JAKARTA. The government of Indonesia is pursuing 500 rich people who have not joined the tax amnesty. In particular they were invited to the presidential palace to meet President Joko Widodo and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Friday (9/12) night.
Among the invited people, 242 people are on the lits of the richest people according to Forbes Magazine, while the 258 other wealthy people are major taxpayers, who domicile in the operation area of Jakarta tax office.
"We invited them because we believe that some of their treasures have not yet been reported in 2015 annual tax notification (SPT). This is reflected on the pattern of tax amnesty during the five month period,” she said, Friday (9/12) night.
Of the 242 people who are registered on the list of richest people by Forbes Magazine, 100 of whom have not participated the tax amnesty. According to Sri, the participation did not generate significant revenues.
The amount of assets declared by 217 taxpayers is ranging from Rp 15 million-Rp 15 billion, with the redemption fees range from Rp 300 million to Rp 1 billion.
Meanwhile, 217 taxpayers declared Rp 50 billion-Rp 2.5 trillion worth of assets with redemption fees of Rp 50 billion. Other 20 taxpayers declared Rp 2.5 trillion-Rp 5 trillion worth of assets with Rp 50 billion-Rp 100 billion redemption fees.
As many as 14 taxpayers declared Rp 5 trillion-Rp 50 trillion worth of assets with Rp 100 billion-Rp 1 trillion redemption fees. “I found many rich people do not have amount of declared assets and redemption fees as prominent as their names. They are popular, but their reputation in paying tax is less popular than their names,” said Sri Mulyani.
Firm stance
Sri gave ultimatum to the rich people to participate in tax amnesty by March 2017. Sri said that the government will take firm stance if the rich people fail to comply with this ultimatum. In this case, the government will impose a high amount of fine.
For example, if a taxpayer fail to report an amount of US$ 100 million deposit and fail to declare the deposits in tax amnesty, the government will include this number to the taxpayer income. Subsequently, the government will impose a 25% of fine and a 2% fine per month during 24 months period. Therefore, the total fines will be ranging from 75%-80%.
Sri Mulyani highlighted the tax compliance of Indonesia rich people, as the data show that eight of the Indonesian richest people do not have the NPWP.
Without mentioning the name, Sri said that the eight richest people were included in the list of Indonesian richest people based on the versions of Forbes Magazine and Globe Asia. “There are also tax consultants, who do not have NPWP and do not participate in tax amnesty,” Sri said. Sri also threatens to revoke the license of the tax consultants, who remain persistent.
In average, the level of compliance of Indonesian rich people in paying tax is 89.4%, or higher than the level of compliance of average Indonesian people that is 62%. However, the imbalance will occur if the rich people fail to settle their obligations.
Executive Director for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) Yustinus Prastowo said that the government is supposed to encourage more individual taxpayers, mainly the SMEs to have their NPWP, instead of merely relying on tax amnesty as the source of income of this year. Yustinus is even pessimistic that the government can achieve the target of the second phase of tax amnesty.
Yustinus stressed that the government needs to expand the taxation data so that the tax amnesty will be useful in the future. Recently, the taxation data are too general.
As of Monday (12/12) night, the total redemption fees of the tax amnesty is amounting bto Rp 95.7 trillion. This number only increase by Rp 2.6 trillion compared with its last position at the end of first period of tax amnesty in September 2016. (Muhammad Farid/Translator)
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