Overview

The government has set itself a tax-revenue target for 2018 of IDR 1,618.1 trillion, which represents an increase of 9.9% over the 2017 target of IDR 1,472.7 trillion.[1] In order to achieve this target, a number of strategies aimed at strengthening tax compliance by taxpayers are being implemented. One of the strategies is the enforcement of “gijzeling”, which literally means to take non-compliant taxpayers hostage. Different from imprisonment, under this regime, taxpayers are detained by tax officers in correctional centers or other detention facilities and can obtain their release by settling their tax obligations.