Nine categories of professionals have so far been identified as potential participants of tax amnesty, including doctors, tax consultants, lawyers, architects, accountants, notary public, appraisers, provincial governors and deputy governors, commissioners and directors of board of state-owned companies.
"According to the data of the Directorate General of Law and General Administration of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the number of notary public tax payers in Indonesia is 14,685 but only 11,314 have tax identification numbers (NPWP) and of them only 3,186 have taken part in the tax amnesty program. I am not saying that the rest must take part in the program but I consider them as very potential candidates for amnesty program," she said.
There are 106,495 doctors but only 23,310 of them have NPWP and only 2,172 have taken part in the tax amnesty program.
Consultants and accountants were given special attention by the minister because they are supposed to play a role in inviting people to abide by tax regulations.
Of the 3,333 consultants in Indonesia, only 1,408 have participated in the tax amnesty program while of the 10,218 accountants, only 752 have NPWP and 105 participated in the amnesty program.
"Accountants are professionals who have no excuse to not participate in the program or not keep proper books. Perhaps they have paid their tax and their bookkeeping is good, and that is the reason only so few have taken part in the amnesty program," he added.
Apart from these nine categories of professionals, the Finance Minister has also asked third echelon civil servants as well as university lecturers and professors to be included.
She informed that she would communicate with various professional associations, including the Association of Indonesian Employers (Apindo) and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) as well as the Association of Indonesian Engineers, to help familiarize the tax amnesty program.
She noted that the idea to map potential tax payers so that they can participate in the tax amnesty program was intended to expand the tax base and enhance awareness to pay taxes as an obligation.
"I am doing it not because I want to make a judgement that all (of the professionals) must pay up but the tax amnesty law does provide a new facility to have their assets declared and ensure compliance. To me, that is very important," she argued.
As of October 12, 2016, the number of tax payers who had submitted their assets declarations had reached 405,405 with redemption payments totaling Rp93,49 trillion and the declared assets reaching Rp3,826.81 trillion.
Of the total redemption funds, most came from individual tax payers, numbering 321,893. Redemption funds reached Rp83 trillion (88.78 percent) and assets declaration reached Rp3,322.26 trillion.
The number of corporate tax payers reached 83,512 with total redemption funds reaching Rp10.49 trillion (11.22 percent) and declared assets reaching Rp504.55 trillion.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
