Law Enforcers Pledge to Stay Away from Tax Amnesty Data
Jakarta. Indonesian law enforcers agreed on Friday (01/07) not to use data gathered during tax amnesty program to initiate criminal investigations, in line with a clause in tax amnesty law that pivotal for repatriating as much as possible Indonesian funds from abroad.
The agreement was signed by Attorney General Agung M. Prasetyo, Police Chief Badrodin Haiti and the head of Center for Financial Transaction Reporting and Analysis (PPATK) Muhammad Yusuf during the launching ceremony of the long-awaited program.
"The law enforcers pledged to support this program and won't use the data belonging to taxpayers who report their wealth under the tax amnesty program for [launching] investigations," Mardiasmo, deputy to the finance minister, said at the event.
"If the attorney general found another data elsewhere, that would be a different thing," he said.
The secrecy has been one of the most attractive tenets of the program, as Indonesia is set to implement the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI) framework with tax haven countries by 2018. By declaring assets prior to the AEoI, businesspeople will dodge hefty tax penalties.
The maximum tax rate in the amnesty program is 10 percent of the value of declared assets. Normally, tax evaders, if caught, must pay a total sum of 300 percent of their back taxes, as well as facing prosecution for the tax crime.
"Almost every [businessman] I know is interested because all the [financial] data will be opened in 2017 in Indonesia and in 2018 in Singapore," Aburizal Bakrie, a politician from Golkar Party and a well-known business leader in the country, commented on the sidelines of the ceremony.
Aburizal said the program is a "bold" move by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo who has been consistently attempting to lure assets stashed abroad by Indonesians back home.
Tags: Keywords: