Yogya (KU) – To guarantee objectivity, recruitment of tax lawyers should be conducted by an independent, free, and autonomous institution, such as lawyer organizations. Lawyer Law has given wide authority to advocate organizations to appoint, monitor, and even dismiss a lawyer. “So far, tax lawyer seems to be centralized on head of tax court,” said GM lecturer of Faculty of Law, Dr. Sutanto, S.H., M.S., who was speaker in the National Seminar entitled Tax Lawyer in Solving Tax Dispute: Importance of Management in The Future held in the Faculty, Thursday (3/6).
Meanwhile, regarding time permit for tax lawyers, the limit is only 12 months but can be extended for another 12 months. Problems will arise if the original permit has expired while the tax dispute has not been resolved. The mechanism adopted in the Law that provides lawyer’s longer license needs to be applied in the Law concerning tax lawyer in the future. "This issue should be considered in the future so it will not become a problem," he said.
In Sutanto’s view, for tax lawyer, legislations seems only to require them to comply with all provisions, including the tax court law. Violations will cause the revocation of tax lawyer license. "Professional and detailed code of ethics is therefore needed so that lawyers will do their job responsibly," he added.
Sutanto admitted that in terms of substance, there is some disagreement between Law Number 14 Year 2002 regarding the Tax Court with Law Number 18 Year 2003 on Lawyer, for example the background of lawyers and tax lawyer, and institutions that appoint, monitor and dismiss them. This, however, can be overcome because each has different domains. "To oppose the Tax Court Law and Lawyer Law which have the same position in one legal system will be answered and resolved by lex specialist derogat lexi generali principle," he said.
Meanwhile, Ichwan Sukardi, S.H., L.L.M.,from Jakarta Hadibroto KPMG said that there is still duality in building tax court. Technically, it is under the Supreme Court, but administratively it remains under the Ministry of Finance. By statute, a lawyer can serve as legal counsel in tax court if meeting the requirements. Unfortunately, the Law does not accommodate the tax court in consideration, recall item. "In the future, the Tax Court Law needs to be changed to accommodate some rules due to changes in the General Provisions Act and Taxation Procedures (UU KUP)," said Ichwan.