TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Tax, immigration offices sign accord on travel ban for tax evaders
Change Size
Taxation Directorate General spokesman Hestu Yoga Saksama (JP/Anton Hermansyah)
T
he Finance Ministry’s Taxation Directorate General and the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s Immigration Directorate General have signed an agreement aimed at preventing suspected tax evaders from going aboard.
Under the deal, the two institutions agreed to exchange information about taxpayers, with the tax office to provide the immigration office with taxpayer data, while the immigration office would provide the tax office with data on passports, visas and stay permits as well as with information on people that have crossed the border.
Directorate General of Taxation Hestu Yoga Saksama said in Jakarta that, with the agreement, the tax office could ask the immigration office to prevent tax evaders from leaving the country.
“This type of [cooperation] for tax collection and for investigation into tax crimes has already been going on. With this agreement, there is an improved procedure for greater transparency and accountability,” Hestu said on Wednesday, as reported by kompas.com.
He said there was no new regulation on the issue, as the necessary rules were already stipulated in Government Regulation No. 31/2013 on the implementation of Law No. 6/2011 on immigration.
Under that regulation, there are two situations in which taxpayers can be prevented from traveling abroad.
First, if the taxpayers owe unpaid tax amounting to Rp 100 million or more, and second, if the taxpayers are being investigated for tax crimes.
“According to the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), investigators can impose a travel ban on taxpayers that are being investigated,” he added. (bbn)
