Around 76 percent of National Revenue and Expenditure Budget is obtained from tax. However, for the past seven years from 2009-2015, the tax revenue never achieves 100 percent from the set target. 

All this while, the level of tax compliance (formal and material) is still low. On the other side, there are many economic potentials that have yet to be utilized.

Those conditions reflect the lack of tax awareness among taxpayers and Indonesian community. Therefore, in order to build the future of tax in Indonesia, it requires a preparation of young generation that has tax awareness.

“The culture of tax awareness has to be implemented as early as possible through education sector, thus tax can become one of the national characters of a generation who has a high sense of nationalism through tax awareness,” said Dr. Yehezkiel Minggus Tiranda. S.H., M.H., Head of Cooperation and Partnership Subdivision, Directorate General of Taxation during the opening of a National Seminar entitled Tax Education Inclusion for Enhancing Tax Awareness and Equitable Development in Sustainable Development Goals Era at Faculty of Economics and Business UGM on Thursday (12/10).

Minggus Tiranda said in order to realize generation who has tax awareness, they have prepared an education program regarding tax awareness values towards the young generation. This program is named as tax awareness inclusion in the education sector.

The program kick-off was simultaneously held throughout Indonesia on August 11, 2017. The event entitled Tax Speaks (Pajak Bertutur) was held in as many as 2,182 schools and universities and attended by 127,459 participants.

“The rumblings are extraordinary both in social media and print media, and the awareness of the community is built due to the existence of the role of tax that has been taught to the young generation,” said Minggus.

Minggus further said Directorate General of Taxation feels proud of the Tax Awareness Inclusion Program which is developed since 2011 has made a significant progress. Meanwhile, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding Tax Awareness Inclusion had been signed between Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education and Cultures in 2014.

The same statement was stated by Dean of Faculty of Economics and Business UGM, Eko Suwardi, M.Sc., Ph.D. According to Eko, currently, the level of tax compliance is under 11 percent. Eko said the lack of tax compliance shows there are still problems in it. Therefore, as a lecturer who gives tax education, it is his task to educate his students thus they can have tax awareness.

Source: Agung/UGM