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Tax office threatens to probe Google case
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Batik prints add an Indonesian touch to Google logo display at Google Indonesia's headquarters. (Kompas.com/Oik Yusuf)
T
he Jakarta tax authority has threatened to start a legal investigation into the tax case of Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd if the Internet giant fails to hand over transaction data of the company, an official has said.
“If there is any indication of delaying tactics, we will raise the issue to an investigation level, involving police and prosecutors,” said Jakarta Directorate General of Taxation head Muhammad Haniv as reported by tempo.co on Tuesday.
With the handover of Google’s transaction data, the government expects to know the advertisement contract data and the company’s server.
The government believes that Google owes Rp 337.5 billion (US$25.28 million) tax plus Rp 3 trillion in penalties as the Directorate General of Taxation estimates that Google’s revenue reached Rp 6 trillion for 2015.
Haniv said Google argued to the tax office that it needed time because there was a lot of electronic data that had to be handed over to the government. But Haniv suspected that Google might be worried that all of its activities in Indonesia would be uncovered.
Late last year, the government gave Google the chance to negotiate. But negotiations have so far been fruitless. “The world’s approach in dealing with Google has ended up with settlements not based on the accurate tax calculations,” Haniv added.
He called on Google to hand over the data by late January. He believed that Google would agree to do so before the government started a legal investigation. (bbn)
