Tax Amnesty Requires Legal Protection
18 December 2014 22:52 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Indonesia still has a long road to go through before the country could implement tax amnesty. Poltak Maruli John, the Finance Ministry's Tax Directorate General second director for tax regulation, said there are at least four things the government must prepare before applying tax amnesty laws.
The first is to decide who will get the amnesty, Poltak said. "Who is more deserving—companies or individuals?" he said.
Secondly, the government must formulate a legal framework that will be used to implement this policy. The third is to decide who will have the authority and is responsible for its implementation. Lastly, Poltak said the government should prepare a post-amnesty enforcement. "The system and its agents must be completely ready."
Currently, said Poltak, the level of individual tax compliance is still very low with the actual revenues from individual taxpayers only reaching Rp3.7 trillion of a Rp921-trillion total.
Mardiasmo, acting chief of the Tax Directorate General, said the implementation of tax amnesty required the House of Representatives' approval. "It's the people's money, so [the law] must be approved by all parties," he said.
TRI ARTINING PUTRI | ODELIA SINAGA | RR. ARIYANI