Indonesia is seeking to plug an unusually deep revenue shortfall before year-end by scrutinising wealthy individuals and big businesses for extra tax payments.
As the country’s budget deficit projection edges towards a 3 per cent gross domestic product cap, tax officials have stepped up scrutiny of the rich, summoning some to review their returns in an effort to boost collections in what has been an anaemic year for receipts in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Several people familiar with the situation said officials had recently told big firms run by local tycoons to pay additional dues this year. A few family businesses were asked to pay more than US$5 million.
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When several of those family-run companies pushed back, tax officials proposed they pay 30 per cent of the requested amount as a compromise, without giving a reason as to how they landed on that figure, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter was sensitive.
The tax office push has extended to some white-collar professionals as well, with investigators auditing returns for any errors, according to one person.
Bimo Wijayanto, the Finance Ministry’s director general of taxes, confirmed recent summons of high-wealth taxpayers, describing it to reporters at a briefing on Thursday as “essentially a routine task of the tax office in order to clarify data”.