Thread: Balinese, you have got to love them

I or my wife recently started a business here in Bali. We created a new CV. For a CV you need to have an address first before you register a company. That's fine, so we rented a small shop. Paid upfront for two years.

The company registration went fine and we opened the company. The next step was to register for tax. We want to do everything right as possible. Ok, we need to pay the tax department to register the company. It might take some time before we actually start making money, but that is fine, as long as you make the initial payment or registration fee.

On the form we needed to write the business address and NPWP of the owner of the shop. My wife went back to the owner, who wasn't too happy to hear that we needed to give his NPWP number to the tax office. He owns several shops and restaurants and obiously hasn't been doing much in the way of paying tax :shock:

He made a dumb excuse that his card was at the bank and he couldn't give it to us right now. If we don't pay the tax soon we will need to pay a late fee. The tax dept. already knows some details of the shop owner. He said if he knew before that we were going to make a CV and register for tax he wouldn't have rented us the shop. :x

It made me realize that few businesses in the area are actually paying any taxes, otherwise they would have the same problem. :|

So what can we do? The owner suggested we should write that we are the owner of the shop and to use our tax number!? I said fine as long as he transfers the ownship over to us. I have the feeling that he won't tell us his number. So we will then have to tell the tax office about our situation and if they smell money, I am sure they are going to come anyway.

We are in a bit of a corner right now, but would appreciate any suggestions/advice. Isn't it nice to be living in Bali?