Indonesia's e-commerce firms to collect tax on sellers' income starting Nov 1
SE•Indonesia delays marketplace tax collection until Nov. 1
JAKARTA, Aug. 6 (Reuters) - Indonesia's e-commerce marketplaces will start collecting income tax from sellers on their platforms starting from November 1, the country's tax office said late on Wednesday, after Jakarta delayed the plan for a second time to boost purchasing power.
Below are details from the tax office's statement:
Industry group says marketplaces are preparing for the rollout
- In response, Indonesia's e-commerce industry association idEA said on Wednesday that the marketplaces have been making preparations to enable the collection to run more smoothly when it finally takes place.
- Jakarta originally intended to implement the tax collection plan last year but delayed it to this year following complaints from sellers and platforms.
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by David Stanway)
Tax office says refunds will be made and appointments reissued
- "This postponement was implemented as an effort to maintain public purchasing power amid economic conditions that remain a focus of the government," the tax office said.
- Income tax already collected from the sellers will be refunded, the tax office added.
- Tokopedia, controlled by ByteDance's TikTok and partly owned by Indonesia's biggest tech company GoTo GOTO.JK, together with Sea Limited's SE.N Shopee, the Alibaba-backed 9988.HK Lazada, and Blibli BELI.JK, have been appointed as tax collectors, the government previously said.
- The tax office said in the statement that it will cancel the appointments of those four marketplaces and re-issue the selection at a later stage.
