Beyond Tax Avoidance and Evasion: Conceptualizing Import Tax Circumvention in Indonesia

Syafril Efendi H, Kisnu Widagso

Universitas Indonesia

Tax irregularities in Indonesia's import sector recur in varied forms, from value manipulation and tariff misclassification to customs administrative engineering. The classical dichotomy between tax avoidance and tax evasion, however, is insufficient to explain the gray-zone practices that operate within self-assessment-based customs governance. This article proposes the concept of import tax circumvention as an analytical category for reading fiscal maneuvering that moves along a spectrum between formal tax planning and unlawful customs manipulation. The study adopts an abductive conceptual approach supported by illustrative empirical material from four semi-structured interviews with executive-level officers of the Indonesian Directorate General of Customs and Excise and senior managers of an Indonesian importing firm, conducted in Greater Jakarta between November 2025 and March 2026. The article shows that the configuration of self-assessment, risk management, multi-actor networks, and administrative discretion at four critical decision points generates spaces of deviation that are systemic and resistant to a binary legal–illegal reading. To capture this complexity, the article formulates four conceptual dimensions of import tax circumvention: maneuver character, regulatory space, operational mode, and actor configuration. Practices that share the same fiscal motive may occupy different positions within the spectrum. The conceptual contribution extends scholarship in tax governance and economic criminology by treating import tax deviation as a problem of governance, opportunity structure, and institutional relations rather than as individual transgression alone. The article also outlines practical implications for fiscal oversight in modern customs systems.

Article link: https://www.asianinstituteofresearch.org/JSParchives/beyond-tax-avoidance-and-evasion%3A-conceptualizing-import-tax-circumvention-in-indonesia