Amnesty Policy Research Articles

Governance failure and the formation of Anti-State Organisations: The Impact of the Amnesty Policy on the Development of Nigeria’s Niger-Delta, Nigeria

The Amnesty policy was devised by the Nigerian government to take-off militants from attacking oil pipelines in Niger-Delta. This was with the view to promoting development in the region. While studies have examined the influence of the Amnesty policy on the empowerment of repentant militants, little is known about how governance failure in the implementation of the policy provokes the formation of anti-state organizations and its contributions to development in the region. This research addresses this gap by examining the role of the Nigerian government in the implementation of the amnesty policy, and identify, if any, failure in the implementation of the policy, provokes the resurgence of anti-state organizations in the region. The study used a qualitative research design and findings indicated that the formation of the Niger-Delta Avengers; an anti-state organisation, was due to the government's inaction to effectively implement the amnesty policy as expected. Furthermore, results showed that the Nigerian government was more interested in protecting its oil pipelines and wells than the development of the area. The paper concludes that the Amnesty policy is a conduit pipe for corruption by successive representatives of Nigerian government.

FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI PENGHINDARAN PAJAK

This study aims to obtain empirical evidence regarding business strategy, deferred tax expense and company characteristics such as audit committees, proportion of independent commissioners, institutional ownership, firm size on tax avoidance. These factors were retested because there were still inconsistent results from previous studies and there were variables that were rarely studied. This study uses a sample that includes 396 non-financial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) during the 2016 to 2018 period, which is the period surrounding the tax amnesty policy in Indonesia. This study uses the cash effective tax rate (CETR) which is considered as a measure that can describe the amount of tax avoidance by the company. The research hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression analysis. The results of this study indicate that business strategy have a positive effect on tax avoidance and firm size has a negative effect on tax avoidance, while deferred tax expense, audit committee, proportion of independent commissioners, institutional ownership have no effect on tax avoidance. The theoretical contribution of this study is to add to the development of previous literature related to the effect of business strategy, deferred tax expense and company characteristics such as audit committees, proportion of independent commissioners, institutional ownership, firm size on tax avoidance.

Analysis of a tax amnesty’s effectiveness in Indonesia

This paper examines the effectiveness of an Indonesian tax amnesty program. Through descriptive quantitative analysis and a complementary empirical study, we find that the tax amnesty improved the tax base and tax revenue in the short run and positively affected tax compliance. The empirical analysis uses a sample of firms listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, chosen using certain firm characteristics that were then analyzed using panel data regressions. While the results may have limited generalizability and more research is needed on the long-term effects on tax amnesties, this study will be useful to Directorate General of Taxes in evaluating its tax amnesty policies.

Telaah Integratif Filsafat Hukum Publik dan Teori Maslahah terhadap Kebijakan Amnesti Pajak di Indonesia

Tax amnesty policy has been issued by the Government of Indonesia for six times, i.e., 1964, 1984, 2007, 2009, 2015, and 2016. But actually, such policy is not a common one, because taxes are obligation for everyone who has met the criteria as a taxpayer. Therefore, the emergence of this policy often leads to controversial responses from many people. This research aims to reveal how the analysis of the philosophy of public law (justice, expediency and legal certainty) toward tax amnesty policies in Indonesia, which is integrated with the theory of maṣlaḥah (public benefit) in Islamic legal philosophy (Usul al-Fiqh). The findings of this study indicate that the implementation of the three legal principles in the tax amnesty policy in Indonesia actually has a legal legitimacy (i’tibār syar’iy) in the perspective of maṣlaḥah (public benefits). As the character of the maslahah, then the hierarchy of the three is tentative depending on the level of urgency driven by surronding situations and conditions.

Penerapan Asas Keadilan, Kemanfaatan, dan Kepastian Hukumdalam Kebijakan Pengampunan Pajak (Tax Amnesty) di Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to determine the application of the principles of justice, benefit, and legal certainty intax amnesty policies in Indonesia. There are many problems in society related to the absence of the principle ofjustice and the principle of legal certainty in the implementation of tax amnesty policies based on Law Number11 of 2016 concerning Tax Amnesty. This study uses a descriptive normative type of research based on thematerials collected, both primary and secondary legal materials. The research approach used by the author is astatutory approach. The results of the study stated that the principle of justice and the principle of legal certaintycould not be applied optimally, however, the principle of benefit could be implemented properly with theimplementation of a tax amnesty program properly.

NONVIOLENT COUNTERTERRORISM MEASURES AND INTERNAL SECURITY OF AFRICAN STATES: A REVIEW OF NIGERIA’S AMNESTY POLICY

This paper strived to unravel the impact of nonviolent counterterrorism measures on the internal security of African states with specific reference to Nigeria’s amnesty policy in Niger Delta region. The study adopted the rational choice theory of terrorism as its theoretical framework and derived its data from secondary sources which included official policy documents from, Nigeria’s amnesty office including textbooks, journal articles and internet materials etc. Data collected from these sources were analysed through qualitative method and content analysis. Findings from the study shows that nonviolent counterterrorism measures and strategies through post-conflict disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programmes have helped in resettling several ex-combatants and their families back to the society in several African states including Nigeria, Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) etc. In the same vein, the study observed that the use of military force (violent counterterrorism measures and strategies) by states has also helped to escalate and prolong conflicts in Africa. Some recommendations were made which included the need to strengthen civil-military relations especially in the area of intelligence gathering and dissemination. There is need for African states to also engage in counter-radicalization of their citizens through massive investments in education, public enlightenment and socio-economic development, and the provision of basic social amenities.

Undocumented migrants in Saudi Arabia: COVID-19 and amnesty reforms.

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia's domestic public health institutions struggle to control the COVID19 virus's spread within undocumented migrant populations, endangering both local Saudi and migrant populations. As a result, Saudi Arabia implemented a temporary amnesty policy, granting state pardon to undocumented migrants to access to health care services. Using combined qualitative fieldwork data in 2008‐2009 and, more recently in 2020 among irregular Asian and African migrants' communities in Jeddah, I argue that the lack of institutional trust, combined with differential economic opportunities in Saudi and origin countries, significantly impacts undocumented migrants' decision to avoid health amnesty reform. This is particularly critical as it could likely disrupt government attempts at curbing COVID‐19 within migrant communities, thus posing serious health, economic, and security threats to the Saudi state. The study contributes to empirical and theoretical debates because it highlights migrant perception's role towards local institutions in Gulf's domestic migration policymaking.

Comparative analysis of between trading volume activities pre with post event tax amnesty

This study aims to determine the difference of Trading Volume Activity that exceed before and after the determination of tax amnesty policy and to figure out the existence of abnormal return formed before and after the determination of the tax amnesty. This study uses the Events Study method with 100 days observation for the estimation period and 15 days for event period. The study used a group of perception banks that listed in BEI in 2016 period as population and 22 selected stocks to be sampled by using saturated sampling method. During the observation period, positive and negative abnormal returns with fluctuating movements were formed. Trading Volume Activity changes between before and after-tax amnesty policy. From these two results, it can be concluded that there was leakage of information before the event published that indicates the form of market efficiency of Indonesia is half strong (semi strong form). Further research is suggested to use the calculation method and time different from this research to obtain more accurate results.

PENGARUH TAX AMNESTY TERHADAP PROFITABILITAS PERUSAHAAN YANG TERDAFTAR DI BURSA EFEK INDONESIA

Tax amnesty policy in Indonesia has an impact on companies listed on the Capital Market. Companies that take advantage of tax amnesty can be identified from the increase in net assets and equity. This increase results in an increase or decrease in profitability and may affect investors' interest in investing. This research aimed to analyze the influence of tax amnesty and internal and external factors on the company's profitability. This study's samples are companies listed on the main board of the Indonesia Stock Exchange between 2013 and 2018. Panel data regression was used in this study to analyze the data. The result showed that tax amnesty had a significant negative effect on profitability. Internal factors that had a significant positive effect on profitability were current ratio and total asset turnover, while debt to equity ratio negatively affected profitability. External factors that had a significant positive effect on profitability were interest rates and rupiah exchange rates. Tax amnesty negatively affected profitability resulting in corporate profits declining dramatically during the tax amnesty program. Based on the results, it could be concluded that several factors could affect profitability, such as tax amnesty policy, internal factors, and external factors of the company. Keywords: external factors, internal factors, panel data regression, profitability, tax amnesty

KAJIAN UNDERGROUND ECONOMY DAN KAITANNYA DENGAN PENERIMAAN PAJAK DI INDONESIA

Underground economy merupakan pendapatan yang dihasilkan dari kegiatan ekonomi baik legal maupun ilegal yang luput dalam perhitungan Produk Domestik Bruto (PDB). Kegiatan underground economy yang dibiarkan terus berkembang akan menyebabkan hilangnya penerimaan pajak. Untuk mengatasi hal tersebut diberlakukan kebijakan tax amnesty, dengan tujuan memperkecil penerimaan pajak yang hilang, tetapi belum diketahui apakah tujuan tersebut mampu dicapai atau tidak. Penelitian bertujuan untuk memberikan gambaran umum variabel yang digunakan, mengukur besaran underground economy dan penerimaan pajak yang hilang akibat underground economy, serta membandingkan rata-rata penerimaan pajak yang hilang sebelum dan sesudah tax amnesty. Pengukuran underground economy dan penerimaan pajak yang hilang dilakukan melalui pendekatan moneter dengan menggunakan metode Error Correction Model dan perbandingan rata-rata penerimaan pajak yang hilang menggunakan uji beda rata-rata. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat trend meningkat pada variabel jumlah uang beredar, PDB ADHK, suku bunga BI dan kurs dan trend menurun pada variabel rasio/beban pajak, inflasi dan harga minyak dunia. Besaran underground economy di Indonesia periode 2005 hingga 2018 secara rata-rata mencapai 34,157 triliun rupiah atau 1,84% terhadap PDB. Rata-rata penerimaan pajak yang hilang mencapai 4 triliun rupiah atau 0,22% terhadap PDB. Tax amnesty yang telah diterapkan di Indonesia sejak tahun 2015- 2018 belum mampu mencapai tujuan yang diinginkan.

Student Perceptions of a University Medical Amnesty Policy Are Impacted by Race and Racism: A Qualitative Study

Background Alcohol consumption on college and university campuses is a public health concern. Some universities have instituted medical amnesty policies (MAPs) to encourage calling first responders to the scene of an alcohol-related emergency. This study describes perceptions of a university MAP and the perceived risks of calling first responders among a sample of undergraduate students at a mid-sized, private, residential university. Methods: This is an exploratory, peer-led study, in which student-researchers worked under faculty supervision to devise the aims of the study, recruit and conduct qualitative interviews with participants, analyze data, and organize major findings. Results: Participants in this convenience sample (N = 42) were majority female (n = 33, 78.67%) and white (n = 35, 83.3%). White students often reported risking disciplinary consequences (i.e. suspension) if found in violation of university alcohol policy. White students who were familiar with the MAP praised it as beneficial in improving student safety. Students of color (especially Black students) reported concerns for their safety in the presence of first responders (especially police officers). Awareness of the MAP among students of color was very low, and many reported low levels of institutional trust, suggesting the protections conferred by the MAP should be taken “with a grain of salt.” Conclusions: MAPs may alleviate concern about some perceived risks of calling first responders, but that benefit may not be experienced equitably among students of color. More research is needed to understand the complex relationship between alcohol policies, alcohol-related injuries, policing, and race on college and university campuses.

The Justice of Tax Amnesty and Tax Compliance: Empirical Study in Indonesia

The purpose of this article is to examine the effect of perceptions of justice in tax amnesties on post-amnesty tax compliance. The independent variables employed were distributive justice, procedural justice, and retributive justice, and the dependent variable is tax compliance. Measurement of the variables was based on five Likert scales, from (1) Strongly Disagree to (5) Strongly Agree. The results of the multiple regression analysis of 133 questionnaire answers indicate that tax amnesty justice has a significant positive effect on post-amnesty tax compliance. The variables of tax justice that have a positive effect on tax compliance are procedural and retributive justice, with regression coefficients of 0.248 and 0.237 respectively, at a significance level of 0.00. A fairer tax amnesty policy will improve tax compliance after the amnesty period. The tax authorities need to make improvements to create a more equitable tax amnesty policy in the future.

Comparative Analysis Between Pre-Trading Volume Activities with Post Event Tax Amnesty

This study aims to determine the difference of Trading Volume Activity that exceed before and after the determination of tax amnesty policy and to figure out the existence of abnormal return formed before and after the determination of the tax amnesty. This study uses the Events Study method with 100 days observation for the estimation period and 15 days for event period. The study used a group of perception banks that listed in BEI in 2016 period as population and 22 selected stocks to be sampled by using saturated sampling method. During the observation period, positive and negative abnormal returns with fluctuating movements were formed. Trading Volume Activity changes between before and after-tax amnesty policy. From these two results, it can be concluded that there was leakage of information before the event published that indicates the form of market efficiency of Indonesia is half strong (semistrong form). Further research is suggested to use the calculation method and time period different from this research in order to obtain more accurate results.

Tax Payment Revenue Ratio as Tax Risk Analysis for Manufacture Industry in Indonesia after Tax Amnesty Policy

Indonesia’s Tax Amnesty potentially will increase state tax revenues in rupiah; however, it cannot increase tax compliance as measured by the tax ratio value. Tax audit as a law enforcement needs to be carried out on taxpayers with high risk in utilizing tax amnesty policies for tax avoidance. By comparing the ratio of tax payment revenue (TPR) in manufacturing companies listed on IDX, this study finds that most of the samples are indicated to have a high risk of tax avoidance, since the value of TPR is significantly lower when the tax amnesty is enacted, compared to that prior to the enactment. To determine which taxpayers are doing illegal tax avoidance and need to be audited, further analysis is necessary for those with significant TPR reduction, one of which is by analyzing the financial ratios. This method is possibly used for each industry due to its different characteristics. It facilitates both the tax authority to increase taxpayer compliance and the taxpayer to make tax planning.

THE UNDERGROUND ECONOMY AND TAX POTENTIAL IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INDONESIA AND RUSSIA

This study compares the underground economies of Indonesia and Russia, on the basis that the two countries are G20 members and are both transitional nations. The study uses the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with a currency demand approach derived from the difference between a money demand economy in the period 2004-2015. The estimation results of the level of the underground economy compared to per capita GDP in Indonesia from 2004 to 2015 range from 25.76% to 32.53%, with an average of 28.65%, while those of Russia range from 12.74% to 26.19%, with an average of 18.79%. However, there is no empirical evidence that shows a significant impact of the tax amnesty policies in either country, so that the governments are advised to improve their strategies of generating tax revenue by making a follow-up policy with definite legal force.

Can Emergency Medical Services Utilization Rates Be Used to Measure the Success of An Alcohol Amnesty Policy?

Introduction Medical Amnesty/Good Samaritan (MAGS) policies, which eliminate legal charges when students call 9-1-1 for excessive drinking, have been implemented with the goal of reducing barriers to accessing Emergency Medical Services (EMS). This study investigated the impact of MAGS policy implementation on EMS calls on campus and if that EMS call volume could be used to measure policy success. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of alcohol-related EMS calls before and after MAGS implementation at a single large public university campus. Methods: A retrospective review of all 9-1-1 calls to on-campus locations was conducted using patient care records (PCRs) from a collegiate EMS agency responding exclusively to on-campus 9-1-1 calls. Calls were excluded if the PCR was marked “incomplete”, were outside the 2015 CBEMS response zone boundaries, or if patient age was <15 or >25 years old to ensure analysis was targeting the on-campus student population. The incidence of alcohol-related 9-1-1 calls was compared between one academic year (AY) prior to (pre-MAGS, AY2015) and two years after MAGS implementation (post-MAGS, AY2016/17). An alcohol-related 9-1-1 call was defined as an EMS provider primary or secondary impression of “Alcohol, Alcohol Intoxication, or Alcohol Ingestion” or a call in which the patient explicitly admitted to alcohol use. Relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to describe the results. Results: Over the three-year study period, the collegiate EMS agency responded to 2440 calls of which 1283 met inclusion criteria. 58 calls were excluded for being incomplete, 227 were outside the original boundaries and 872 were outside the defined age range. Of those calls, 351 were pre-MAGS and 932 were post-MAGS. Of the total 9-1-1 calls, 127 (36.2%) were related to alcohol pre-MAGS and 327 (35.1%) were related to alcohol post-MAGS policy implementation. The relative risk of a 9-1-1 call being made for alcohol-related issues after MAGS implementation was RR = 0.97 (95% CI 0.83-1.14; P = 0.713). Conclusion: Implementation of a MAGS policy was not associated with a significant change in the number of alcohol-related EMS responses. It is unclear if these results reflect ineffective policy implementation or a general reduction in on-campus alcohol consumption. However, using EMS call volume as a marker for policy success and quality improvement offers an innovative tool through which EMS agencies can provide valuable feedback to other system stakeholders.

Student awareness of campus medical amnesty policies

Objective Examine students’ awareness of medical amnesty policies and the influence of policy awareness on the expected consequences of bystander help seeking in alcohol-related emergencies among student-athletes and non-athletes. Participants: 1,012 college students. Methods: Spearman’s correlation and chi-square tests were used to examine accuracy in awareness of amnesty policies. Nominal logistic regression was used to test the relationship between amnesty policy awareness and expected consequences of bystander help seeking. Results: About 25% of students were unsure if their school had an amnesty policy; of these students, 67% attended schools with such a policy. Students who were unsure about the presence of amnesty policies were more likely to expect serious negative consequences of calling for help for both non-athlete peers (B = 1.152 p < 0.001) and student-athlete peers (B = 0.887 p = 0.001). Conclusions: Greater attention is needed to how amnesty policies are implemented on college campuses, including how they are communicated to and interpreted by student-athletes.

Stock Market Reaction to the Tax Amnesty Announcement

The Indonesian Government has put in place policies that are quite bold and that highly impact on both companies and the economy. This includes the endorsement tax amnesty policy in 2016. This study aims to investigate the reaction of the stock market against the policy. The dataset of this research was 100 companies listed on the Indonesian Islamic Stock Index (ISSI). Research methods used the event study market adjusted model to look at changes in the Average Abnormal Return (AAR) and Trading Volume Activity (TVA) during the announcement. The results of this research show there is a difference in the AAR and TVA before and after the announcement. The investors positively viewed the information content of the tax amnesty policy. The government has made a very good policy and it supports the improvement in the quality of corporate governance and company performance.

The Power of Mercy: Amnesty Policies in Fugitive Cases in the Qing Dynasty

The Power of Mercy: Amnesty Policies in Fugitive Cases in the Qing Dynasty

Tax amnesty and secondary tax evasion

AbstractThough tax amnesties (TAs) are considered as a policy tool to increase revenue for governments, they have generated some puzzles. To solve the puzzles of TA we should not ignore the behavioural aspects of delinquent taxpayers. In this paper, we focus on a relatively neglected but important area of the TA literature. Considering that people who participate in tax amnesty policy (TAP) may not honestly report the whole amounts of evaded tax, thus they commit a secondary tax evasion. We indicate that even considering the risk of abstaining from TA and incurring possible uncertainty of tax evasion penalties, participating in a TA provides a higher level of utility for the delinquent taxpayers. Also, due to a secondary tax evasion usually accompanying with TA, we show that during the initial assessment period of a TAP the tax revenue drastically increases and when the assessment period is approaching the tax revenue stably declines and ultimately converges to a fixed value. Furthermore, we show that if delinquent taxpayers participate in the TAP and the penalties are larger than the expected tax revenue of the government, it increases the tax revenue without reducing the welfare of other taxpayers, so as to achieving Pareto improvement.