Finance Ministry Eyes to Collect Digital Tax per August 2020

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Tax Director General at the Finance Ministry, Suryo Utomo, said his side planned to order providers of traders through electronic systems or PMSE abroad to collect value-added tax or VAT. Thus, the government could deduct the digital tax starting in August 2020.

“We hope we can have the list [of appointed providers] in July, and in August, they can start collecting VAT on taxable objects,” said Suryo in a video conference on Tuesday, June 16.

According to him, discussions with the PMSE providers abroad related to their readiness to collect and deposit the VAT on goods and services transactions outside of customs areas were still afoot.

Read: Netflix, Digital Tax Policy to Be Noted in Omnibus Law: Govt

“Every use of goods and services from outside of Indonesian customs areas is subjected to VAT and is collected by the PMSE collected by the Tax DG on behalf of the Finance Ministry,” Suryo explained.

As for the VAT from electronic transactions, Suryo said the ministry had passed a ministerial regulation No. 38/2020 on guidance about the VAT collection.

“In principle, we are implementing the regulation, and we are designing the technical rule to appoint foreign trade providers upon their PMSE transactions by Indonesian consumers, and hopefully, there will be PMSE abroad that we can appoint as VAT collector by July,” said Suryo

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated that the subject of foreign tax includes a company that has not been asked to collect VAT given its location abroad, yet its services reach Indonesian customers, such as US-based streaming service provider Netflix.

Read: 20,000 Businesses File for Tax Relief amid COVID-19 Pandemic

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