Tax payers

Tax payers

Director General of Tax Fuad Bawazier has stated that there
are still many informal sectors, such as food stalls, which have
not been made subject to taxation even though their turnover can
reach trillions of rupiah. Besides food stalls, there are still
many shops, kiosks and occupants of luxury houses in Jakarta
which have not been registered as taxpayers.

To intensify and broaden the collection of outstanding taxes
with respect to small and medium-sized businesses, I wish to
propose that the Directorate General of Tax launch the following
programs:

1. Area control, known in Dutch colonial times as the external
service, should be reintroduced. During the Dutch colonial rule,
officers of the external service would take turns every year
registering taxpayers from street to street in the entire area
overseen by a particular tax inspection office (now the tax
service).

These external service officers had in their possession a
detailed map of the area they were in charge of. They would come
to every house in the street and take down the names of the
occupants in a certain house and what they did for a living.
Those having a means of earning a living would be registered as
taxpayers. These officers would keep track of the people they
noted and would keep record of any changes occurring to these
people from year to year.

In those times, a given area would be under the supervision of
a tax inspector, who would keep detailed records of the condition
of taxpayers in his area. As far as I know, this external service
was scrapped during the organization of the Directorate General
of Tax a long time ago.

2. Associations of businesspeople and professionals of the same
trade should be set up in an area overseen by a tax service.
These associations should cooperate with the Directorate General
of Tax and the chamber of commerce and industry, and take as
their model the tax return guidance system already successfully
implemented in Japan.

In this way, income tax may be collected through these
associations. The governing boards of these associations would
provide tax return guidance and discuss matters related to this
during its deliberations. The associations would also assume
responsibility for the collection of taxes. In this way, taxes
would be collected on the basis of democracy and mutual help
involving active participation of the taxpayers. The Directorate
General of Tax would simply supervise the system's implementation
by assigning some tax officers (or, perhaps, retired tax
employees) to help the associations.

3. In order for these first two proposals to be realized, it
would be necessary to simplify the administrative and procedural
systems of taxation.

The realization of all of these ideas would mean that tax
collection would be the joint concern of both the Directorate
General of Tax and all Indonesian people who are willing to pay
taxes of their own accord. This system, which has been
successfully implemented in Japan since 1948, is worth imitating
here. In Japan all statutory bodies and private citizens, without
exception, pay taxes. They have a high sense of nationalism and
discipline in tax matters.

If we wish to be successful in our national development, we
should take the Japanese as our models in this respect. It must
always be remembered that we have our own Pancasila philosophy
which recognizes deliberations for a consensus.

SUHARSONO HADIKUSUMO

Jakarta