Officials from Indonesia's cryptocurrency regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Authority (Bapebuti), have called on the finance minister to reconsider tax rates on digital assets.
In Southeast Asian countries, virtual currencies are treated as goods and are therefore subject to value added tax (VAT) and income tax. However, this situation will change in 2025 when cryptocurrency oversight switches to OJK, the country's broad-based financial services regulator.
“With virtual currencies expected to enter the financial sector by January 2025, we urge the Commissioner of Taxation to review these taxes. More than a year after these rules were introduced has passed and taxes are normally checked every year,” Tirtha Karma Senjaya said. Bapebuti said at an event on Tuesday.
Tirta also said that the digital asset industry is still in its infancy and needs room to grow before injecting too much tax into national revenue.
The existing tax has been criticized by the industry for being a burden on users and service providers. Indonesian crypto exchanges blame taxes for last year's sharp 60% drop in trading volume from 2022, raising concerns that taxes could drive users to foreign exchanges. ing.
Mr. Bapebuti has not disclosed what kind of tax reform he would like to see from the Ministry of Finance, but it is likely that he is asking for the abolition of value-added tax in line with the treatment of stocks. The industry expects that the shift in supervision to OJK, which oversees all financial services in Indonesia, including banking, capital markets, insurance and pensions, could result in cryptocurrencies being treated as securities in the country.
Ministry of Finance spokesperson Dwi Astuti said on Wednesday that he “welcomes input from Mr. Bapepti and the public” and that the tax issue “will definitely be discussed internally.”
