Tax Compliance in Indonesia Seen Rising after Amnesty Program
Taxpayer compliance in Indonesia has risen after the completion of the tax amnesty program in early 2017 according to Yon Arsal, Director of Tax Revenue and Compliance at the Directorate General of Taxes.
This statement is based on rising personal income tax through monthly tax installments (in Indonesian: Pajak Penghasilan, PPh, article 25) after completion of the country's tax amnesty program as well as the rising number of annual tax return forms (Surat Pemberitahuan Tahunan, SPT).
Prior to the tax amnesty program, few participants of the program made monthly tax payments to the government. In post-amnesty program times, however, Arsal detected a significant increase in monthly payments. This means more Indonesian taxpayers are paying their taxes based on what they reported during the tax amnesty period.
Regarding SPTs, out of 32.9 million taxpayers in Indonesia (a very low figure considering there are more than 260 million Indonesians), 20.2 million were subject to the annual SPT filling in 2016 (covering fiscal year 2015). However, only 12.7 million actually filed their SPTs. This year, up to the month August, 11.7 million Indonesian taxpayers had already reported their SPT, an increase compared to the preceding year.
In total Indonesia collected IDR 686 trillion (approx. USD $51 billion) in tax revenue by August, or 53.5 percent of the full-year 2017 target (IDR 1.28 quadrillion). Income tax (PPh) - excluding the oil & gas sector - contributed IDR 3.78 trillion to the total collected so far.
