Increasing Voluntary Compliance Of Tax Payments In Micro Small And Medium Enterprises (Msmes) Post-Issuance Of Government Regulation Number 23 Of 2018 (Case Study In Semarang City)

Abstract

Increasing the voluntary compliance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) actors needs to be improved. Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2017, the contribution of MSMEs reached 61.4% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). MSMEs also absorb employment of almost 97% of the total national workforce, with the number of MSMEs reaching 60 million units. However, when compared with the contribution of MSMEs to tax revenues, there is a miss-match where the contribution of MSMEs to tax revenues is very small, which is approximately 1% of total tax revenues. The imbalance in the contribution of MSMEs is an indication that the level of compliance of MSMEs in fulfilling their tax obligations is very low. Data in this research will be obtained by field observation, interview and questionnaire. Resource persons and respondents in this study include the parties involved in the making of regulations and management of SMEs. Increased voluntary compliance through the legal policy of imposing MSME’s Income Tax is expected to justify taxation policies, while considering the applicable variables in making a good tax policy, through harmonizing aspects of tax collection justice with efforts to encourage voluntary compliance and MSME growth. The results of this study indicate that (1) the tax rate for MSMEs of 1% of turnover is quite burden some for MSME players. In addition to the large tax rate, their lack of understanding of tax obligations and the limitations of their human resources to take care of taxation are also obstacles for them to comply with tax payment obligations. (2) MSMEs actors appreciate the new tax rate for MSMEs as much as 0.5% of turnover contained in PP No. 23 of 2018. They hope that the socialization of MSME taxation can be obtained immediately so as to support them to comply with tax obligations. (3) in order to encourage compliance, it is necessary to increase the benefits of tax payments for the growth of MSMEs.