JAKARTA: Indonesia is considering a cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service in the United States, in a bid to boost tax revenue, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has revealed.
The IRS is a US government agency that is responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement.
Bambang said he was keen to learn more about the best practices at the IRS.
“The United States’ Treasury Department is willing to give some kind of support to other countries, especially to Indonesia, to improve our capacity,” Bambang said, through a conference call from Turkey.
Bambang discussed the cooperation in a bilateral meeting with US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in Antalya, Turkey.
Despite lower than expected revenue this year, the Indonesian government has set an even higher tax collection target in the 2016 state budget.
The Finance Ministry has set the 2016 tax collection target, excluding excise and duties, at Rp 1,360.14 trillion ($98.42 billion), or 5.1 percent higher than this year’s target of Rp 1,294.26 trillion.
As of Nov. 4, Indonesia’s tax office had only managed to collect Rp 774.5 trillion in taxes, excluding excise and duties — or only 60 percent of its full-year target.
