6 Things You Should Do After Establishing a Corporation

(2025/8/14)

Introduction

Various tasks are required to establish a corporation. However, there are also tasks that need to be done after the company is established. The president does not necessarily need to grasp all the details, but it is a good idea to know the overview. Here are six things you should do after establishing a corporation.

1. Corporate Contracts
A corporation is a separate entity from an individual, so contracts that were made as an individual or will be made in the future need to be signed as a corporation. A common example is office rent. If you were renting an office as an individual before the corporation was established, you should switch to a corporate contract.

2. Opening a Corporate Bank Account
Opening a bank account is one of the most basic things to do after establishing a corporation. It’s especially important as you may need to list your bank account information on invoices as the destination for sales deposits. If you create an invoice as a corporation but the account name is a personal name, it will not leave a good impression on your clients. It is sometimes said that the screening process for opening an account at a megabank is a bit strict. In such cases, consider an online bank. Sumishin SBI Net Bank, GMO Aozora Net Bank, and Rakuten Bank are strong candidates.

3. Submitting Tax Documents
After establishing a corporation, submit the relevant documents to the tax office as soon as possible. Some documents have deadlines. The most important documents concern the Blue Form tax return and consumption tax (whether to file a consumption tax return in the first place, which calculation method to choose if you do, and whether to register for the invoice system). You should not think that it’s okay to be a little late. There are some documents where being even one day late is an immediate failure. Furthermore, the submission deadline can vary depending on the corporation (due to the timing of the fiscal year-end, etc.), so remember to submit the necessary documents immediately after establishing your corporation.

4. Submitting Social Insurance Documents
If there is no officer’s compensation or salary, that’s fine, but if there is, you need to submit the necessary documents. If only officer’s compensation is paid, you will submit social insurance documents (health insurance and pension) to the pension office. If there are salaries for employees, you also need to submit labor insurance documents (workers’ compensation insurance and employment insurance) in addition to these. These various insurances will be deducted from officer’s compensation or salaries, so understanding the calculation method is also one of the things you must do after establishing a corporation.

5. Deciding on Officer’s Compensation
Officer’s compensation cannot be paid at any time and in any amount. To avoid losses for the corporation, you need to understand the rules for officer’s compensation. First, officer’s compensation must, in principle, be the same amount every month. Also, you must decide the amount within 3 months of the date the corporation was established. Furthermore, you will create a document to record this decision, such as the minutes of the shareholders’ meeting (or a letter of consent for a Godo Kaisha). Note that even if there is only one shareholder, the meeting is held by that single person. By the way, if you do not plan to pay officer’s compensation for a while after establishing the corporation, you do not need to do anything.

6. Understanding the Annual Schedule
It is a good idea to have at least a rough idea of what tasks the corporation needs to do and when after its establishment. Here are the tasks that most corporations perform and their timing.

A. Payment of Withholding Income Tax
When you pay some form of compensation to an individual, withholding income tax may be incurred. While the details are long, if withholding income tax is incurred, it must be paid by the 10th of the following month. Note that for small corporations, payment for salaries and professional fees (for lawyers, accountants, etc.) can be made on a semi-annual basis. In that case, the payments are due in January and July.

B. Submission of Tax Returns
A corporation can decide its own fiscal year-end, which is stated in the articles of incorporation. A tax return must be submitted within two months of the fiscal year-end. If the fiscal year-end is at the end of March, the deadline for submitting the tax return is the end of May; if it’s the end of December, the deadline is the end of February. Tax payments are also required. Note that the filing deadline can be extended by one month, but this depends on the content of the articles of incorporation.

C. Year-end Adjustment
This is the process of adjusting the withholding income tax related to officer’s compensation and salaries. It is usually done in December.

D. Submission of Statutory Tax Report, Salary Reports, and Depreciable Asset Tax return
These are tax-related documents that must be submitted by the end of January.

E. Submission of Standard Monthly Remuneration Report and Annual Renewal of Labor Insurance
These are social insurance-related documents that are submitted between June and July each year.

Summary

I have summarized what you should do after establishing a corporation. As you can see, the work required is basically related to taxes and social insurance. The details of each task are not explained here, so it’s a good idea to first get a general idea of what tasks are necessary. For taxes, a certified public accountant or a tax accountant can provide professional support, and for social insurance, a certified social insurance and labor consultant can help. For tasks you cannot do yourself, you will need to ask a professional for assistance.