Program Studi Akuntansi Universitas Katolik Parahyangan
Culture’s Merdeka Campus Competition Program in 2021. With regard to the achievement of this competition grant, Parahyangan Catholic University’s Accounting Study Program organized a series of activities, one of which was the debriefing and mentoring of the Accounting Competition Team by inviting accounting alumni and practitioners to deliver the materials for around 35 students of the Accounting Competition Team selected from the classes of 2018 and 2019.
The students gained a variety of knowledge experiences with current topics relevant to the competition and the future of the competition team in the workplace. On Monday, August 9, 2021, an online briefing was held by inviting Ms. Egie Bea Sekar Arum. She holds a degree in tax administration. At the beginning of her career, she worked as an accountant. After that, she focused her career on taxation. For approximately 7 years, she has worked in the field of taxation, starting as a consultant and then becoming Tax Policy Section Head at one of the largest multi-finance companies in Indonesia. Currently, she holds the position of Associate Manager at RSA Consult, which works a lot on tax court matters.
On this occasion, she presented the theme “Green Table of Taxation,” which was very interesting and provided knowledge for the Accounting competition team of the Faculty of Economics, Parahyangan Catholic University. The session opened with a discussion of tax consultants. A tax consultant is a person who provides tax consulting services to taxpayers (individuals or companies) in order to exercise their rights and fulfill their tax obligations in accordance with tax laws and regulations. The scope of tax consultants work includes advisory, monthly tax compliance, and tax audit litigation.
The number of consultants in Indonesia is still small when compared to the total population, which is only around 3,231, so the work of tax consultants is both attractive and needed at this time. Tax consultants are needed this time because tax regulations continue to change, such as the recent UU Cipta Kerja, which includes changes to value-added tax (VAT) and income tax. In addition, taxpayers often have difficulty keeping up with regulatory changes.
Indonesia adheres to the self-assessment system. The government, through the Direktorat Jenderal Pajak (DJP), is authorized to conduct tax audits to ensure compliance with taxpayer tax obligations. From the audit arises a Tax Assessment Letter (SKPKB, SKPLB, SKPN). If the taxpayer objects to the SKP, the taxpayer can submit an objection to the DJP or Regional Office (Kantor Wilayah). After the objection, a Tax Objection Determination Letter (Surat Ketetapan Keberatan Pajak – SKEP) is issued. If the taxpayer still disagrees, then an appeal can be submitted to the Tax Court.
The appeal process starts with the issuance of the objection decision. The taxpayer then submits an appeal, and the process takes 3 months from the objection decision letter to the tax court. Then the letter is forwarded to the DJP for appeal. After that, the DJP makes an appeal to the taxpayer. Then the description must be answered by the taxpayer. After the answer, the hearing can be conducted (a formal or material hearing). The formal hearing is held twice; the first is to enter the deed and formal documents of the company or corporate data, assign legal counsel, and create a dispute matrix. Meanwhile, in the material hearing, the taxpayer must provide evidence and an explanation for the appeal.
This activity was closed with a discussion related to transfer pricing, such as companies that have affiliates (shareholders) selling cheaper raw materials to companies that have special relationships with them. According to the DJP, the transaction is not reasonable, but from the taxpayer’s side, the transaction is reasonable. So that this raises the appeal process with juridical, namely describing the legal basis and argumentation why the transaction is said to be reasonable and providing evidence to prove it to the panel of judges. Then this session ended with a question-and-answer session.