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Jakarta Post

Side story of tax amnesty: Rising rate of divorce?

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, October 7, 2016

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Side story of tax amnesty: Rising rate of divorce? Ken Dwijugiasteadi, the Finance Ministry’s directorate general for taxation, gives the latest update about the tax amnesty program during a seminar held by the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi) in Jakarta on Thursday. (JP/win)

T

he state may have raked almost Rp 100 trillion (US$7.69 billion) into its coffers from the tax amnesty but the program may also be taking an unintended toll: raising the rate of divorce among billionaire couples.

An official story has it that some wives have felt ''cheated'' after learning that their husbands are in fact much richer than they had thought.

Some of these inquisitive wives have then called Ken Dwijugiasteadi, the Finance Ministry’s director general for taxation, demanding that he share information about the wealth of their husbands.

''Someone at the end of the line asked, ‘Sir, can I get the information my husband has filed regarding the tax amnesty? I heard he declared that he owned many houses, while he has only declared that he owns one to me!” Ken said during a seminar on Thursday.

Of course Ken declines such requests. ''When I told her that I couldn’t [give her the data] she retorted, ‘Are you trying to defend my husband?’ Then the ensuing family spat ends in divorce,” he said.

And this was only one of a number of similar calls he has received from enraged wives.

Ken observed that on the last few days into the deadline of the first round of the amnesty last month, members of the Businesswomen’s Association came in droves to tax amnesty information events. “Apparently, their actual purpose was to find leaks about their husbands’ assets,” he quipped.

“Tax revenue from stamp-duty has soared; it turns out that many people have also filed for divorce. As you know, applications for divorce need stamp-duties,” he added. (win/bbn)

 

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