Indonesia Hoping for Tax Settlement With Google, Finance Minister Says
October 27 2016 - 05:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Ben Otto
JAKARTA, Indonesia--Indonesia is trying to settle a tax dispute
with Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit and will treat the case
professionally, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said
Thursday.
"We've already communicated with Google. At least there's an
understanding about why Indonesia would like to have [a] fair share
of the revenue," Ms. Mulyani told journalists in Jakarta. "We do
hope that we are going to have a settlement."
"I would like to give the assurance" that Indonesia will give
Google opportunity to examine the case, she added. "I'm going to
make sure that our team is going to treat this issue
professionally."
"This has nothing to do with whether [it's] criminal or
non-criminal," she added without elaborating.
Indonesia's tax agency last month said it planned to bill Google
up to $380 million in back taxes and fines that it said the search
giant owes from 2015, and that the agency would also pursue taxes
as far back as 2011, when Google first established a presence in
Southeast Asia's largest economy.
Google has said it has paid all applicable taxes in Indonesia,
and that it is cooperating with the government.
Google and Facebook collected 70% of Indonesia's total digital
advertising revenue of $830 million last year, according to
Indonesian authorities, and the government has been pressing for
more tax revenue from the business for several months. Indonesia is
struggling to meet its tax-collection target of $117 billion this
year to help fund President Joko Widodo's plans to build up the
ports and roads he says Indonesia needs to become more
competitive.
Indonesia's move also comes amid growing scrutiny into the tax
affairs of big-name tech firms. In late August, the European
Union's antitrust regulator demanded that Ireland recoup roughly
$14.5 billion of unpaid taxes accumulated over more than a decade
by Apple Inc., saying that rules prohibit government from helping
companies gain advantages over their competitors.
--Resty Woro Yuniar contributed to this article.
Write to Ben Otto at ben.otto@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 27, 2016 05:18 ET (09:18 GMT)
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