An interest-free loan is a loan that does not include interest calculations on the loan repayments. There are various types of interest-free loans in Indonesia. This article will discuss interest-free loans and tax provisions.
Interest-free loan terms
In simple terms, an interest-free loan is a loan that does not include interest calculations on loan repayments or installments. Indeed, in general, a loan is certainly accompanied by binding interest, but this loan is not a rare thing today.
There are various forms of this type of loan and come from various financial institutions. In fact, this type of loan also exists in loan products issued by banks, which incidentally are financial institutions that benefit from interest.
Now, today there are many loan products that have no interest, both those issued by banking institutions and by non-bank financial institutions.
These widely circulated loans can be utilized, but still need further study and careful consideration. Because, even though there is a frill without interest, the name of a loan is still a financial burden, both personal and family finances.
Types of Interest-Free Loans
As previously mentioned, many financial institutions, both banks and non-banks, have offered loan products that bear no interest. In the following, there are various types of loans that have no interest to consider:
1. Sharia System Loans
Borrowing money with the sharia system is also a way to get interest-free loans. It is said without interest because in sharia principles the lending uses a partnership system. In the sharia system, between borrowers and lenders are actually bound by a profit sharing agreement.
Agreements are made with contract models such as Mudharabah and Musyarakah, Murabahah, Salam, and Istishna. Today, loan products that do not bear interest under sharia principles are easy to find.
This is because now more and more banks have sharia business units. In fact, because the prospects for sharia are quite bright, many sharia units in a bank are separated from their parent company and form sharia banks.
2. Pawn shops
In Pawnshops there are actually loans that do not bear interest using sharia principles called RAHN. Through the RAHN product, Pegadaian can provide loans with a nominal value of up to IDR 200 million with a maximum repayment period of 120 days.
Apart from the mortgage and sharia systems, there are actually systems that allow someone to get an interest-free loan. These non-pawning and sharia systems include:
3. Sharia Online Loans
Many people think that online loans charge sky-high interest. This assumption is not entirely wrong, but there are online lending companies that also free borrowers from interest.
However, this interest-free loan certainly has requirements, including the borrower must pay off the credit before 30 days. However, the nominal disbursed for non-interest bearing loans is relatively small, which is around the level of IDR 3 million.
Apart from these loan products that can be obtained by paying off the loan before it is due, there are also loan products offered by online loan providers that operate on sharia principles.
4. Sharia Credit Card
Credit cards can also be classified as interest-free loans. The reason is, when someone pays a credit card bill before it is due, the credit card service provider will not charge interest.
The Sharia System Does Not Know Interest, How Is The Tax Treatment?
As explained above, loan services provided by Islamic finance companies and Islamic banking do not charge interest.
In fact, in the Income Tax Law (PPh) it is emphasized that the object of PPh 23 is interest including premiums, discounts and rewards in connection with guaranteed debt repayments.
However, since 2009, the government has regulated this issue. Through a Government Regulation (PP), namely PP 25 of 2009 concerning Income Tax on Sharia-Based Business Activities, especially in article 2 paragraph 3 it is emphasized that: withholding or collecting taxes from sharia-based business activities is carried out on:
- Third party rights to profit sharing.
- Bonus.
- Margin.
- Other similar sharia-based results.
In addition, the government also issued two Minister of Finance Regulations (PMK), namely PMK Number 136/PMK.03/2011 concerning the Imposition of Income Tax for Sharia Financing Business Activities and PMK Number 137/PMK.03/2011 concerning the Imposition of Income Tax for Sharia Banking Business Activities, the government decided to provide equal tax treatment between sharia and non-sharia systems, namely using the PPh law.
For example, in contract models such as Mudharabah and Musyarakah, Murabaha, Salam, and Istishna, profits are subject to income tax in accordance with the provisions of income tax on interest.
Talking about taxes, there is also a term called the collection of tax credits which is the amount of tax payments that have been paid or calculated by the taxpayer at the beginning of the period. The amount of tax paid is the accumulation of taxes collected by other parties, as well as less tax payable (including income tax payable abroad).
In the process, collecting tax credits is quite complicated if it is not done through a qualified integrated system. Seeing this, we have a solution that can help companies deal with the problem of collecting tax credits.
Reference:
PMK Number 136/PMK.03/2011 concerning Imposition of Income Tax for Sharia Financing Business Activities
PMK Number 137/PMK.03/2011 concerning Imposition of Income Tax for Sharia Banking Business Activities