Indonesia to Pursue U.S. Tech Firms on Taxes, Minister Says

By Resty Woro Yuniar

Indonesia will chase back taxes from Internet giants Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit, Twitter Inc. and Yahoo Inc. after allegedly finding proof that these companies have been avoiding corporate taxes for years in the country, a government official said.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro on Wednesday said that Google, Facebook, and Twitter have been incorporated in Indonesia since last week and now can be subjected to local taxes, after years of running businesses as representative offices that enjoyed lower taxes than traditional corporations.

"These companies have been getting many businesses here, especially from advertising, and we are not sure that they've been paying the taxes correctly in accordance with the amount of businesses they've earned from Indonesia," he said.

Facebook, Google and Yahoo couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Twitter declined to comment.

Southeast Asia's biggest economy aims to obtain "billions of dollars" in alleged back taxes and is ready to scuffle in a legal process that may takes years to resolve, he said. Mr. Brodjonegoro said that Indonesia is following the steps of fellow G-20 members the U.K., France and Italy in pursuing back taxes from U.S. technology companies.

Write to Resty Woro Yuniar at RestyWoro.Yuniar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 06, 2016 10:20 ET (14:20 GMT)

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