Serious Indon charges Sinkie banks evading tax

http://www.indonesia-investments.co...r-to-keep-indonesian-assets-offshore/item7028


Tax Amnesty: Singapore Banks Eager to Keep Indonesian Assets Offshore
22 July 2016

Allegedly, several Singaporean banks try to keep Indonesian funds within the country by offering tax incentives to their Indonesian clients. These banks are concerned that Indonesia's tax amnesty program will lure taxpayers to repatriate their funds into Indonesia. Under Indonesia's amnesty program tax evaders obtain tax incentives (and impunity from prosecution) to declare and - if desired - repatriate their offshore funds into Indonesia. Although it is illegal to request Indonesian clients not to declare these assets to Indonesian tax authorities, it is legal to offer an incentive to keep the assets in Singapore.

Govt optimistic Singapore efforts to stymie tax amnesty will fail

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta | Tue, July 19 2016 | 09:35 am
Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro (second right) gives a press briefing with the ministry's general-secretary, Hadiyanto (left), deputy finance minister Mardiasmo (second left) and Bank Indonesia deputy governor Perry Warjiyo at the ministry in Central Jakarta recently. (JP/Prima Wirayani)

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has claimed that Singapore's move to cut tax rates and offer facilities to keep Indonesian assets from leaving the city state is a counter to the recently introduced tax amnesty.

However, Bambang believes that Indonesian taxpayers who have parked their assets in the country, famed as a preferred destination for tax evaders, will repatriate their assets to Indonesia.

"It's only [Singapore’s] move to challenge us. I believe our taxpayers are nationalists who love Indonesia more than other countries," he said on Monday.

With the program, which provides a low redemption rate and amnesty for repatriated assets, Bambang predicted that 100 percent of Indonesian assets parked in Singapore would be brought back to Indonesia.

"100 percent, if possible," he noted.

A number of Singaporean banks have recently introduced offers apparently aimed at discouraging Indonesian customers from repatriating their assets by offering, among others, zero percent interest on loans to Indonesian businesspeople and waivers on declaration fees. (dmr)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/...-efforts-to-stymie-tax-amnesty-will-fail.html

Bring It On! VP Challenges Singapore Banks' Reported Move to Stop Repatriation of Indonesian Assets
i

Jakarta. The Indonesian government is keeping its cool as it faces the first hurdle in its much-vaunted tax amnesty program: reports say several unnamed Singaporean banks have allegedly lured their Indonesian customers with a special scheme to leave their assets in the island country instead of returning them to Indonesia.

"Every country wants to survive," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters on Thursday (21/07).

"It [only] proves what people always say that most of the money stashed in Singapore comes from Indonesia," Kalla said.

The Vice President's comment came after rumors circulated accusing the Singaporean government and the country's banks of hiring private agents to persuade Indonesians to leave their assets in the island country.

Yustinus Prastowo, the executive director of Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA), told the Jakarta Globe he had heard about the offer firsthand from Indonesian businesspeople who have been approached personally by the private agents.

The agents said Singaporean banks will pay the tariff difference — 4 percent versus 2 percent — between declaring the Indonesian taxpayers' assets and repatriating them back home in July-September, Yustinus said.

"This type of incentive is legal and the Indonesian government must be ready to face it," Yustinus said.

Yustinus said the government needs to offer non-tariff incentives to the taxpayers to get them to repatriate their assets, including legal certainty, ease of doing business, easier licensing and sound political conditions — all of which have been included in the government's tax amnesty policy.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro told reporters on Monday he is not afraid of the reported move by the Singaporean banks. According to him, the government will set up information centers at Indonesian embassies in Singapore, Hong Kong and London where most Indonesians keep their offshore assets.

http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/...ted-move-stop-repatriation-indonesian-assets/