After officially setting taxes for online merchants. The government is now preparing a strategy to utilize social media monitoring to detect tax reporting discrepancies.
This is done to maximize state revenue of Rp1.99 trillion which will be used to finance various programs in Indonesia.
Deputy Minister of Finance Anggito Abimanyu at a working meeting with Commission XI of the House of Representatives, Monday (14/7/2025), emphasized that the government will strengthen the extraction of tax potential through data analytics and the use of social media in 2026.
"The potential is explored through data analytics and social media," Anggito was quoted as saying in an online broadcast.
The Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) itself has been monitoring social media with a crawling scheme: a system that 'combs' content on the internet to detect potential tax report discrepancies.
"If you like to show off your car on social media, your tax friends will definitely observe it," said Hestu Yoga Saksama, Director of Taxation Regulation I of the DGT, in a media briefing at the DGT Head Office in DPR, yesterday.
Hestu explained that the tax authorities will compare the data posted by taxpayers with the official data in the tax system. If there is a discrepancy, the DGT will provide education or direct warning.
"So indeed, with the dynamics of digitalization becoming more widespread, the tax authorities must also capture it, so that no one is then not taxed while others are taxed," he explained.
In early 2023, netizens were busy being 'detectives' on social media: one by one, officials showed off their wealth, from luxury homes, bags of tens of millions, to private planes, revealed.
This spontaneous movement emerged after the KPK publicly requested the public's help to track down officials' improper assets, following the Rafael Alun Trisambodo case. This move proved to be effective: not only dragging Rafael, but also making several other officials such as two heads of Customs offices, Ministry of State officials, and the wives of KPK officials on the radar.
This move triggered mixed responses. Some were in favor of fairness; it's only fair that lavish lifestyles are confirmed for compliance. But others were concerned about privacy and ethics.
Privacy and Ethics: In the Gray Area
According to Mas Damar Juniarto, Executive Director of Safenet, the DGT's move is actually more about early detection of the suitability of tax reports, not 'digging' for confidential data.
"This is a kind of check and recheck, because it only takes data that has been published on social media," he explained.
From a legal perspective, continued Damar, this is not yet a violation of the Personal Data Protection Law (PDP), because the data taken is public data.
"But is it ethical? Therein lies the problem. The mechanism for fulfilling tax obligations should be from official reports, not from searching for posts," said Damar.
He added that the birth of the PDP Law and the plan to establish a data supervisory institution gave hope.
"Hopefully there will be clearer signs, so that the public knows which data can be accessed and for what purpose," he said.
In the UK, for example, he explained that the tax authority (HM Revenue & Customs) uses digital data for compliance analysis, but is still subject to the Data Protection Act 2018. Australia also requires a privacy impact assessment before utilizing digital data massively.
"So the public still knows what the state is doing, and why," he added.
Voice of UMKM: Healthier Competition, As Long as It's Fair
It is not only privacy experts who give notes. From the business side, a similar voice also emerges: the DGT's approach should not only focus on supervision.
"If we are UMKM and tax-compliant, there is no problem," said Yani Mardiyanto, a NASRAFA Painted Fabric SME from Solo, Central Java.
"In fact, it's good, it just makes more enthusiasm for business competition. Especially for UMKM , if the turnover is below IDR4.8 billion, it is currently not taxable," said the online batik entrepreneur who has been in business for more than 10 years.
But Yanti also reminded the DGT to be really fair, not just targeting the small ones.
"Because currently there are many big businesses, big turnover, big salaries, that are not touched by tax. While the small ones are sometimes even chased by taxes," he said.
Learning from Other Countries
To prevent the public from feeling arbitrarily monitored, transparency and restrictions are key. In the UK, tax authorities (HM Revenue & Customs) may utilize digital data, but must comply with the Data Protection Act 2018. Australia requires a privacy impact assessment before massive data usage.
"So it's not just the state that can collect data, but the public also knows what data, for what purpose, and can protest if they feel wrong," explained Damar.
Source: OECD report, HMRC website, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Ultimately, tax policy is not about spying, but about fairness: ensuring that all parties, whether trading offline or online, contribute according to their ability.
"So we have also done a lot of supervision for endorsements," said Hestu Yoga Saksama. "So that no one is then not taxed, while others are taxed," he continued.
The next challenge is to ensure that this policy is transparent, measurable, and has a control mechanism. So that the public will not only see crawling as a threat, but as a step towards a fairer tax system.
