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Taxpayers use beneficial ownership system to avoid taxes
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Many taxpayers have used the beneficial ownership system, which involves controlling companies without being listed as shareholders, to avoid taxes. (Courtesy of/lexisnexis.com)
M
any taxpayers have used the beneficial ownership system, which involves controlling companies without being listed as shareholders, to avoid taxes.
Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) legislation deputy director Fithriadi has said that by becoming a beneficial owner, people did not state their ownership or income in their tax form, but they received payments from the company.
“The taxpayers put the asset ownership on their asset managers' names,” said Fithriadi in Jakarta on Thursday.
He said the system was not only used by people to avoid paying taxes, but it was also used by corrupt people to avoid legal charges.
Citing an example, he pointed to a corruption case of videotron procurement in 2012 in the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry. The convicted person had listed his office assistant as the president director of his company in an attempt to avoid legal charges.
Transparency International Indonesia researcher Wahyudi Tohari said that global money laundering amounted to around US$800 billion to $2 trillion per year.
"Big corruption [suspects] are using dummy corporate [persons] to blur their identities and in 25 percent of bribery cases, the money was transferred through the corporate [persons]," he said. (bbn)
