According to Yon Arsal, the country’s special assistant for tax compliance, Indonesia has collected close to $6.8 million since implementing fintech and cryptocurrency transaction taxes in May.
Arsal predicted the amount would increase because the taxes were still in their early phases during a recent retail conference.
On May 1 of this year, the Indonesian finance ministry applied a 0.1% value-added tax (VAT) to purchases of crypto assets.
The rising popularity of cryptocurrencies among local investors led the Indonesian government to decide to tax cryptocurrency transactions.
COVID-19 Helped Crypto Surge
Furthermore, since the COVID-19 outbreak, Indonesia's interest in cryptocurrencies has surged. In 2021, there were 11 million crypto owners.
The report states:
The overall value of electronic asset transactions reached 59.8 billion USD in 2021, growing 10 times from 2020, according to Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency.
To boost state income in the post-pandemic era, Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, adopted the crypto tax strategy.
The spokesperson for the tax office, Hestu Yoga Saksama, has previously stated:
Crypto-assets will be subject to VAT since, according to the trade ministry’s definition, they are commodities. They don’t function as money. Therefore, we shall apply VAT and income tax.
In the meantime, to promote financial inclusion in Indonesia, digital asset and fintech firm Fasset Technologies recently teamed up with global payments leader Mastercard.
Fasset wanted to provide Indonesians with its unique technologies to digitize banking services as the globe changed at an unprecedented rate.
In contrast, Bank Indonesia assesses how central bank digital currency (CBDC) would affect the regional economy to promote inclusion and financial system efficiencies.
