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Rules unclear days prior to implementation of e-commerce taxation
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The government's e-commerce taxation policy is scheduled to take effect on April. 1. (Shutterstock/William Potter)
T
he government is yet to issue a technical regulation on e-commerce taxation with only several days left before the new policy is scheduled to take effect on April. 1.
The expected technical regulation will be a taxation director general regulation (Perdirjen) to support Finance Ministerial Regulation No. 210/2018 on e-commerce taxation.
Head of the Indonesian E-Commerce Association (iDEA) digital economy division Bima Laga said he was involved in drafting the Perdirjen, but that he was unsure about the final draft.
“We hope the regulation will be flexible and there is an issue that needs to be regulated, namely social media-based businesses,” Bima said on Thursday as quoted by kontan.co.id.
He called on the government to postpone the enforcement of its e-commerce taxation policy, which was initially only targeted at online marketplaces, so that it could also cover social media-based e-commerce.
He said if the taxation regulation only targeted online marketplaces it would encourage traders to move from marketplace platforms to social media to avoid paying taxes. He added that it would negatively affect tax revenue from e-commerce.
Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) executive director Yustinus Prastowo predicted that the government would postpone the enforcement of e-commerce taxation as time was needed to disseminate information on the new Perdirjen.
He said the government needed three to four months to disseminate the new regulation after it was issued.
He added that Finance Ministerial Regulation No 210/2018 did not regulate new types of taxes, but only emphasized that e-commerce traders were required to pay taxes. (bbn)
