Indonesia's tax office is to step up scrutiny on wealthy Indonesians not participating in the country's high profile tax amnesty.
A spokesman of the Finance Ministry’s Directorate General of Taxation, Hestu Yoga Saksama, said his office would give serious attention to those rich Indonesians who haven’t taken part in the amnesty soon after the program ends later this month.
The much touted tax amnesty program started in July 2016 and will close on March 31 2017. The Indonesian government has said it would adopt a firmer policy against tax evasion after the tax amnesty program.
According to the «Jakarta Post» a local taxation official claimed that some of the people included on a recent Forbes magazine list of the richest Indonesians have not yet registered for the tax amnesty.
Below Target
Through the introduction of the nine-month tax amnesty program, the government hopes to repatriate billions of dollars that citizens have parked overseas. Penalty payments are also expected to help close the gap in state revenue amid a sluggish global economy.
It is expected that as far as repatriation of funds back onshore to Indonesia the sums are below target.
Business people have said it was not easy to repatriate assets from abroad to the country as not all of the assets are in deposits. Some are in shares and of course many are in property.
Tycoons Supportive
When it was first launched it was met with doubts that it would be taken seriously. However high profile businessmen such as Sofjan Wanandi along with well known property tycoon James Riady requested tax amnesty for their undeclared assets.
According to private banking sources it has been estimated that as much as $200 billion of Indonesian ultra high net worth assets could be in Singapore. This represents a significant portion of money managed by private banks in the financial hub.
