG umbrella, the DG group has become one of Japan’s largest online payment providers and is now expanding into a global online payment platform covering not only Japan, but overseas markets as well, with a particularly focus on Asia. ECONTEXT has also been a pioneer in the use of convenience store kiosks for realistic payment settlement, operating the wire transfer service CASH POST and other efforts in the field of financial transfers.