Personal Income Tax in Indonesia

When an income is sourced in Indonesia, it is mandatory for businesses, investors and all other types of taxpayers and tax paying entities to pay for taxes such as corporate tax, personal income tax, Value-Added Tax, withholding tax, and more.

When it comes to personal income tax in Indonesia, there are certain criteria that qualifies you as a tax paying resident.

Personal Income Tax is a tax collected from individuals imposed on income such as salaries, dividends, pensions and even interest. Indonesia’s government earns a significant revenue from personal income tax amongst all the taxes implemented.

It is the responsibility of every taxpayer’s employer to calculate any taxes that is required to be withheld from salaries and paying these taxes to the tax authorities monthly and providing the employees the annual tax figures.

Personal Income Tax Rates in Indonesia depend on a residency of an individual. A non-resident individual, defined as an individual who has stayed in Indonesia for lesser than 183 days in any 12-month period, will be taxed based on a 20% standard rate.

As for tax residents, they are taxed based on a progressive rate between 5% and 30% depending on the income they earn.

A personal income taxpayer may either be a resident or non-resident of Indonesia. The main criterion to determine tax resident status in Indonesia is not nationality, but rather duration of stay or expected stay.

An expatriate who is a tax resident will be treated as one until the day of departure. Non-residents are subject to a 20% withholding tax on revenue earned in Indonesia.

Some foreigners are not regarded as Indonesian tax residents due to their special legal status even though they live in Indonesia for more than 183 days per year or live and plan to remain in Indonesia. Such individuals are exempt from paying Indonesia’s personal income taxes.

These include:

The taxable annual revenue on individual tax residents is charged at the following progressive rates:

A significant proportion of individual income tax is gathered through employers’ withholding. Employers withhold income tax on a monthly basis from wages and other forms of compensation paid to staff.

If the individual is a taxpayer who is not a resident, the withholding tax is 20% of the gross amount; however, the amount may vary if there is a tax agreement.

Tax Rates of Concession: Final gross revenue taxes for severance payments (if paid within a two-year period) are imposed at the following rates:

The following are the annual non-taxable revenues (Penghasilan Tidak Kena Pajak / PTKP) for residents under the Principal Personal Relief:

The Indonesian tax office (Direktorat Jenderal Pajak) makes it so that all Indonesian tax residents, including expatriates, have their own tax numbers known as Nomor Pendaftaran Wajib Pajak or NPWP.

The tax office needs all expatriates residing in Indonesia to register with the tax office. With the tax registration, they can:

Personal income tax in Indonesia is imposed on income earned anywhere in the world. Taxable forms of income include the following:

Material benefits are generally excluded, as is inheritance income. Tax credit is granted for income tax paid abroad; however, this tax credit may be subject to restrictions and criteria stated in double tax agreements between Indonesia and the other country involved.

For an income tax return, a form known as Form 1770 must be completed after tax registration. The individual must complete the form and return it the tax office at which the individual had previously registered.

The deadline for filing an annual tax return is within three months of the end of the tax year. The entirety of the individual’s received income and family income, whether derived from Indonesia or elsewhere, should be highlighted in the tax returns. These include the following:

A third party (usually an employer) collects a considerable large portion of personal income tax through withholding tax. A deduction is made from income tax contributions of each month from salary payments.

Also, payers withhold tax before distribution of pensions to schemes, services fees, awards fees, and severance payments. While individuals are responsible for tax payment and are monitored to do so, employers or payers should also be checked to ascertain that they are making the right deductions.

Article 23, which is related to income tax, is imposed on all resident taxpayers for certain incomes at 15% of the total amount. The following incomes are subjected to the Article 23 Income Tax: