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The Constitutional Court held the trial for the review of Act No. 36/2008 about Income Tax (Act on Income Tax) which was considered to violate The 1945 Constitution, Thursday (15/1), at The Constitutional Court (The Court) Panel Room scheduled for Initial Verification.

Case No. 1/PUU-VII/2009 was pleaded by DR. Gustian Djuanda, S.E.M.M who worked as a Lecturer of STEKPI School of Business and Management, South Jakarta.

There were several articles within the Act on Income Tax which became the main issue of this case; for example, Article 7 paragraph (1) stated:

“Annual Tax-free income is given at the minimum of:
a. Rp15.840.000,00 (fifteen million eight hundred and forty thousand rupiah) for a single taxpayer;
b. Rp1.320.000,00 (one million three hundred and twenty thousand rupiah) addition for a married taxpayer;
c. Rp15.840.000,00 (fifteen million eight hundred and forty thousand rupiah) addition for a wife whose income was combined to the husband s income as mentioned in Article 8 paragraph (1); and
d. Rp1.320.000,00 (one million three hundred and twenty thousand rupiah) addition for every member of a nucleus family in a straight family line including adopted children, who becomes full account, to the maximum of three members for each family.”

Apart from that, the Petitioner also reviewed Article 9 paragraph (1) letter g which stated:
to determine the amount of income induced to tax for domestic taxpayers and the form of fixed business which can not be reduced:

g) donated property, donation, and inheritance as mentioned in Article 4 paragraph (3) letter a and b, except donation as mentioned in Article 6 paragraph (1) letter i until m also religious donation (zakat) or zakat collector institutions which were formed or legalized by the Government or other religious donation which was compulsory to the believers of religions recognized by Indonesian Government, which was accepted by religious institutions which were formed or legalized by the Government, which was regulated with or based on Government Decree.

The Petitioner argued that the existence of these articles had given more burden to the Petitioner s life because of the little of tax reducing facility received by the Petitioner as an Indonesian Tax Payer due to:
a. The omission of Zakat as a income tax reducing element in Article 9 paragraph (1) letter g on the Act on Income Tax.
b. The value of the margin of Tax-free Income (PTKP) within Article 7 of Act on Income Tax was not based on minimum living cost.
c. The tax-free income for a not-working wife as mentioned in Article 7 paragraph (1) letter b of Act on Income Tax was less than the tax-free Income for a working wife as mentioned in Article 7 paragraph (I) letter c of Act on Income Tax.
d. The tax-free income for dependents as mentioned in Article 7 paragraph (1) letter d of Act on Income Tax which was only 8,3 % of the tax-free income of a taxpayer was less than the tax-free income of a dependant as mentioned in Article 7 paragraph (I) letter d of Act No. 17/2000 which was 50 % of the tax-free income of a taxpayer.

Besides that, the Petitioner also claimed that there was injustice in imposing tax in form of:
a. Tax- subsidy facility given to the employee by the employer allowed by the Tax Directorate General (TDG) as put in Form SPT 1721 Al no 2 was an injustice in real Tax imposing felt by the employee who did not get such facility. In reality, this tax subsidy was very much enjoyed by top level management of a company or institution and foreign workers in Indonesia as domestic tax subjects.
b. No explicit article about providing tax-subsidy in the Act on Income Tax was considered to be against the 1945 Constitution, especially Article 28D paragraph (2).

For that, in the petitum, the Petitioner demanded The Court to announce Article 7 paragraph (1) letter a, b, c, and d also Article 9 paragraph (1) letter g  of Act of Income Tax violated Article 27 paragraph (2), Article 28B paragraph (1) and Article 28H paragraph (1) of The 1945 Constitution. (Prana Patrayoga Adiputra) 

Photo: Doc. of CCRI PR/Yoga Adiputra

Translated by Yogi Djatnika/CCRI

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