he government has once again reiterated that its tax amnesty program is mainly aimed at rich Indonesian people who have undeclared assets overseas.
"What we want to target are those who have assets parked overseas," Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said in Jakarta on Monday. He made the statement to calm public fears that through the tax amnesty program the government is targeting the undeclared assets of local tax payers.
Darmin further said the tax amnesty applied to all taxpayers. However, he said, the government had never designed the tax amnesty program to target small tax payers. The program was directed at big tax evaders who had massive assets overseas but who had never declared them in Indonesia.
According to the law, taxpayers who are the object of the tax amnesty program are individuals or corporations that have taxation rights and obligations in accordance with existing taxation regulations.
Currently, Darmin said, tax offices throughout Indonesia were still processing taxpayers who wanted to participate in the government's flagship program.
"The Finance Ministry and its Directorate General of Taxation are focusing their attention on publicizing this program among big tax payers," he explained.
It has been reported that many small taxpayers are unaware that they do not need to apply for a tax amnesty and pay the penalty rate of 2 to 10 percent of the total value of assets they want to declare. “They simply need to correct their tax return forms [SPTs] and include their previously undeclared assets,” the ministry has said. (ebf)
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