Tax consultants deny involvement in tax scam
Tax consultants deny involvement in tax scam
JAKARTA (JP): The association of tax consultants yesterday
denied that its members had helped taxpayers manipulate tax
refunds.
"The man jailed by the state court in Tangerang, West Java, is
not a member of the association," Ali Harris Nasution, a deputy
chairman of the Association of Indonesian Tax Consultants (IKPI),
commented here yesterday regarding the tax manipulation by
Priyanto Dwisaksono, who was sentenced to three years and six
months in jail for manipulating tax refunds.
Priyanto was charged with colluding with the owner of a
company in Tangerang to manipulate value-added tax (VAT) refunds,
causing a loss to the state of around Rp 2.4 billion (US$1.14
million). The company's owner was jailed for three years and four
months.
He said that many people pawn themselves off as tax
consultants to enable them to provide financial services to both
institutional and individual taxpayers.
"They even collude with taxpayers to dodge tax payments or
manipulate tax rebates," he said, adding, however, that his
association could do nothing but appeal to those unregistered tax
consultants to join the organization.
Monitoring
"If they join the organization, their operations can be
monitored easily," said Harris.
Asked about the possibility of association members helping
their clients to evade tax payments, Tjoetjoe Alihartono, also a
deputy chairman of the association, said that the chance was very
small.
"The association has a code of business ethics," he reminded.
Tjoetjoe said association members would not only face severe
administrative sanctions from both the association and the
government, but would also face criminal charges if they break
the tax law.
Financial experts are required to apply to the Minister of
Finance for licenses to operate as tax consultants, and are then
classified into three groups according to skill levels. The tax
consultants of Category A are, for example, allowed only to
provide services to individuals, Category B to individuals and
non-business institutions and Category C to all individual and
institutional taxpayers.
Registered tax consultants are required to join the
association. (hen)