Tax.io Bridges the Needs of SMEs on Taxation

The low participation of SMEs in paying taxes and less user friendly current tax options, provided inspiration for Rayhan Gautama (CEO), Jefriansyah Hertikawan (CTO), and Fadil Moestar (CPO) to establish Tax.io. The platform was initiated by the founder of Fintax (PT Fintek Digital Integration), one of the official Tax Application Service Providers (PJAP) registered and supervised by the Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) of the Republic of Indonesia.

To DailySocial Rayhan revealed, based on the data obtained, from about 60 million SMEs in Indonesia, only about 2 million business units pay taxes. That's why Tax.io was built to provide more tax options user friendly so that it is easy to understand for the public and entrepreneurs in general.

"Based on the results of studies that we studied from various scientific journals, we found at least two reasons why tax inclusion in SMEs is very low. The first is because the online tax compliance system of the Directorate General of Taxes is seen as lacking user friendly, the second is because of the lack of socialization to SMEs.” Rayhan said.

Since its launch on July 14, 2020, Tax.io managed to record good growth throughout 2020. They claim to have 3322 users from 2540 business entities registered in Indonesia. Throughout 2020, Tax.io recorded more than 14025 transactions with a managed tax nominal of more than 22,6 billion Rupiah.

"Tax.io's business model is freemium. Tax.io's strategy is to provide free services to all users and also build contact to later offer Tax.io premium services, for this premium service to be launched in Q1 2021," said Rayhan.

Take advantage of the web app

The solutions and conveniences offered for the tax reporting of these SMEs are through the Tax.io web app. The platform focuses on code generation services billing for tax payment needs and also more online SPT reporting services user friendly. In addition, Fintax is also active in providing education and socialization to SME business actors about the ease of tax administration.

"For now, the multi-user and multi-company features are the most sought after features by our market. With these features, one user can manage more than one company and one company can also be managed by more than one user, free and without restrictions," Rayhan said.

When asked what makes Tax.io different from other similar platforms, Rayhan emphasized: positioning similar services in today's market, focusing more on monetizing its products to segments enterprise. Meanwhile, Tax.io's vision is to boost tax inclusion, especially for SMEs.

"It doesn't mean that the Tax.io product can't be used enterprise, however product market fit The SME segment will always be the long-term focus of Tax.io," said Rayhan.

The company noted that currently around 75% of Tax.io users are SMEs, while 15% are in the segment category enterprise. The rest of Tax.io has users who come from government agencies including State Schools, Madrasas, and others.

The pandemic and plans for 2021

Judging from the business growth during the pandemic, Tax.io did not experience any significant obstacles. The company noted that the target has been achieved. Since the launch of the platform, better relationships have been created with their target users, namely SMEs in Indonesia.

"The thing that we are most proud of is not quantitative, but qualitative. Since the Tax.io service was launched, we feel very engaged with the SME segment. We also carry out various kinds of tax socialization and offers of cooperation with various SME communities so that we understand more about point bread they are in taxation, and what services should we build in the future to help them," said Rayhan.

In 2021, the company has several plans, including a focus on monetizing premium products through the e-Faktur application (for VAT administration) and e-Bupot (for PPh 23/26 administration).

In the future, the company will also launch other services that are focused on serving the SME segment globally full service (count-pay-report) by utilizing strategic partnerships with several SME communities. The company also has plans to conduct early stage fundraising.

"We are quite pleased with the positive market response to Tax.io, especially for users from the SME sector for their enthusiasm for their tax obligations," said Rayhan.