A Taxing Situation

Bali Tax Office Working to Increase Number of Individual and Corporate Tax Payers.

Bali News: A Taxing Situation
(3/7/2011) The Bali tax office reports that the number of registered taxpayers in Bali remains low. The head of the Bali Director General of Taxation, Zulfikar Thahar, said that the total number of taxpayers in Bali stands at 368,835 from which only 208,161 (56.44%) have filed their required tax return.

Bali Post quotes Thahar who said his office has uncovered several explanations as to why taxpayers are not filing their tax returns. Among the chief reasons cited were difficulties in completing tax forms, employees who have not received the necessary confirmation that payroll taxes have been deducted by their employers and a reluctance to wait in line to file the taxes at the tax office.

Said Zulfikar: "The consciousness of people in Bali about paying their tax liability remains low. Among the registered taxpayers, the compliance by individual taxpayers remains the lowest." Based on 2010 data, there are 339,715 individual taxpayers registered in Bali from which 194,656 (46.58%) filing a return. Of the 29,120 legal entities registered with the tax office only 57.3% (13,505) have made the necessary filing.

In an effort to improve the level of tax reports files drop boxes have been established in a number of locales around including the Ramayana Bali Mall, BPD Bali, Tiara Dewata, Discovery Shopping Mall, BTDC, Ngurah Rai International Airport, Seminyak Square and Udayana University.

The Bali Tax office has established a target of Rp. 4.08 trillion (US$452 million) in tax collections for 2011, a sharp increase from the targeted Rp. 3.64 trillion (US$404 million) for 2010. In 2010 the tax office achieved only 98.32% of their targeted goal, collecting Rp. 3.64 trillion.

Source : Bali Discovery