BERITA TERKINI
JAKARTA, DDTCNews - The Directorate General of Taxes' (DGT) initiative to reactivate tens of thousands of inactive or dormant taxpayers emerged as one of the most widely discussed tax issues this week. During a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission XI, Director General of Taxes, Bimo Wijayanto, revealed that the tax authority had reactivated 24,672 dormant taxpayers.
The reactivation programme constitutes part of the DGT’s broader strategy to optimise state revenues. As of 12 June 2026, the initiative had contributed an additional IDR20.63 trillion in tax revenues.
According to Bimo, inactive taxpayers may be reactivated once they no longer satisfy the criteria for inactive status.
“For example, they may no longer have had any projects but subsequently become active again through new investments and projects,” he said.
Bimo explained that taxpayer status may be restored when the authority identifies business activities by the taxpayer. Reactivation may also occur when taxpayers are detected to be fulfilling their tax obligations, including paying and filing taxes.
Inactive taxpayers refer to those that no longer satisfy the subjective and/or objective requirements but have not been subject to taxpayer identification number (TIN or nomor pokok wajib pajak/NPWP in Indonesian) deregistration.
Referring to the Director General of Taxes Regulation PER-7/PJ/2025, there are 2 mechanisms for reactivating dormant taxpayers. First, taxpayers may apply for reactivation through the coretax system. Second, the head of a tax office may reactivate the taxpayers ex officio.
Bimo further disclosed that taxpayer reactivation can be facilitated through data verification within the coretax system database. In addition, the DGT is authorised to analyse transaction data obtained from third parties, including government agencies, institutions, associations and other relevant entities (instansi pemerintah, lembaga, asosiasi, dan pihak lain/ILAP in Indonesian).
“Recently, we detected taxpayers that were still engaging in transactions, while their counterparties were filing taxes on those transactions. We then provided counselling and summoned them, after which they amended their tax returns and resumed active status. On account of the database available through the coretax, we can also identify third-party transactions,” Bimo said.
Beyond the reactivation of dormant taxpayers, several other tax developments also merited attention this week. These included the government’s plan to appoint marketplace providers as tax collection agents beginning in July 2026 as well as the DGT’s efforts to strengthen the competencies of tax officials in supervision and taxpayer services.
The government plans to begin appointing marketplace providers as Article 22 Income Tax collection agents pursuant to MoF Reg. 37/2025 next month. Bimo stated that the policy has received support from the Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, and the House of Representatives.
He added that the regulatory framework required to implement the measure is already in place. Nevertheless, the DGT will continue engaging with industry stakeholders to ensure operational readiness across all affected parties.
“We have been requested to apply it this year, in July, hopefully,” he claimed.
The DGT prioritises enhancing the competencies of tax officials as part of its efforts to achieve revenue targets. According to Bimo, human resource capacity-building initiatives are particularly needed in the areas of supervision, revenue collection, audits and taxpayer services.
He believes that improvements in these functions will support the achievement of increasingly ambitious tax revenue targets.
“We must continue restructuring our human resources, increasing the proportion of personnel assigned to core functions, including supervision, revenue collection, audits, and, of course, taxpayer services, as part of our efforts to safeguard state revenues,” he stated.
Harris Turino, a member of House Commission XI, highlighted the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in obtaining refunds of value added tax (VAT) overpayments.
According to Harris, numerous entrepreneurs have complained about restrictions imposed on VAT refunds. In his view, tax refunds should be recognised as a taxpayer right.
“Numerous companies are complaining about refund restrictions. Refunds are being treated as though they were a matter of generosity, whereas they are, in fact, a taxpayer right,” Harris said during a hearing with government officials at Commission XI of the House of Representatives.
Indonesian taxpayers constituting members of multinational enterprise groups that fall in scope of the global anti-base erosion (GloBE) rules are required to apply for an additional taxpayer status to the DGT.
According to Saumty Rohaendi, Head of Section of International Tax Agreements and Cooperation II at the DGT, taxpayers that submit the required application will be designated as GloBE taxpayers.
“Taxpayers must obtain GloBE taxpayer status through an application process. This application is not processed manually and is not submitted through the integrated service points. Since these are large taxpayers and the coretax is now operational, the entire process is conducted electronically,” he said.
The government has tightened regulatory requirements for online merchants operating through e-commerce platforms, including marketplaces.
Through the Ministry of Trade Regulation (MoT Reg.) 19/2026, entrepreneurs selling through e-commerce platforms (including marketplaces) are now required to hold a business identification number (nomor induk berusaha/NIB in Indonesian) in the trading sectors. Marketplace providers are also required to reject registration applications from merchants that do not possess a business identification number.
A PPMSE, which provides PMSE means for domestic merchants, shall be required to reject a request for the registration of a domestic merchant that does not yet have a business permit pursuant to statutory provisions,” reads Article 4 paragraph (4). (dik)
