TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of Tax Directorate General Jakarta Muhammad Haniv said that his office will take the tax evasion case entangling Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd to the level of inquiry if the company does not submit their transaction report. He said that Google continues to issue excuses in order to make their transactions untraceable.
“If there’s any indication showing that you’re buying some time, we might conduct an investigation which will involve the Police, [and] prosecutors,” Haniv said on Monday, January 16, 2017.
(Also read: Google Must Pay Taxes, Tax DG Says)
Google’s transactions data contains a number of advertisement and server contracts. According to Haniv, this document is essential in determining the amount of tax that must be paid by Google to Indonesia’s government.
Earlier, Google refused to pay their tax due to different calculations between the company and the government. They argue that the total bill only amounted to Rp337.5-405 billion. Meanwhile, the Tax DG calculated that Google’s revenue in 2015 reached Rp6 trillion with an added penalty of Rp3 trillion.
Based on the search conducted by tax forensics, Haniv claims that Google is proven to be a permanent business entity since they own a server installation. Therefore, Google must pay their business transaction taxes.
At the end of last year, the government attempted to offer a settlement to Google to hand over their tax reports and paid their bills. Unfortunately, this attempt was met with a brick wall from Google’s side.
“The world always approaches Google through a settlement; not from accurate tax calculations,” Haniv said. He expects Google to hand-over their electronically based documents by the end of January.
PUTRI ADITYOWATI
