BERITA TERKINI
JAKARTA, DDTCNews - This week marked the transition from the ‘end of 2025’ to the ‘start of 2026’. Two major issues dominated the past week’s coverage, including taxpayers’ brief ‘panic’ over activating their coretax system accounts and projections that the state budget (anggaran penerimaan dan belanja negara/APBN in Indonesian) deficit may widen beyond earlier estimates.
In the two weeks leading up to the end of 2025, local tax offices were crowded with taxpayers. They flocked to regional tax offices to activate their coretax system accounts, as starting in 2026, all tax administrative obligations must be fulfilled through the DGT’s Coretax system.
An X account shared its experience of queuing at a primary taxpayers office (kantor pelayanan pajak/KPP Pratama in Indonesian) in its domicile (without disclosing the location). Arriving at 7:00 a.m. turned out not to be an effective strategy. Unexpectedly, taxpayers had already started arriving as early as 5:00 a.m. to secure face-to-face service queue numbers at the tax office.
“Even though I arrived exactly at 7, the line was already long. Behind me, it was even longer,” the X account wrote.
BalinewsID also reported overcrowding at the Amlapura Tax Service, Dissemination, and Consultation Office (kantor pelayanan, penyuluhan, dan konsultasi perpajakan/KP2KP in Indonesian) in Karangasem, Bali, on Monday (29 December 2025). A video uploaded by a taxpayer showed the tax office packed with visitors. In fact, 200 queue numbers were snapped up within minutes.
The situation was further exacerbated by Circular Letter (surat edaran/SE in Indonesian) 7/2025 issued by the Minister for Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (Pendayagunaan Aparatur Negara dan Reformasi Birokrasi/PANRB in Indonesian), which requires all civil servants (aparatur sipil negara/ASN in Indonesian) to activate their coretax accounts no later than 31 December 2025. This prompted numerous civil servants to visit tax offices to seek assistance from tax officers.
In Sukabumi, West Java, a similar scramble for queue numbers occurred. As reported by sukabumicitycom, some members of the public reportedly arrived at the Sukabumi Small Taxpayers Office as early as 2:00 a.m. to obtain a queue number.
Probolinggo Small Taxpayers Office in East Java also saw long queues. Over just 3 days, the Probolinggo Small Taxpayers Office served more than 900 taxpayers who specifically requested assistance with activating their DGT Coretax accounts.
“This occurred in line with the government’s appeal encouraging taxpayers, particularly civil servants, members of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia/TNI in Indonesian) and the Indonesian National Police (Kepolisian Negara Republik Indonesia/Polri in Indonesian), to immediately activate their coretax accounts before 31 December 2025,” the official Probolinggo Small Taxpayers Office account stated.
On the other hand, the state budget deficit is projected to exceed earlier estimates. One contributing factor is sluggish tax revenue throughout 2025.
Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, signalled that the 2025 state budget deficit could surpass the targeted level of 2.78% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Nevertheless, Purbaya emphasized that the budget deficit remains under control and does not violate Law 17 of 2002 concerning State Finances, which caps the state budget deficit at a maximum of 3% of GDP.
“[The deficit is] above the 2025 state budget target, but clearly we are not violating the statutory maximum of 3%, and we are in constant communication with the House of Representatives. The figures are still moving. We will have certainty next week,” he said.
Purbaya acknowledged that the widening deficit is partly attributable to weak tax revenue performance. He even noted that realised tax remittances have experienced a widening shortfall, falling below the 2025 outlook target.
On another note, the government set the 2025 tax revenue outlook target at IDR2,076.9 trillion. However, actual tax revenue collected from January to November 2025 only stood at IDR1,634.4 trillion, or 78.7% of the 2025 outlook.
“[Tax revenue is] roughly below the outlook, but I will present the details next week,” Purbaya remarked.
The minister of finance added that the plummeting tax revenue is inextricably linked to national economic conditions. According to him, the domestic economy tended to be weak and unstable during the first nine months of 2025.
In addition, there were several potential tax revenues that the government chose not to collect. However, he continued, such policies were necessary to avoid placing additional burdens on the public amidst still-fragile economic conditions.
“We do not deny there has been pressure, because the economy was weak in several previous months, during the first 9 months of this year. There were also some tax collection efforts that I postponed until the economy improves,” Purbaya remarked.
Beyond the above-mentioned 2 issues, several other topics also warrant renewed attention. These include the filing of annual tax returns (surat pemberitahuan/SPT Tahunan in Indonesian) for the 2025 tax year, which may be filed starting 1 January 2026 through the coretax, updates on the unification of the Tax Court under a single roof, projections of a widening tax shortfall and the latest developments in coretax account activation.
Taxpayers can now file their 2025 annual tax returns through the coretax administration system starting Thursday (1 January 2026).
In the coretax, taxpayers can prepare their annual tax returns by clicking the Create Draft SPT button in the Tax Return (SPT) menu.
“The Annual Income Tax Return ... functions as a means to file and account for the calculation of the amount of Income Tax actually payable and to file the payment or settlement of Income Tax that has been self-implemented and/or through withholding or collection by other parties; income constituting a taxable object and/or non-taxable object; and/or assets and liabilities, in 1 tax year or fraction of a tax year,” reads Article 80 paragraph (1) of the Director General of Taxes Regulation Number PER-11/PJ/2025.
The Tax Court will become part of the state administrative court (pengadilan tata usaha negara/PTUN in Indonesian) judiciary as a court equivalent to an appellate-level court.
This policy is implemented by the Supreme Court (Mahkamah Agung/MA in Indonesian) to carry out the Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi/MK in Indonesian) Decision Number 26/PUU-XXI/2023, which mandates the institutional unification of the Tax Court under the Supreme Court no later than 31 December 2026.
“Under the Supreme Court, the Tax Court will fall within the state administrative court system, equivalent to an appellate court,” said Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sunarto.
Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, acknowledged that tax revenues in 2025 came under pressure and are projected to fall short of the target.
Purbaya claimed that one factor weighing on tax revenue was the less stable national economic condition from the beginning to the middle of the year.
“[Tax revenue conditions] will be announced next week. As you have seen previously, tax revenues are below the state budget target. As such, we do not deny there has been pressure because the economy was weak in several previous months, during the first nine months of this year,” he claimed.
The DGT recorded that 11.19 million taxpayers had activated their tax accounts through the coretax system as of 2 January 2026 at 10:04 a.m. Western Indonesian Time (waktu Indonesia barat/WIB in Indonesian).
This figure represents an increase of 16,000 taxpayers compared with the end of 2025, when 11.03 million taxpayers had activated their coretax accounts.
“As of 2 January 2026, at 10:04 a.m. WIB, coretax account activations have reached 11,192,297 taxpayers,” said Rosmauli, Director of Tax Dissemination, Services, and Public Relations of the DGT.
Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, estimates that overall national economic growth in 2025 remains on track and could reach 5.2%, in line with the 2025 state budget target.
He stated that the full-year growth target could be achieved, supported by fourth-quarter 2025 growth, which is expected to reach 5.5%. Official 2025 economic growth figures will be announced by Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik/BPS in Indonesian) in February 2026.
“In 2025, we are currently seeing quarter 4 of 2025 growth above 5.5%, with full-year growth around 5.2%,” he stated. (sap)
