Indonesia: New regulation provides opportunity for further tax amnesty

December 14, 2017

The Minister of Finance (MoF) enacted MoF Regulation No. 165/PMK.03/2017 on November 20 2017, concerning the second amendment to MoF Regulation No. 118/PMK.03/2016 regarding the implementation of Law No. 11 of 2006 concerning the tax amnesty (MoF Regulation 165). The MoF Regulation 165 provides amnesty for those who did not participate in the tax amnesty programme and those who participated but have not reported all of their assets.

Article 44A of the MoF Regulation 165 specifically stipulates that a taxpayer may disclose:

Assets that have not, or have not fully, been disclosed in the statement letter required for the tax amnesty programme (Statement Letter); or
Assets that have not been reported in the annual income tax return, for so long as the Director General of Tax has not been made aware of the data and/or information on such assets.

The assets herein will be regarded as income and shall be imposed with income tax in accordance with the relevant regulations (in this case, Government Regulation No. 36 of 2017 concerning the imposition of income tax on certain income in the form of net assets that are treated or regarded as income). The amount of income tax shall be calculated by multiplying the tariff under the relevant regulations and the amount of the undisclosed/not fully disclosed/not reported assets (as relevant). The said assets shall be disclosed by submitting a final periodic tax return, enclosing evidence of payment of income tax on the assets. In the event of underpaid income tax, a tax underpayment assessment letter will be issued.

In addition, under the previous MoF regulations, it has been stipulated that taxpayers having obtained a Statement Letter and paid a sum for immovable assets in the form of land and/or building where the title has not been transferred to such taxpayers, must be transferred to be in the name of the taxpayers. These taxpayers are entitled to obtain tax exemption for income tax imposed for such transfers of title by obtaining an exemption certificate, provided that:

The ownership documents of the relevant land and/or building are still in the name of nominee/grantor/testator/heir; and
The application of transfer of title or the execution of a statement letter by the taxpayer and the nominee/grantor/testator/heir before a notary stating that the taxpayer is indeed the true owner of the assets is conducted by December 31 2017.

However, in practice, the MoF noticed that almost 20% of the total submitted applications of exemption certificates as per November 16 2017 were rejected due to various reasons, including discrepancy between the contents of the Statement Letter and the supporting data (e.g. discrepancy in the total area of the land/building, address/location, etc.). Through the enactment of the MoF Regulation 165, the MoF allows these taxpayers to only submit a photocopy of the Statement Letter to the land conveyancer for the purpose of a transfer of title to be able to enjoy the tax exemption. Note, however, the photocopy of the Statement Letter will only be valid to the extent that it is used by December 31 2017.