Tax for Online Platform Merchants

Starting 1 August 2026, online merchants using digital platforms must prepare to pay an additional tax. Under Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) Number 37 of 2025, the government will impose a tariff of 0.5 percent on merchants’ gross turnover for every transaction they make. Four marketplaces have been appointed as collectors of this new tax: Blibli, Shopee, Tokopedia, and Lazada.

The implementation of this new Income Tax (PPh) Article 22 collection rule at a rate of 0.5 percent by marketplaces, on one hand, must be acknowledged as creating a level playing field between online merchants and physical stores. But on the other hand, the application of this rule also risks squeezing the profit margins of online merchants amidst tight digital competition among online sellers. It is not impossible that the implementation of this rule will cause online merchants to feel their profits are reduced, and subsequently look again at the potential of offline trade.

Since the ratification of PMK Number 37 of 2025, which requires electronic trading platforms to collect PPh Article 22 from domestic merchants, the online trading ecosystem has practically entered a new era. They are no longer free to enjoy profits from the proliferation of online trading practices as in the previous era. The policy requiring marketplaces to collect, deposit, and report income tax of 0.5 percent of gross turnover is intended to tidy up tax administration in the digital sector and create equality. The question is, behind the implementation of this new tax collection policy, what is the reality of its impact on the business wheels of online merchants?

All this time, online trading has indeed been on the rise. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, people’s shopping patterns have undergone a significant shift. Consumers no longer need to go to the trouble of visiting malls or shops to shop; they can simply stay at home or in bed to search for and buy the goods they want. Many consumers rarely go to malls, yet packages keep arriving at their homes due to online purchases. This is why online trading has become increasingly rampant lately. Indonesia’s online trade has developed rapidly in recent years towards a digital economy worth US$100 billion. Based on BPS data, the number of e-commerce businesses in Indonesia reached 4.40 million units in 2024 (up 15.30 percent). In early 2026, e-retail transactions grew 6.2 percent quarterly. Transactions are dominated by digital wallets (35 percent) via smartphones (67 percent).

According to data, the value of e-commerce transactions once touched Rp487 trillion and is estimated to exceed Rp500 trillion. This figure continues to show a positive trend driven by traffic surges during moments such as Ramadan and major religious holidays. Marketplaces have now become the main shopping preference for 41 percent of the public. Indonesia is even projected to be the country with the highest e-commerce revenue growth, reaching 22 percent, far exceeding the global average of 8.6 percent. The e-commerce sector takes the largest share, namely 60 percent of the total gross merchandise value of the national digital economy.

Digitalisation and the development of online trade have changed the face of the Indonesian economy. Based on data from the Ministry of Communication and Digital, internet penetration reaching 80 percent of the total population has successfully pushed the value of the digital economy to hundreds of trillions of rupiah. Amidst the fanfare of digital transactions, platforms like Tokopedia, Shopee, Lazada, and Blibli have become the main stage for millions of micro, small, and medium enterprises. The issue now is whether the implementation of this new tax will make online merchants more advanced or instead cause them to regress.

For offline merchants operating in markets or malls, the government’s decision to collect taxes from online merchants is the right step. All this time, there has been a glaring inequality between conventional traders in markets or malls who are strictly monitored administratively and digital traders whose transactions are difficult to track manually. The presence of marketplaces as automatic tax collectors is considered a solution to close tax avoidance loopholes while expanding the taxpayer base.

For honest online merchants, or those who are financially literate, this new tax collection policy actually offers convenience. Business actors no longer need to be bothered with manual calculations, monthly deposits, and time-consuming reporting. Everything is automatically deducted by the platform system when a transaction occurs, and the merchant only needs to receive a withholding slip. From this side, the tax works as it should: efficient and not excessively disrupting the daily operational flow of business.

For MSMEs operating on online platforms, not all will be affected by this new regulation. For micro-scale MSMEs whose turnover has not yet reached Rp500 million per year, the government provides an exemption facility. They can be free from income tax collection by submitting a statement letter to the marketplace because their business scale is still small. This exemption for small-turnover MSMEs, while reassuring, is still problematic. For MSMEs with turnover above Rp500 million per year, the digital platform is a profitable but also vulnerable ecosystem.

Firstly, apart from tax obligations, MSMEs trading online have already been facing various operational costs charged by the platform. These range from administration fees, commission deductions per transaction, free shipping service fees, to self-funded promotional costs to compete for visibility.