E-Commerce Sellers and Creators: Different Tax Rules, Shared Cash-Flow Checks

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One online business can receive different kinds of income

Selling products through a marketplace and receiving payment for a sponsored video are not automatically the same tax activity. A business may see both amounts arrive through digital platforms, but the payer, contract, recipient and nature of the income still matter.

This article is a practical explanation of those distinctions. It does not claim that Indonesia introduced a new standalone influencer tax in October, or that tax authorities deliberately delayed refunds to put pressure on businesses.

What the primary rules say about creators

PP 20/2026 amended PP 55/2022 and took effect on 22 April 2026. The amended Article 56 expressly includes online content creators, influencers, bloggers and vloggers among examples of independent professional services. Income received by individual taxpayers from such services is excluded from the final business-income tax mechanism covered by that provision. Primary regulation.

This is not a basis for applying a single new rate to every creator, every company or every foreign national. It is a classification rule within an existing income-tax framework. DJP's official explanatory material also distinguishes the treatment of independent professional income from qualifying business income. DJP explanatory material.

The regulation contains separate taxpayer-eligibility and transitional provisions. A PT PMA should therefore not infer eligibility for a final small-business tax regime simply from its turnover or from a rate shown on a platform statement.

Marketplace collection is a separate question

PMK 37/2025 governs the appointment of other parties to collect income tax on income received by domestic merchants through electronic trading systems. That collection framework is distinct from the creator-income classification described above. Primary marketplace regulation.

For a transaction review, identify whether the amount is a product sale, a commission, a service fee or another receipt, and who legally earns it. A platform deduction does not, by itself, explain whether all of the recipient's annual tax obligations have been settled.

A useful monthly reconciliation

Our recommendation is to retain the contract or order record, gross invoice or sales amount, platform statement, fees, refunds, tax-collection or withholding evidence, and the net bank receipt. Reconcile these before treating the payout as the gross revenue figure.

For example, a creator might receive a sponsored-content fee personally while a separate company sells products online. Keep the two recipients' records separate. The example illustrates a recordkeeping distinction; it does not determine a particular person's tax status.

Foreign nationals should establish their own tax position and the treatment of the specific income before applying a rule intended for a domestic individual taxpayer. Company ownership alone does not answer that question.