Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

Sorry if this is not in the appropriate section on the forum. Not so much visa related as wanting to check what the current fiskal tax is for Indonesians leaving Bali?

My friend is coming to Australia next month and I have been told the fiscal is now 1.5 million. Have searched the net and everything I have found states fiskal is 1 million.

Has it changed and if so when?

Thanks for anyone who can answer this.

Don't know.

Last time I (and Dewi) paid 1 million.

Actually I have heard the Fiscal Tax will be over soon.....

And, Welcome Monkey !

Thanks for the welcome Bert. Have finally gotten around to posting having visited and read this site for a few years. Hoping someone can clarify for me. I received an sms this afternoon that there is a post on BTF that states fiskal is 1.5million. It's the first we have heard of it. Friends that travelled to Australia late last year paid 1 million. Hope someone has the answer.

Actually I have heard the Fiscal Tax will be over soon.....

An interesting article in yesterday's Jakarta Post on this topic:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20040823.L01

Roy,
I read about the possible abolition of fiskal tax last year on the Bali Discovery newsletter, and having searched the net this afternoon regarding the topic found it again. Interesting article from Jakarta post. I have always thought the amount charged is exhorbitant.

It is exorbitant, no question about that. The other ASEAN member countries have been at Indonesia to remove this tax for some time now. Hopefully, it is just a matter of time...and short time at that.

Funny name you picked. I was trying to get our boys to name our new puppy Monyet, but I was overruled. I hope you enjoy the forum!

Ah yes, the name Monyet. It is an affectionate term I use for one of my friends in Bali.
I quite like the little beggars even though I have been bitten in Thailand and Bali. Pity you lucked out, it would have been a cute name for a dog. Years ago a friend in Bali had a dog they named Tourist. They were forever cursing bloody tourist !!

Is there an edit button on here? My spelling of exorbitant incorrect. Forgive me for I have sinned.

Monyet wrote:... My friend is coming to Australia next month and I have been told the fiscal is now 1.5 million. Have searched the net and everything I have found states fiskal is 1 million.

Has it changed and if so when?

on 15 jan this year we had to pay 1 million, and I am pretty sure it hasnt changed

[/quote]
on 15 jan this year we had to pay 1 million, and I am pretty sure it hasnt changed[/quote]

Thankyou for answering my query. This is what I understood it to be. I have also checked the forum where the information was originally posted. It would seem that the gentleman that stated it was 1.5 million, has admitted an error and that Fiskal tax is 1 million

I do wish people would check their facts before posting mis-information. It is one of the things which I hate about the various forums out there. Lots of opinion, but how much of it is accurate or without bias. Thats my whinge for the day. Thankyou all again. Let's see it it takes me another 12 months to post !!

Paggi Monyet! I wonder if that person mix up things, because what has increase it was the taxes we all, indonesian or not, have to pay when we go out of Indonesia, before it was 100.000 Rp and now is 150.000 Rp, I hope I am not wrong on this!!!!!!
By they way, 50.000 Rp it is already too much to increase in once, I am always very surprise about the increase thing in Indonesia, never a little usually big quantities, not very logic.............
I know the quantity is too different from what that person said but sometimes whe hear bells and we don´t know where are coming from (hehehe sorry we have something in spanish saying something like that but I am not sure about the translation in english, "oimos campanas y no sabemos de donde vienen") maybe that is what he/she meant

I paid 1 million two weeks ago.

But I agree with everyone else here, the Fiskal is simply plain wrong. Charging your county's citizens the equivalent of, for most of them, much more than one month's salary to leave the country is abhorrent and is a real reference to the bad old days here. To claim it's a way of gathering tax is simply a non-starter, especially when airfares are often much less than the Fiskal (and one is already paying tax on the airfare). Unfettered travel is a right in a democracy.

Then we have all the nonsense that many Indonesians go through to get a passport....

Begonia

I wonder if that person mix up things, because what has increase it was the taxes we all, indonesian or not, have to pay when we go out of Indonesia, before it was 100.000 Rp and now is 150.000 Rp, I hope I am not wrong on this!!!!!!

I think you are confusing Fiskal with Airport tax which has recently been increased. Fiskal is 1,000,000 not 100,000 and to my knowledge remains the same.

Airport taxes however have been recently increased both domestic (was 30,000) and International (was 100,000). I think this is what you mean.

SG, what is most likely to replace the Fiskal is proof of tax number and payment. Thailand once used this same approach with its citizens leaving the country for foreign shores.

I agree that employing a Fiskal tax on international departures for Indonesians, and foreign residents is not the way to go...but, then again, there is this revenue issue which brings to the table a whole host of problems and challenges.

Roy, my understanding, talking to a couple of friends in Jakarta who have some understanding, I'm told, of the issue, is that there is immense pressure from ASEAN to have unfettered travel in the region and they are insisting it goes. That is coupled with with a UN convention that RI is a signatory to which states a similar thing. I understand the revenue issues but its a rather finger in the dyke approach to approach it as such, when radical overhaul of the taxation system, which is in the dark ages, is the real issue.

And I'm not sure if either ASEAN or the UN will accept such a solution. But then again RI may simply raise its middle finger and say so what!

Monyet wrote,

“Years ago a friend in Bali had a dog they named Tourist.”

We may share that very same friend who lives in Ubud. Tourist disappeared one day, presumed to have been stolen. Oddly enough our friend also hails from Perth and recently married his Indonesian sweetheart there. Coincidence, or are we both talking about AH?

SG wrote,

“...when radical overhaul of the taxation system, which is in the dark ages, is the real issue.”

I couldn’t agree more. This will be a daunting challenge since the vast majority of Indonesians do not have tax numbers and most taxes that are paid are based on a consumption level, not a net income level. For RI, this tax approach makes more sense as it would be almost impossible to track the actual income of its citizens. In fact, they are already moving in this direction, as with the pending implementation of higher gas prices for those vehicles with larger engines.

Of concern is that the Indonesian government has been using some American internal revenue specialists as consultants in their attempts to revamp their own income tax system. Even the new income tax forms have a frightening similarity to current IRS tax forms utilized in the US.

I don’t see how either the UN or ASEAN could object to RI demanding proof of tax compliance by its citizens prior to being allowed to travel outside the country. Frankly, when one considers the draconian methods used by the IRS in the US on its citizens, which basically amounts to being held guilty unless able to prove innocence, such an approach seems reasonable and in the spirit of anti-corruption by making it a little more difficult moving ill gotten gains out of RI.