BERITA TERKINI
JAKARTA, DDTCNews - This week marks the final days for individual taxpayers to file their 2024 annual tax returns (Surat Pemberitahuan/SPT in Indonesian). The government, however, has decided to ‘push back' the deadline. This topic has garnered substantial public attention for the past week.
The Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) has decided to nullify administrative penalties for the delay in the payment of Article 29 Income Tax (Pajak Penghasilan/PPh in Indonesian) payable and/or filing of the annual individual income tax return for the 2024 tax year.
Under this policy, individual taxpayers will not incur administrative penalties for late payment of Article 29 Income Tax and filing of the annual tax return for the 2024 tax year although the former due date on 31 March 2025 has elapsed. However, this relaxation is only valid until 11 April 2025.
Through this policy, it can be concluded that the filing deadline for the annual individual income tax return has been extended to 11 April 2025.
The Directorate General of Taxes stated that the nullification of administrative penalties is granted through the non-issuance of the notice of tax collection (Surat Tagihan Pajak/STP in Indonesian).
This decision by the Directorate General of Taxes considers that the payment deadline for Article 29 Income Tax and filing of the annual tax return for individual taxpayers for the 2024 tax year, originally set for 31 March 2025, coincides with national holidays and collective leave. As is widely recognised, the holiday period for Nyepi and Eid al-Fitr is relatively lengthy, spanning from 28 March 2025 to 7 April 2025.
“The national holiday and collective leave could lead to delays in the payment of Article 29 Income Tax and filing of annual tax returns for the 2024 tax year on account of fewer business days in March,” said Dwi.
As for the filing of annual income tax returns, the government presented noteworthy data in the 2024 DGT Performance Report. In 2024, the high level of taxpayer compliance in fulfilling the obligation to file annual tax returns was also supported by non-taxpayers required to file tax returns.
As indicated by records from the Directorate of Tax Extensification and Valuation of the DGT, 4.05 million non-taxpayers required to file annual tax returns successfully filed their annual tax returns last year.
During the same period, records indicate that 11.36 million taxpayers were required to file their annual tax returns to the Directorate General of Taxes.
With the combined total of taxpayers required to file annual tax returns and non-taxpayers who filed annual tax returns reaching 15.42 million, out of a total of 19.27 million taxpayers required to file annual tax returns, the taxpayer compliance level for the 2023 annual tax return stood at 80%.
Nonetheless, if non-taxpayers required to file tax returns are excluded from the calculation of compliance level, the compliance level of taxpayers obligated to file annual tax returns levelled off at 58.98%.
In addition to the above-mentioned two pieces of information, there are other intriguing topics worth revisiting. These include the DGT’s performance in terms of supervision and audits, the remittance and filing deadline for periodic VAT returns and the appointment of the Director General of Taxes Suryo Utomo as the President Commissioner of BTN.
The DGT generated tax revenues totaling IDR130.15 trillion from material compliance supervision (Pengawasan Kepatuhan Material/PKM in Indonesian) activities in 2024.
These revenues comprised IDR57.38 trillion from supervision activities, IDR55.25 trillion from audits, IDR2.03 trillion from law enforcement, IDR14.71 trillion from collection and IDR769.26 billion from education and services.
“The tax revenue realisation from PKM in 2024 was logged at IDR130.15 trillion, reflecting a 30.3% increase from the same period in the previous year. This achievement reached approximately 100.97% of the target of IDR128.90 trillion,” stated the DGT in the 2024 DGT Performance Report.
The remittance and filing deadline for periodic Value Added Tax (VAT) returns for the February 2025 taxable period has been postponed from 31 March 2025 to 8 April 2025.
Similarly, in the event that the filing deadline for periodic tax returns falls on a holiday, the filing may be conducted no later than the next business day, as stipulated under Article 173 paragraph (1) of MoF Reg. 81/2024.
As a result, the extended Nyepi and Eid holiday shifts the remittance and filing deadline for periodic VAT returns to 8 April 2025. However, taxable persons (Pengusaha Kena Pajak/PKP in Indonesian) filing periodic VAT returns for the February 2025 taxable period after 8 April 2025 will not be subject to penalties insofar as the returns are filed no later than 10 April 2025.
Tax auditors are not required to provide an audit-related official report to the taxpayer being audited.
Head of the Subdirectorate of Audit Techniques and Control of the Directorate General of Taxes, Andri Puspo Heriyanto, explained that an official report primarily serves as a document to verify that tax auditors have implemented the necessary audit procedures.
“Essentially, the purpose of the official report is to prove to any party that we have performed specific procedures. It serves as a declaration stating, 'I have carried out these procedures, and these are the results,’” Andri claimed during a webinar.
Director General of Taxes Suryo Utomo has been officially appointed as the President Commissioner of PT Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), replacing Chandra Hamzah.
The appointment was approved by shareholders during the BTN Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM or Rapat Umum Pemegang Saham Tahunan/RUPST in Indonesian) for the 2024 Accounting Year, held on Wednesday (26/3/2025).
The new management will take effect after obtaining approval from the Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan/OJK in Indonesian) following the fit and proper test assessment and compliance with applicable statutory laws and regulations.
The IDR4.8 billion threshold for final income tax turnover for MSMEs and VAT registration is deemed one of the main factors contributing to compliance gaps and policy gaps in Indonesia’s tax system.
Referring to the World Bank report titled Estimating Value Added Tax (VAT) and Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Gaps in Indonesia, the final income tax threshold for MSMEs and taxable persons encourages entrepreneurs to maintain their turnover below IDR 4.8 billion. This phenomenon is known as the bunching effect.
“The relatively high income tax and VAT thresholds also contribute to the large compliance gap and policy gap,” the World Bank stated. (sap/Daisy Anita)
