JAKARTA. Tax amnesty program that has lasted four months and 22 days has not been successfully creating new taxpayer. As of the first two weeks of November 2016, there were only 19,431 new taxpayers joined tax amnesty.

This is only 4% of 459,669 participants of tax amnesty as of 22 November 2016. The number is much lower than sunset policy in 2008. The program of tax administrative sanction relief program that lasted during 1 January 2008 until 28 February 2009 had managed to attract 3.5 million new taxpayers.

Director of Counseling, Services, and Public Relations at Directorate General of Taxation, Hestu Yoga Saksama said that the tax authority has prepared some strategies to attract new taxpayers through tax amnesty program, including the massive socialization. “We will continue the socialization so that those who do not have Tax Identification Number can participate in tax amnesty,” he said.

He admitted that to create new taxpayers is not easy, since the Population Identification Number (NIK) cannot identify the non-taxable income of the NIK holders. Therefore, the tax authority is going to business centers.

Aside of socialization, the tax authority also depends on the geo-tagging application. The technology will detect the new taxpayers, who have been identified to meet criteria for pay tax. This application can also monitor the WP that already have a Tax Identification Number, but never paid taxes.

Hestu added that the application can mark a spot or specific address, and subsequently detect whether the taxpayer in the area has been registered or not.

Aside of pursuing the new taxpayers, who don’t have Tax Identification Number, the tax authority is also pursuing the new registered taxpayers. During 2015-2016, tax authority has recorded 2.5 million new taxpayers. “They are potentially to join tax amnesty,” he said.

As of Tuesday (22/11), tax authority has received 466,939 asset declaration letters with the total assets of Rp 3,937.9 trillion. To date, tax authority has collected a total of Rp 94.8 trillion redemption fees.

Executive Director of Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) Yustinus Prastowo said that the tax amnesty program is still insignificant in attracting new taxpayers. Let alone, the second phase of tax amnesty has just created 4,000 new taxpayers. “It’s supposed to be millions new taxpayers. The low tariff and tax amnesty facilities are supposed to attract new taxpayers,” he said.

Yustinus said, unlike the current tax amnesty program, the taxation program in 2008 allowed employers or companies to register their employees as the new taxpayers. This has caused massive registrations of the new taxpayers.

To date, only few taxpayers participate in tax amnesty, because it is widely assumed that the tax amnesty was designed for taxpayers, who have assets abroad. “It has to involve the local governments and other institutions, do not only depend on the events in Jakarta,” he said.

(Muhammad Farid/Translator)

Editor: Rizki Caturini