Addin Anugrah Siwi, Jakarta – Indonesia's tax reporting system remains so complex that even Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa admits he could not complete his own filing without assistance.

Purbaya said he encountered difficulties using the government's Coretax system while filing his annual tax return, citing ongoing technical and design issues in the platform.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Purbaya said he required assistance from tax officials just to access the system, yet still faced repeated disruptions during the login and submission process.

"To be honest, I didn't fill it in myself. I was accompanied by tax officers. I logged in, then it kept looping. It took four attempts just to get in," he said. "Sometimes the system just keeps spinning without giving any indication of what's happening."

He explained that such glitches often lead users to assume the system has stalled, prompting them to restart the process and re-enter data from scratch. According to him, these issues should have been identified during pre-launch testing.

"So we think it's frozen and input everything again. That should have been tested earlier. I don't know why it wasn't. We will fix it," he said.

Beyond technical errors, Purbaya pointed to deeper structural flaws, particularly in the system's user interface and language, which he said remain difficult for the general public to understand.

"This is a public-facing interface. Why is it so complicated? The design is flawed," he added.

He also raised concerns over the emergence of third-party software services that reportedly allow users to access Coretax more efficiently. Purbaya suggested the system may be inadvertently dependent on such external tools.

"Apparently there are software services that connect users to Coretax more quickly. That raises questions about why the official system is so difficult to use," he said.

The government plans to close these gaps and ensure the platform no longer relies on external services exploiting access loopholes. Purbaya said the Finance Ministry has established a dedicated team to continuously improve the system.

"We will make sure the system no longer depends on those external services. As for Coretax itself, we will keep improving it. A team has been set up for ongoing fixes," he said.

The Finance Ministry has pushed back the deadline for individual taxpayers to submit their annual tax returns to the end of April 2026, citing ongoing issues with the Coretax system. The extension grants an additional month from the usual March cutoff, aligning the filing deadline for individuals with that of corporate taxpayers.

Data from the Directorate General of Taxes showed that as of March 24, a total of 8,874,904 annual tax returns had been filed. Salaried individuals accounted for the bulk of submissions at 7,826,341, followed by 863,272 filings from non-salaried taxpayers.

Meanwhile, adoption of the Coretax platform continues to expand despite technical complaints. The number of activated accounts reached 16,723,354 as of the same date, comprising 15,677,209 individual taxpayers, 955,508 corporate taxpayers, 90,411 government institutions, and 226 e-commerce taxpayers.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesias-coretax-proves-too-complex-even-for-its-finance-ministe