MLA agreement with Switzerland will assist tax fraud investigations: Official - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta Post

Taxation Director General Robert Pakpahan has welcomed a recent mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreement between Indonesia and Switzerland, saying that it would help the tax office to carry out investigations of alleged tax fraud.

"It is good. It will accelerate solutions to tax disputes," he said as quoted by kontan.co.id, adding that with the MLA, both countries could help each other handle tax disputes.

Meanwhile, tax office spokesman Hestu Yoga Saksama said the agreement would strengthen the tax office's legal position in the investigation of tax fraud cases.

Under the agreement, Swiss authorities could help Indonesia by providing testimony in certain cases, making raids on certain properties, tracking evidence hidden in the country and freezing or seizing alleged ill-gotten assets in the country, he added.

However, he did not have access to valuable information regarding potential taxable assets hidden in Switzerland because based on the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) agreement, Indonesia and Switzerland will start to exchange information in September, 2019.

"So, we have no data of assets owned by Indonesian nationals in Switzerland," he said, adding that regarding the AEOI with Singapore, the tax office was currently analyzing data handed over by Singapore in September 2018.

With the MLA agreement, the tax office expressed hope it would discourage taxpayers from evading taxes, as they could no longer store their wealth in banks in Switzerland and other countries that had MLA agreements with Indonesia. (bbn)

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