If you sell on Shopee, Tokopedia, Blibli, or Lazada, open your latest payout breakdown. Since early October there is a new line in it: Article 22 income tax (PPh 22) at 0.5%.
The amount is small. What matters is how it works. Every online sale you make now leaves a tax-withholding record with a third party, and that record has to line up with your own books.
What actually kicked in
Indonesia's Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) announced in a press release dated 1 October 2026 that PPh 22 collection through marketplaces had started. Four marketplaces were designated by a Director General decision dated 24 September 2026: Shopee, Tokopedia, Blibli, and Lazada. The legal basis is Finance Minister Regulation (PMK) 37 of 2025.
The start date caused some confusion. The government had earlier allowed an adjustment period until 31 October 2026, and some coverage cited 1 November. But the DJP press release is clear: after an evaluation, collection began on 1 October. So this is no longer something coming up. It has been running for three weeks. One small note: Shopee says collection applies to transactions created from 2 October 2026 at 00:00 WIB, so the first deduction on your account may land a day later.
The question people ask most: is this a new tax? According to DJP, no. The obligation already existed. Only the mechanism changed: the marketplace now collects it at the moment of the transaction.
How it is calculated
The rate is 0.5% of turnover, excluding VAT and luxury goods tax. Under the regulation's text, the tax falls due when the marketplace receives the payment, so the deduction happens before the money ever reaches you.
A quick example. An order of Rp1,000,000 is reduced by Rp5,000. If you sell Rp20 million online in a month, the deduction is Rp100,000. Small per transaction, but repeated on every order.
That deduction is not money lost. According to DJP, tax collected this way can be counted as a tax credit in the current year or as part of settling Final Income Tax. And under the regulation, the marketplace's billing document is treated as equivalent to proof of PPh 22 withholding. That means you need to keep it, not just glance at it.
Who is not withheld from
Individual taxpayers with turnover up to Rp500 million in a tax year are not collected from, provided they have submitted a statement letter as required. Averaged out, Rp500 million a year is roughly Rp41 million a month. The statement letter goes through each marketplace's own mechanism.
Three things are easy to miss.
- Two conditions, not one. Small turnover alone is not enough. DJP says the exemption applies as long as the statement letter has been submitted.
- Individuals only. The Rp500 million exemption is written for individual taxpayers. If your business is a legal entity, check with a tax consultant first.
- Sales outside the marketplace. The regulation speaks of gross turnover without spelling out whether offline sales count. If your shop also sells at the till or over chat, ask the tax office or a consultant instead of guessing.
The deduction is small, and that is not the problem
The headache is not the 0.5%. It is three different turnover figures.
Picture a shop that sells on two marketplaces, runs a till in the store, and still takes orders over WhatsApp. That is three sources of turnover. The marketplaces now hold per-transaction withholding records for only one of them. When a bank asks for a report, or when you file your annual return, those three figures have to be explained as one.
There is a subtler trap. The money that lands in your account is typically already reduced by commission, shipping, and now tax. If you record sales using the payout figure, your recorded turnover comes out lower than the real one, and the gap reappears every month with nobody able to say where it came from. Record gross turnover, then track each deduction separately.
Three checks for today, five habits for this week
- Check the tax data on every account. DJP urges sellers to make sure the tax details on their marketplace accounts are complete and correct.
- Submit the statement letter if you qualify. Individual turnover up to Rp500 million? Make sure it has gone in through the marketplace you use.
- Work out your running turnover this year. See how much of the Rp500 million is used up. If you are close, better to know now than to be surprised in December.
- Record gross turnover per order. Track tax deductions, commission, and shipping separately.
- Keep the billing documents. One folder per month, so you are not hunting for them when the annual return comes around.
When manual records start to strain
The five habits above can be done with a disciplined spreadsheet. That works fine until orders pick up and sales spread across more places.
After that, it is easier when sales are recorded as they happen. XETPOS is one example: an all-in-one point-of-sale app from XETUP with accounting, cashflow, and stock management for retail and F&B small businesses. Every sale at the till is recorded on the spot, so your offline turnover is clean from the start. You then bring in the marketplace figures from each platform's sales report. XETPOS is only one example. The principle is the same either way: record at the moment it happens, not at month end.
Closing
If your records are in order, 0.5% is just a small line on a payout slip. If they are not, every month that passes adds transactions you will have to rebuild from three different places, right when your tax return or your bank asks about them.
This article is general guidance, not tax advice. For your specific situation, ask your tax office or a tax consultant.
Want to talk through how to tidy up your sales records? Message us on WhatsApp at +62 823 1499 5005 and tell us where things stand.