Government Re-Activates Plan to Appoint E-Commerce as Tax Collector

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa (photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa plans to continue the plan to appoint a domestic e-commerce platform as the party in charge of collecting taxes on the sale of goods by merchants (merchants) on the platform.

He added that this policy will be considered for implementation if economic growth in the second quarter of 2026 shows a positive trend.

According to him, the policy aims to create a fairer competition between online and offline business actors, while still referring to accurate data analysis.

"If the second quarter is still good (the economy), we will consider (the implementation) to also make the competition between online and offline more fair, of course, with a clear analysis of the data we have," he said in a working meeting with Commission XI of the Indonesian House of Representatives, quoted Tuesday, April 7.

He explained that the plan had actually been in place since 2025, but had been delayed due to Indonesia's unstable economic conditions and currently, as the economic situation improves, the government is opening up opportunities to resume the policy.

"Actually, the Director General of Taxes already has a plan to impose taxes on online transactions, but at that time the economy was still somewhat disrupted, so we haven't implemented it. Now it's pretty good," he said.

He added that this step was also a response to complaints from offline traders regarding the flooding of products from China on e-commerce platforms, so the government set rules requiring digital platform organizers, including marketplaces, to collect Income Tax (PPh) Article 22 of 0.5 percent of the seller's turnover who transact online.

Meanwhile, the provision is regulated in the Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) Number 37 of 2025.

The policy applies to domestic business actors who sell through electronic trading systems, both local marketplaces and foreign platforms that meet certain criteria will be appointed by the Directorate General of Taxes as tax collectors.

Based on Article 8 of the regulation, the amount of PPh Article 22 is set at 0.5 percent of the total gross circulation received by domestic traders, as stated in the transaction document, excluding Value Added Tax (VAT) and PPnBM.

Meanwhile, according to Article 6 paragraph (2), individual traders with annual turnover of up to IDR 500 million are not subject to tax, provided that they submit a turnover statement to the marketplace, and if the current year's turnover exceeds IDR 500 million, the trader is required to report it through a statement to the platform concerned.