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View all search resultsRetirement savings are meant to provide financial security in old age. Yet Indonesia's renewed debate over the Old-Age Savings (JHT) program has focused largely on tax rates and thresholds, overlooking a more fundamental question: Should the state tax retirement savings at all? In a country where fewer than half of workers participate in the formal social security system, the issue goes beyond taxation to retirement security itself.
The anxiety over Indonesia's tax amnesty is that the policy created a kind of legal catch-22: In its aim to close a past legal problem, it left the legal consequences open-ended, potentially creating a new legal past for the state.
Indonesia has held two tax amnesties, in 2016 and 2022, the first of which was initiated on the fallout from the Panama Papers leak that revealed data on individuals holding assets offshore, many in tax haven countries.
As the government seeks to shore up fiscal stability amid slowing tax revenue and rising spending pressures, it is turning to controversial new revenue measures, including imposing VAT on toll roads and removing tax exemptions for EV. These policies could slow adoption even as the country pushes electrification to reduce reliance on costly fuel imports.
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