The government will soon open another opportunity for taxpayers to report their undeclared assets with lighter penalties.
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Kompas/Raditya Helabumi
Taxpayers submit their individual income tax returns at the tax office in Kembangan, West Jakarta, two days before the tax amnesty ended on March 31.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The government will soon open another opportunity for taxpayers to report their undeclared assets with lighter penalties. The legal umbrella for the asset declaration will be issued this week.
The Directorate General of Taxation (DGT) said that penalties for reporting undeclared assets would be lighter than the normal rates as stipulated in Law No. 11/2016 on Tax Amnesty.
"The regulation is almost ready. The administration is being completed. I hope it will be issued within one or two days, so that it can be immediately communicated to the public," the DGT’s public services director, Hestu Yoga Saksama, said in Jakarta on Monday.
The regulation is a revision to Finance Ministerial Regulation No. 118/2016 on the Implementation of Law No. 11/2016 on Tax Amnesty and the Taxation Director General’s Regulation as technical guidance for its implementation.
After the administration of the revised law is completed, Yoga said the DGT would immediately disseminate the asset declaration program to relevant stakeholders, among others, the Indonesian Employers Association, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Association of Tax Consultants.
He said the directorate general is ready to implement the asset declaration program and hoped that tax officials would be have the same grasp of the program so that misunderstandings could be avoided.
"Of course we want this opportunity to be used well. This is another chance for taxpayers, both those who participated and those who did not join the recent tax amnesty, to report their undeclared assets," Yoga said.
Darussalam from the Danny Darussalam Tax Center said the government should be tough on dishonest taxpayers during the asset declaration program, which should be seen as the last chance for the taxpayers to report their undeclared assets.
With the revision of the Finance Ministerial Regulation No. 118/2016, the government was giving a second chance to taxpayers to report their undeclared wealth.
Article 18 of the Tax Amnesty Law regulates the legal consequences for taxpayers following the tax amnesty, which ended on March 31. Any undeclared assets reported to the tax office after the tax amnesty is to be considered additional income. Taxpayers should therefore pay unpaid tax at the maximum income tax rate, plus penalties.
The penalties are divided into two categories. For those who joined the tax amnesty, they should pay a 200 percent penalty as unpaid tax. Meanwhile, those who did not follow the tax amnesty must pay a 2 percent monthly penalty on the net value of the undeclared assets. The maximum accumulated penalty is 48 percent.
The revised regulation waives the penalty. Taxpayers are only obliged to pay a 30 percent income tax for individuals, 25 percent for corporations and 12.5 percent for small and medium enterprises, based on the net value of the declared assets.
