Tax Amnesty Program Officially Ends

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani in a press conference on the realization of Tax Amnesty

The Tax Amnesty program, which ended on Friday (31/3) at 12:00 p.m. was quite well-executed, according to Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.

The tax office reported that the amount of the redemption money from the program at 5:00 p.m on Sunday reached Rp130 trillion, while the declared assets stood at Rp4,813.4 trillion, and repatriated assets reached Rp46 trillion.

“I think that the amount is quite high based on the penalty payments and declared assets. Taxpayers with large amount of money have participated in the program. The declared assets from personal and corporate taxpayers are significantly higher compared to the same program implemented in other countries. It is quite good,” Sri Mulyani said in a press conference at the Headquarters of Directorate General of Taxation, Jakarta, on Friday (31/3).

Previously, the Minister said that the amount of the redemption money from Tax Amnesty program at 5:00 p.m. yesterday reached Rp130 trillion, including Rp90.36 trillion from non-MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprise) individual taxpayers, Rp7.56 trillion from SME personal taxpayers, Rp4.31 from non-MSME corporate taxpayers, and Rp0.62 trillion from SME corporate taxpayers. In the meantime, the declared assets reached Rp4,813.4 trillion, including Rp3,633.1 trillion of assets disclosed in the country, and Rp146.6 trillion of repatriated assets.

However, Sri Mulyani admitted that the number of people participated in the program, which is 974,058 out of 921,744 taxpayers, is still small compared to the number of potential taxpayers in Indonesia.

Sri went on to say that from Rp146 trillion in committed repatriated funds, only Rp121.3 trillion is realized. Thus, there is still Rp24.7 trillion repatriated funds which has not been collected.

“A numbers of taxpayers argued that the regulation on the countries where their assets being kept troubled them to withdraw their assets to be brought to Indonesia. The others argued that their assets are not liquid funds and it takes several processes to liquidate it, or they must wait the due date to release the deposit,” Sri Mulyani said.

“The officials at the Tax Directorate General also explained the countries which debar people to repatriate their assets that the act is not money laundering because according to the Law Number 11 of 2016 on Tax Amnesty, the assets are legal because they were reported and should be legal to bring it to Indonesia.

The Minister asserted that the Ministry will observe and monitor the repatriated funds which have not been invested in Indonesia because the Law states that the assets should be brought to Indonesia not later than 3 (three) years since the assets are reported. And, when the asset is repatriated to Indonesia, it must be invested in the country and must not be kept in other countries for at least 3 (three) years, Sri Mulyani firmly said. (*/ES) (RA/EP/YM/Naster)