Operation planned to collect taxes from expatriates

Operation planned to collect taxes from expatriates

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration will launch an operation
to collect overdue foreigners' taxes from expatriates in the
city's five mayoralties, an official from the City Revenue Office
said yesterday.

H. Wahab Rachmatsyah, head of the office, said that the
operation will be conducted from Sept. 25 until Oct. 10, by an
integrated team consisting of officers from the revenue office
itself, the City Immigration Office, the City Manpower Office,
the Jakarta office of the Investment Coordinating Agency, the
city police and the Jakarta military.

"The launching of the operation is based on the high level of
overdue foreigners's taxes in the period between 1992 and 1994,"
he said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.

The total value of overdue taxes for the 1992 to 1994 period
reached about Rp 2 billion (US$909,090), he said.

Wahab said that the large amount of overdue taxes is caused
mainly by expatriates who move to other areas within, or outside
the city, without informing the authorities.

"Many expatriates, who enter the city just to reside do not
report either," he said, adding that other changes, which are not
registered, include returning to their home countries, changes in
their citizenship, marriages or deaths.

He said that there is one company which employs expatriates,
or rents condominiums to accommodate its foreign workers, without
registering them at the revenue office.

Inventory

Wahab explained that besides collecting the tax payments, the
team will also take an inventory on the number of expatriates
working in the city.

"The team's representatives will go to companies which employ
expatriates and to apartment buildings where foreigners are
residing, as well as go door-to-door to the expatriates' houses
to check their documents," he said.

If they find that the expatriates have not yet met all the
requirements in Regional Regulation No. 6/1989, regarding tax
payments, the officers will ask them to do so, he said.

Wahab reiterated that the operation is launched to uphold the
law and to get the latest data on the number of expatriates
living in the city. It is also aimed at controlling the movements
of expatriates and to help raise the city administration's
income.

He urges both state-owned and private companies to help
smoothen the operation by giving complete information on the
expatriates they employ.

Condominium owners are being asked to let the team's officers
make an inventory on their buildings, while expatriates, who have
not yet paid their overdue taxes, are urged to pay them at the
revenue office.

Those interested in obtaining more information about the
operation can contact the team's post on Jl. Kebon Sirih No. 22,
Central Jakarta, Phone: 3823179. (hhr)