Bimo Wijayanto, Director General of Taxation, revealed the reason behind the government's decision to raise the final Income Tax (PPh) Article 22 rate on legal crypto assets from 0.1% to 0.21%.

He explained that the policy outlined in Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) No. 50 of 2025, which takes effect starting August 1, 2025, is intended as compensation for the removal of the Value Added Tax (VAT) previously imposed on crypto assets.

Since crypto assets are now treated the same as securities, the previous VAT rate of 0.11% as stated in PMK 81/2024, which applied to legal crypto assets listed on Bappebti, is now eliminated.

“There’s a slight increase in the final PPh Article 22. This is to compensate for the absence of VAT, so the level playing field remains intact,” Bimo stated during a media briefing in Jakarta on Thursday evening (July 31, 2025).

Meanwhile, Hestu Yoga Saksama, Director of Tax Regulation I at the Directorate General of Taxes, emphasized that this change will not significantly affect tax revenues from crypto transactions, as the overall tax burden remains the same, only now consolidated into a single tax type.

“The 0.21% figure is simply the combination of the previous 0.1% PPh and 0.11% VAT. So now, although it’s only collected as PPh, the total tax owed is unchanged,” Yoga explained.

Yoga further noted that future revenue potential will largely depend on the state of the crypto business climate, since tax deposits from this sector have historically fluctuated along with changes in asset prices and transaction volumes.

He cited examples: in 2022, crypto tax revenues reached IDR 246 billion, then declined to IDR 220 billion in 2023, and peaked at IDR 620 billion in 2024.
For the current year 2025, tax receipts have only reached around IDR 115 billion so far.

"Crypto tax revenue directly reflects the market's condition. Prices can rise or drop suddenly—everything in crypto, from bitcoin to other coins, is highly volatile," he concluded.