Since leaving the corporate world almost a dozen years ago, my income streams come through different freelance jobs and investments, each of which is subject to a different tax code and table on the standard four-page 1770 or 1770S forms for individual tax returns.

I think that's my ultimate source of anxiety. I'm always worried that I calculate the wrong number or put numbers on the wrong table and would end up being accused of attempting tax evasion.

I mentioned this to three different tax consultants and all three laughed me off. One of them, in the nicest choice of words he could muster, tried explaining that at this stage the government's main objective is to ensure proper and timely reporting, so unless I was an individual with very high net worth or political aspirations I shouldn't worry the Tax Office would take an extra interest in every single digit on my tax return. With a chuckle, he added that I must have watched too many forensic accounting movies.

Clearly I'm neither a tycoon nor a politician wannabe, so perhaps I should listen to those consultants and just relax. To be honest, a lot of people seemed to take an even more cavalier attitude about tax.

According to the Tax Office, out of 17.6 million registered taxpayers, only 71 percent filed tax reports in 2018. A good 5.1 million registered taxpayers sat out the last tax season. It's true that the 71 percent (equivalent to 12.5 million) who did report was 500,000 more than the number of taxpayers who filed reports a year before, but as a percentage it was 2 percent lower than in 2017. That means the Tax Office did a good job identifying and registering more taxpayers, but it struggles to get the taxpayers to file reports.

It definitely doesn't make it more uplifting to realize that if the five-year statistic of 50 percent of the 250 million Indonesians being no older than 30 years still holds, then those 17.6 million registered taxpayers are a minuscule percentage of the Indonesians in the productive age bracket. 

Personally, I met a handful of people who, based on income and lifestyle, should be taxpayers, yet they're not. Their taxable income streams typically come from various "side businesses", such as car rentals, hair salons, catering services, laundry services, or luxury preloved shops.

Yes, technically they are small and medium enterprises, but they're not that small if the proceeds could afford a number of employees on payroll and amenities for the owners such as flashy gadgets and new vehicles. In the case of the luxury preloved shops, the profits are even sufficient to send the owners on overseas holidays in which she o he would offer services to procure tax-free luxury goods for a hefty fee. 

How do I know they don't report their income, pay the due taxes and file the annual paperwork? Because I asked them and they told me – in many ways – that they don't.

Most were even surprised when I suggested that the amount of revenue their businesses make would qualify them, as proprietors, to be taxpayers. At the very least the businesses should be paying sales taxes to the local administrations.

What I don't quite understand is that most of these businesses aren't exactly cloak-and-dagger operations. They promote on multiple platforms, publish their contact details, including the owner's private numbers, rent venues with some sort of signage outside and often participate in public events. Shouldn't it be easy to identify them?

Occasionally I've seen local administration teams visiting major establishments, usually at malls or by busy streets, and posting "tax negligence" signs outside them. So there is a form of check and balance within the local administration.

Surely on the national level the Tax Office can employ a similar task force to hunt down potential taxpayers? All they have to do is start with the mushrooming marketplace on Instagram -- buy one product and they'll immediately obtain the proprietor's name, contact information and bank account details. 

Yes, I'm aware that the Tax Office has many more pressing issues to attend to than cruising social media for "small fish", but if we agree that the long-term economic potential of this country is relatively healthy, than any small fish has the potential to become a big fish – a big fish that has never developed the self-discipline to pay taxes since its modest beginnings. Wouldn't it be trickier to chase them then?

Or maybe I've just read too many books or watched too many movies on forensic accounting. (ste)

-- Lynda Ibrahim is a Jakarta-based writer with

a penchant for purple, pussycats and pop culture.

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