Govt Escalates Google Tax Evasion Case to Investigation
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Finance Ministry’s tax director general Ken Dwijugiasteadi said that the government has escalated the tax evasion case involving Google Asia Pacific Pte, Ltd. to an investigation phase as the tech company and the Tax DG failed to reach an agreement on the tax settlement.
“The case has been escalated to the initial evidence investigation since our data is different with the one they submitted,” Ken said in a press release at his office in Jakarta on Wednesday, December 21, 2016.
According to Ken, Google could be sanctioned if it insisted on refusing to pay their taxes.
“The sanctions would be the same with those imposed on other domestic taxpayers. If they failed to pay tax arrears, they could face a prison sentence,” he added.
Google claimed that their tax obligations in 2015 amounted up to Rp405 billion (US$31 million), which was lower than that calculated by the Tax DG at Rp6 trillion (US$461.5 million) with a total fine of a Rp3 trillion (US$230 million). The government had offered an incentive between Rp1-2 trillion (US$76.9-153.8 million).
The Tax DG had also asked Google to submit its financial statement so that they could be imposed with regular tax fine of 150 percent.
“Failing to submit the financial statement will result in a 400-percent fine since the case would be escalated to an investigation stage,” Muhammad Haniv, head of the Jakarta branch of the Tax Directorate General.
