a problem in working overseas, income tax

Indonesian government is trying to increase the national income on the budget from tax. To attract more people registering for tax payer registration number (NPWP), a sunset policy has been launched and will end by the end of 2008. For citizen with NPWP, the income tax rate will be lower than those without NPWP.

The non-chargeable income, the new ruling as per table below :

The newly pass Tax Act also alter the prevailing income tax band and income tax rate.  For Indonesian with NPWP, starting from January 2009 the income tax rate is as follows

Tax Rate for Citizen With NPWP

And the income tax rate for Indonesian without NPWP is as follows (usually directly deducted from your salary) :

Income Tax Rate for Non-NPWP

Also there is another incentive for people with NPWP, they are exempted from paying fiscal or exit tax whenever they are traveling out of country at the airports or ferry terminals, the rule apply from 1 January 2009 onwards until end of 2010, whereas starting from 1 January 2011, fiscal or exit tax will be dismissed. However, rumor has it, that fiscal fee or exit tax will be increased by 200% for people without NPWP if they are going abroad.

As usual, most of Indonesian rules and regulations may have multiple interpretations that can lead to different understanding, even for the people at the internal revenue office. For instance if a family has a double income, i.e, husband and wife working. The new Tax bill said, the wife is not required to have NPWP, but if you ask the officer at internal revenue, it is required. Just to be save, better to have both. Aside from that, for Indonesian that currently work and have their earnings inland shouldn’t be any problems with their income tax reporting or assessment.

Meanwhile, I and thousands of Indonesian who works and lived overseas have our own problems. The main problem is, whether we, Indonesian overseas, will have to pay our income tax to Indonesian government for the income earned overseas? To be more specific, Indonesian in Singapore.

To address such problem and supposed to eliminate such confusion among Indonesian in Singapore, the Embassy of Republic of Indonesia in Singapore held a tax seminar on Friday. Instead of giving a clear picture, the seminar leads to more confusion. Because there were two speakers from the Internal Revenue General Directorate of Indonesia which have different opinion on the most crucial question, whether, we, Indonesian in Singapore obliged to pay the income tax for the income we earn here in Singapore?

If the answer is yes, then it is not concur with my logic. We live here, use Singapore facility, earn from Singapore, basically we do not owe anything to Indonesian government, why should we pay our tax?

Apparently the answer is NO, we don’t have to pay income tax for Indonesian government because Singapore and Indonesia ratify the Double Taxation Avoidance agreement. We only have to provide a solid proof that we are Singapore tax residence by providing Certificate of Residence.

Ok, now I want to shout it… goodbye 25%, hello 3%…

being a…

On being a child,

Growing up in a humble family, it wasn’t a very much of pampering or spoiling from my parents. Hey my father was a regular working class man. Hard work is all he know throughout his life. For his family, for me, for my sisters. Putting his head over heels just to make sure that we have something to eat, his children get a good education. That’s all…

Well, you did it pops! I hope the three of us did well too and you’ll be proud of us.

On the contrary, pampering came from my grand parents (love you all grams), my grandma brought me home, a nice wooden made trucks, painted and all, while kids my age made it by themselves. Yeah, less of a creativity for me . My granddad, bought me even more expensive, battery operated toys, robots, cars, that made other kids envy. Ahh… those are the angels in my childhood life. May you both rest in heaven grams.

On being a boy

I was a very decent young boy, staying out of troubles, good grades, first class honor. Well enough said, my parents always walked home proud every end of semester. Stepping on my junior high, family life getting better, courtesy of my pops hard work, coming home late, just have enough time to see him on my way to school and barely saw him during the night.

I guess this was the start of my adolescene, knowing a cute girl, start liking them. Hahahh, having a monkey love relationship with my classmate. Paying attention to girls “particulars”, hey part of the process ain’t it? Ah, teens, sweet life.

A teenager

Then high school era. The era of getting know the world. I made it to enroll in one of Jakarta’s best high school – and so did my sisters. This is when life getting a bit hard. I use to commute between my home in Depok to my high school in Bukit Duri. Train was the fastest way of transport, and much more “convinient” in the year 1995 to 1996 compared to 2008 . Every once in a while, witnessing people falls from the speedy train, high school gangs fight, part of my day.

Then my parents bought me a car, used car on my 2nd year of senior high, travel time was like 45 minutes at that time. Not as bad as these days. It was fun time actually. One of my most memorable moments in my teenage life was the worse I accident I had in my senior year. It was on early 1998, me and my bestest friend was returning home from a friend birthday party. The traffic light was red on Pancoran Junction heading towards MT Haryono. In front of me was a minivan, and behind me was a suzuki sedan. I was smoking, when suddenly I heard tyre screaming, braking hard. Before it hits my car seconds later.

An Honda accord hits the back of the suzuki, before the impact hits my car and absorbed by the minivan in front of me. My friend sitting beside me was pushed out through the window, I was unconcious momentarily. My car was wrecked and it was the worse accident ever.

Uni Student,

Graduated 1998 from High School, enrolled to the best engineering college in the country, taking chemical engineering major (not chemistry!). This is one of my best ride in life. I don’t remember I attend classes regulary, skip most of them, getting good grades at subject that I like, screwed for the rest of them. Taking introductory lesson to alcoholism. And advance course in the final year.

But yeah, after 5 long years I graduated anyway! Hoorraaay!

Work Work Worker!

After graduation, it was not easy to find me a job. Until one of my high school friends contacted me, I was accepted to another “college”, I always consider my first employer is my college to Process Engineering and Design for the oil and gas Industry. This time having a serious relationship after so many years fooling around. Work there for a year, and jump to an MNC still in the same field. One of my advancement in carreer, getting more serious with my girlfriend, but sadly, has to end somehow.

being a man (i hope)

Work for three years, after feeling stuck in the place, moving on to Singapore. Get a new life and new lover, more serious than ever, get engaged. A big step for me, for my life. I was preparing for the big day. The date was set, formal family meetings was held. Mine and hers. I was so happy, excited, families too. I was supposed to be married with my bestest friend cousin.  Then the life turning moment comes, the wedding was canceled, two weeks prior the date.

Part of life, a journey.  It was there to see how strong I am, if I am not strong enough, it was supposed to make me stronger. Yeah… I am trying to be a man…

Love your job, not the company…

Probably those of you who follow me on twitter noticed that for the last couple of days (or weeks) I’ve been whining about my current job here in Singapore. Even though I hold the same position as my previous company in Jakarta a year ago, but somehow I didn’t like it as much.

So what’s wrong?

What’s wrong with the job?

Nothing, nothing is wrong with the job, I love my job.

So, what is it all about?

The situation, the current situation pretty much frustrating for me. The company, well it’s just started about one and half year ago, so you couldn’t expect lots of jobs and big ones flowing in your lap. No, it just starting. Indeed we have projects, and they come in bits and pieces. Doing a bit of this, a bit of that, updating databases. Euh, I really do not want to evolve in such frustrating situation much longer. I am feeling like I am wasting my talent. I need a break, out of this situation.

So what to do next?

As you will notice in my tumblr, one of my targets for the upcoming year is to get myself a new job, errgghh.. not a new job, I love my job, I mean another company to work for, and possibly pays better. I have myself one in hand, and if everything goes as it should be, then by early next year I’m leaving Singapore and heading for the next destination, at the moment I cannot disclose that.

Also considering another option here in Singapore, which I haven’t heard any news for two weeks, I guess I fail my self in one of my worst job interviews. But someone shed me some lights yesterday, bigger break, bigger opportunity some where further. Hopefully this goes as smoothly as possible too.

Reason behind

I hate when everybody thinks that moving from one company to another is always about the money. Not for me, although money is one of the major factor to be considered, I put aside money over opportunity. Opportunity to grow and develop myself to be a better professional.

Second of all, I love my job, my position as a process engineer, in the past time I really enjoyed it. And for the sake of the love for the job, I’ve decided to move on, since by sitting here, I am wasting my talent, therefore I do not take care of my job properly. I mean if you love something and you do not want to lose it, you should take care for it, am I right?

Anyway, there’s a famous saying, love your job, not the company you work for…