Indonesia Starts Taxing Online Marketplace Sellers This October
Online sellers in Indonesia are facing a big change. The government has started collecting income tax directly through marketplace platforms. Shopee, Blibli, Tokopedia and Lazada will now deduct tax from what sellers earn on every sale.
A new tax rule for online sellers
The tax collection began on October 1, 2026, after a delay of more than a year. Four domestic marketplaces were named as official tax collectors: Shopee, Blibli, Tokopedia and Lazada. The tax authority has said it expects all platforms to apply the rule fully from November 1.
The rule is set out in Finance Ministry Regulation PMK No. 37/2025. It was signed back in June 2025. Many sellers waited a long time for this. The wait is over.
How the tax works
This is an income tax on the seller’s earnings, called PPh 22. It is not a tax on buyers. That is an important difference.
The marketplace takes 0.5 percent of the seller’s sales turnover. So if a seller receives 9,500 rupiah from a sale after the platform fee, the tax is about 47.5 rupiah. The buyer will not see any tax line on the receipt. The price of goods stays the same.
The government says this is not a new tax. Sellers already owed this income tax before. The change is only in how it is collected – the marketplace now collects it for them.
Why Indonesia is doing this
The goal is fairness. Shop owners in physical stores have always been easy for tax officers to check. Online sellers have been much harder to track. The government wants both groups to play by the same rules.
Online shopping in Indonesia has grown fast. The government sees this as a way to widen the tax base as more business moves onto phones and apps.
What this means for small sellers
Economists have raised a warning. Many small sellers work with very thin profits. Even a small tax cut can hurt their margins. Experts have asked the government to protect micro businesses with yearly turnover below 500 million rupiah, so young businesses are not crushed early.
Sellers with questions should check the tax notices on their marketplace dashboard. The platforms are expected to guide sellers through the change.
A helping hand for local sellers
There is also good news for local sellers. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises is preparing a 50 percent discount on e-commerce fees for local micro and small businesses with turnover up to 15 billion rupiah a year.
Officials say the programme could start by the end of October 2026. Around 42,000 local product sellers have been identified so far. Sellers can register through the SAPA UMKM system. The ministry also wants to bring TikTok Shop and Tokopedia into the scheme.
The idea is simple: cut platform fees so small local sellers can compete with big and foreign sellers on the same sites.
What sellers should do now
Online sellers in Indonesia should keep clear records of every sale. They should check that their tax details on each marketplace are correct. If anything is unclear, they should contact the platform’s seller support.
The rule marks a turning point. Online selling in Indonesia is no longer the untaxed corner of the economy. Sellers who keep clean records will have nothing to worry about.