Jakarta ( WNAM MONITORING ): The Finance Ministry has said that the government has decided to use e-commerce platforms to collect tax on sellers’ sales income to streamline tax administration and ensure people’s commitment to paying taxes, adding that the measure is not new.
The ministry’s director general for economic and fiscal strategy, Febrio Kacaribu, said that the policy has been implemented across other platforms, such as Google and Netflix to name a few.
“So, this is not a new kind of tax. This kind of tax (has existed earlier),” he explained here on Saturday.
He said that the government expects to collaborate with platforms to help them collect the tax on sellers’ sales income. The reform is expected to add to the government’s annual revenue, he added.
However, sellers earning less than Rp500 million (US$30,902) annually will be exempt from paying the tax, he informed.
On Thursday, the ministry’s Directorate General of Taxes disclosed plans to impose an income tax on sellers promoting their goods on e-commerce platforms.
In a statement, the directorate general’s director for education, services, and public relations, Rosmauli, said that the plan includes assigning e-commerce platforms the task of tax collection, so that tax payments are no longer made individually by the sellers themselves.
“This policy will not change the principles of income tax itself, instead it aims to facilitate sellers in fulfilling their obligation on paying taxes,” he explained.
This is because the tax collection will be carried out by a system integrated with the platforms, making it more practical for sellers, he added.
