Foreigners tax

This letter is in response to your article of Sept. 6, 1996 Council ratifies bill on annual foreigners tax.

I am an Indonesian with a foreign wife and after I read paragraph six of the above article, which states...the average increase of 500 percent taxes takes into account the higher salaries received by expatriates and the need to adjust the value of the rupiah...

I became a little confused. Of course, in past years I have always paid the annual foreigners tax for my wife, since without a receipt for this payment my wife's stay permit cannot be extended. As the sponsor for my wife's stay permit in Indonesia it is my obligation to pay all fees required by law. However, a 500 percent increase in annual foreigners tax is a heavy burden for me as a locally paid head of the family. I would like to ask the following questions:

* Why, with the annual foreigners tax, is my wife being tax as head of the family and not as a spouse? So far no clear answer has been given to this question by the staff of the Dinas Pendapatan Daerah office. She has always been taxed as head of a foreign family. My wife is not permitted to work and earn money -- how can she be a head of a family?

* Does foreigners tax constitute a tax which can be deducted from my yearly tax return or is it just a fee?

* Are foreign wives of Indonesian men actually liable for foreigners tax, and under what basis?

I hope the authorities consider men like myself when passing the new law on the taxation of foreigners.

T.D. KOSASIH

Jakarta