Welfare Criminology: Taxation and Human Nature
Universitas Indonesia
ABSTRACT
Indonesia is a country that relies profoundly on tax revenues. Nevertheless, the tax gap is outsized, which is 50%, compelling the tax ratio of Indonesia is contained within the average tax ratio of poor countries. There is a number of disobediences of the tax law conducted by citizens, not only related to administrative sanctions but also those subject to penal sanctions. Personal taxpayer becomes the major category that has low tax compliance, it is only 37% for tax return submission and accounts for only 20%-27% of total tax revenues by 2015. The purpose of this article is to provide a new perspective by elucidating a correlation between Indonesian taxation with criminology, especially in social control of tax crime. Moreover, it contributes benefits to reduce violation of tax law which further lead to increase tax revenues. This article is a prelude to ongoing research. By using literature and document study (conceptual approach), further enhanced with secondary and content analysis, in this article, I contend that there is a low willingness to comply of citizen due to the social control policies associated with tax crimes are still not effectively mitigating tax evasion. The exalted violation of tax law associates to the unconformity of the tax norms with the human nature in performing his behavior. Tax loss instigated by violating the tax law will impact all people of Indonesia, because these conducts have hampered the social welfare. Hence, it can be said that the act of violating the tax law is the crime against the community welfare. Therefore, in this study will employ the theory of welfare criminology.
KEYWORDS
crime, criminology, human nature, taxation, welfare criminology