Indonesia hunting for hidden wealth

Indonesia’s mammoth $368bn tax haul has been followed by new regulations aimed at tracing and taxing money that was not declared during the nine-month amnesty that ended in March.

Lombard Odier extends into Indonesia

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Around 972,000 taxpayers joined the Indonesian amnesty programme declaring assets worth IDR4,881trn (£272bn, $368bn, €307bn).

About 24% was offshore, mostly in Singapore, reports newswire Reuters.

The sum reported under the Indonesian amnesty surprised many and it was more successful than similar plans in India, Chile, Italy and South Africa.

Shortfall

However, the Indonesian Government has said that the tax declarations and pledged repatriation of offshore assets has not corresponded with data it had on taxpayers’ foreign holdings.

It also found that onshore assets had not been declared under the amnesty.

The estimated value of the undeclared assets has not been made public.

Face hell

Before it was launched, Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo vowed to implement a “tax law enforcement” programme in 2017 after the amnesty closed.

Financial minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati warned tax avoiders that they would face “hell” if they did not take the opportunity to regularise and declare their assets and holdings.

New regulation

The regulation calls for all assets that were not reported or were misreported under the amnesty, and that were obtained between 1 January 1985 and 31 December 2015, to be treated as untaxed income.

If the assets are found by authorities before 1 July 2019, they will be subject to a final income tax of 30% for individuals, 25% for companies, and 12.5% for special cases.

That compares with personal income tax rates of between 5%-30% and corporate income tax rate of between 20%-25%.

Indonesia does not currently have a wealth tax.

Indonesia’s finance minister has committed to increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio of 11% to 16% by 2019. The average tax-to-GDP ratio among OECD countries is 34.3%.

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