Riani Sanusi Putri, Jakarta – The Indonesian Constitutional Court (MK) on Thursday officially moved the jurisdiction to organize court trials on taxes from Finance Ministry to the Supreme Court.
The task of organizational development, administration, and financial aspects of a tax court will gradually come under the authority of the Supreme Court until the end of 2026. This was read out by Constitutional Court chief justice Anwar Usman in a court verdict on May 25.
The decision is legally based on the 1945 Constitution and changes that were presented to Law No. 48/2009. The MK, since 2004, only acknowledges four judicial environments in the country that comprises the General Courts, Religious Courts, State Administrative Courts, and Military Courts.
Such a law dictates that special courts – such as the tax court – can only be formed by one of the aforementioned judicial bodies, which in this case work under the State Administrative Court, overseen by the MK.
The tax court law was initially legally appealed by tax specialist advocate Nurhidayat amidst numerous cases related to taxation. One of the high-profile cases that recently happened involved former Finance Ministry's Directorate General of Taxation official Rafael Alun Trisambodo.
Nurhidayat challenged the phrase "Ministry of Finance" stated in the law and asked the panel of judges of the Constitutional Court to declare that this phrase is conditionally unconstitutional with the 1945 Constitution and has no permanent legal force.