JAKARTA. The second phase of tax amnesty will finish on 31 December 2016. The date also will be the date line for the taxpayers to realize the commitment for repatriating their assets.
To date, the realization of repatriation funds just amounted to Rp 67 trillion of the total commitment of repatriation. Despite of the minimum realization, the government will not extend the time limit for repatriation.
“The time extension requires the change of law, or it should be carried out under a government regulation in lieu of law,” said Director of Counseling and Public Relations Service at Directorate General of Taxations Hestu Yoga Saksama.
According to Hestu, the government will not extend the time limit for repatriation, on the grounds that the taxpayers have already known that the time period for repatriation will expire on 31 December 2016. Therefore, the government expects to obtain Rp 74 trillion repatriation funds as of 31 December 2016.
Hestu added, according to article 13 Law on Tax Amnesty, the repatriation assets that have been reported on the assets declaration letter (SPH) will be included as 2016 additional assets if a taxpayer fails to realize the repatriation commitment.
Value-added tax with the tariff of 2% per month will be imposed on the additional assets until tax assessment is issued. “The normal tax with normal tariffs will be imposed on the additional assets,” Hestu said.
Let alone, the government had facilitated the taxpayers to join tax amnesty. “Indonesia Stock Exchange and Financial Service Authority have done many things. But the decision whether to join the tax amnesty or not is up to the taxpayers,” said Hestu.
Pursuing professional taxpayers
The end of second phase of tax amnesty will bring new task for government, as the tax amnesty in this period will be considered less successful. As of Thursday (29/12), the realization of redemption fees was only Rp 7.5 trillion.
This is much lower than the realization of redemption fees in the first period that amounted to Rp 93.7 trillion. The total target of redemption fees realization as of the end of 2016 is Rp 165 trillion.
According to Hestu, the lack of redemption fees realization was caused by the characteristic of tax amnesty participants. Most of the participants of the first period of tax amnesty were major taxpayers, while most of the participants of the second period are from micro, small, and medium enterprises sector. “70% of 170,000 tax amnesty participants are micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs),” Hestu added.
Aside of MSME taxpayers, tax authority will be pursuing the professional segment during the period III of tax amnesty (1 January 2017-31 March 2017). Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the government has identified the taxpayers, who were supposed to join tax amnesty. The government will involve the professional associations to call their members to join the program.
The first target will be likely the accountant offices. Sri Mulyani claimed to have instructed special teams to investigate active accountant offices, but do not have Tax Identification Number (NPWP).
The Minister said that government will revoke the operational license of accountants, who do not have the NPWP. “If their annual notification letters were incorrect, or even if they do not have NPWP, we will impose fine or criminal sanction on them,” Sri Mulyani said.
(Muhammad Farid/Translator)
