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Big taxpayers, MSMEs targeted in amnesty’s third phase
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Taxpayers consult with tax office staff as they apply for the tax amnesty at East Java Tax Office II in Sidoarjo, East Java. (Antara Photo/Umarul Faruq)
T
he country's tax authority, convinced that the ongoing tax amnesty has yet to lose its attractiveness for taxpayers approaching the end of the program on March 31, is setting its sights on big taxpayers and micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
John Hutagaol, international taxation director at the Finance Ministry's Directorate General of Taxation, said the third phase of the program that runs from January to March would still attract big taxpayers, who had mostly participated in the first one.
"We still saw big taxpayers coming in the second phase, so we are optimistic [about the third phase],” he said after a discussion on taxation affairs on Monday.
John mentioned the effort to keep attracting big taxpayers who had participated in the first phase of the program from July to September, saying: “Although they joined in the first phase, they still have another chance in the third one if they have other undeclared assets.”
Aside from big taxpayers, John said the tax authority also expected more participants, specifically owners of small and medium businesses, as the country had more than 50 million MSMEs currently operating.
Tax office data show that more than 600,000 taxpayers have already participated in the tax amnesty program, but that was only 3 percent from a total 2 million registered taxpayers who routinely submit their annual tax forms (SPT).
Tax amnesty applicants must pay penalty rates of 2 to 4 percent of the value of their declared assets until September 2016. The penalties rise to between 3 and 6 percent from October to December and to between 5 and 10 percent from January to March this year. For MSMEs, the penalty rate stays the same at between 0.5 percent and 2 percent throughout the program, depending on the value of their assets. (est)
