PPh 21 Highlighted By Netizens, The Lifestyle Of Tax Employees Is Again Sneered

The implementation of the new PPh 21 rule was a public conversation during the distribution of holiday allowances (THR) in March-April. (Unsplash)

JAKARTA The implementation of PPh 21 rules that had just shocked netizens, especially when the distribution of the 2024 Holiday Allowance last April. Netizens quickly recalled how he donated to the lives of tax workers.

The calculation of individual income tax (PPh) has changed since January 1, 2024, which is stipulated in Government Regulation (PP) Number 58 of 2023 and Regulation of the Minister of Finance (PMK) Number 168 of 2023.

Netizens were shocked by the amount of tax deductions they received from the rules that began to be implemented in January. Netray then monitored this issue on channel X, formerly Twitter, with the word tax and pph keywords.

The results were found as many as 94.9 thousand uploads with a total impression of 68.5 thousand reactions. These uploads were uploaded by 34 thousand accounts and were able to reach up to 174.4 million accounts, "said the Netray report.

Director of Counseling, Services and Public Relations, Directorate General of Taxes, Dwi Astuti at a media gathering in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. (Antara/Imamatul Silfia/am)

Throughout the monitoring period, negative sentiment uploads seemed to dominate the conversation, especially when compared to positive sentiment uploads. A total of 65.3 thousand uploads or 69% were negative sentiment uploads.

Negative conversations from netizens' uploads cannot be separated from criticism, it is not uncommon for even throwing jokes at tax officers. The public certainly still remembers how the behavior of tax officers made their heads shake.

For this reason, the family lifestyle of tax workers, especially their children, has returned to the spotlight of netizens in the midst of discussing changes to PPh 21 regulations.

Criticism of Tax Employees' Lifestyles

One of the highlights until now is the case that befell the son of the General Head of the South Jakarta Regional Office of DJP, Rafael Alun. Netizens do not accept that tax deductions are misused by these individuals, such as the luxury lifestyle of the families of tax workers.

Not only highlighting the families of tax officers, netizens also criticized the behavior of tax officers who are often associated with 'ani-ani'. Netizens also feel that they do not accept that the tax proceeds are used to support 'stolen women' tax officials. The discussion of this tax cut has been busy in the spotlight of netizens after several accounts menfess were distributed about the issue of new policies in PPh 21.

As has been reported by several media, the new regulation in PPh 21 in effect in January 2024 implements the TER that has been stipulated in Government Regulation Number 58 of 2023. Although it is claimed as a simplification of calculations and will not burden tax recipients, in fact, many publics have been surprised by this.

Sample upload of criticism from tax officials. (Netray)

Many netizens were surprised by the amount of the tax cut they received because of PPh 21. As revealed by the @upilkelabu account in his upload, he said that the bonus tax cut received was so large. The same thing was also uploaded by two other accounts such as the image below.

In addition to being excited by the PPh21 discount, netizens have also widely uploaded criticism of services to the public which are deemed not commensurate with the amount of tax deductions. Even netizens think that taxed state facilities are still inadequate.

Official Account of the Directorate General of Taxes Highlighted

The official account belonging to the Directorate General of Taxes of the Republic of Indonesia also seems to be highlighted by netizens. Seen from the following Netray monitoring. The account named @DitjenPajakRI received 2,913 statements, 2,272 retweets, and 1,242 replies during the monitoring period. The mention of this account occurred mostly on March 27, 2024 with a total of 180 minutes a day. The most popular upload from the Directorate General of Taxes of the Republic of Indonesia contains simulations of PPh 21 calculations related to THR and bonuses.

The upload, which was raised on March 27, received thousands of impressions, such as 795 comments, 2,460 likes, and has been re-shared 904 times, Netray reported.

Netizen conversation statistics. (Netray)

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) of the Ministry of Finance explained how to calculate PPh 21 in the month of receiving THR with an average effective tariff (TER) scheme. Director of Counseling for Services and Public Relations Dwi Astuti said PPh 21 was calculated by adding salaries and THR received in the month concerned which was then multiplied by tariffs according to the TER table.

"The amount of PPh Article 21 which is deducted in the month of receiving THR will indeed be greater than in other months because the amount of income received is greater, because it consists of components of salary and THR," said Dwi, quoted by Antara.

Dwi underlined the implementation of the PPh calculation method Article 21 using Ter does not increase the tax burden borne by taxpayers. Tariffs are applied to facilitate the calculation of PPh Article 21 for the tax period from January to November.

Later, during the December tax period, the employer will recalculate the amount of tax owed in a year using the general PPh Article 17, and reduce the amount of tax that has been paid from January to November so that the tax burden borne by the taxpayer will remain the same.