Binance vs Indodax: Why Your Tax Rate Is Higher on International Exchanges

If you trade on Binance from Indonesia, you are subject to a significantly higher tax rate than someone trading the same asset on Indodax — and unlike your Indodax counterpart, nobody is collecting it on your behalf.

This is one of the most consequential practical differences in Indonesian crypto tax law, and it catches a significant number of traders and expats completely off guard. This article explains exactly how it works under the current PMK 50/2025 framework, why it exists, and what your obligations are if you have been trading on international exchanges.

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The Core Distinction: Registered vs Unregistered

Indonesian crypto tax law draws a hard line between two categories of exchange:

Registered exchanges — platforms formally listed with Indonesian regulatory authorities (OJK). Indodax and Tokocrypto are the primary examples operating in the Indonesian market.

Unregistered exchanges — all international platforms not registered with Indonesian authorities. This includes Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, OKX, and effectively every major global exchange.

The regulatory logic is straightforward: registered exchanges can be compelled to act as withholding agents, collecting tax at source on behalf of the government. Unregistered exchanges cannot. So the law applies a higher rate and shifts the collection obligation entirely to the individual taxpayer.

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The Rate Comparison Under PMK 50/2025

The following rates apply to transactions from August 1, 2025 onward under PMK 50/2025:

	Registered (Indodax)	Unregistered (Binance)
PPh Income Tax	0.21% per transaction	1.0% per transaction
PPN VAT	Applies to service fees only	Applies to service fees only
Who collects	Exchange withholds automatically	You calculate and pay yourself
Tax type	Final — settled at transaction	Self-reported on SPT

For activity prior to August 1, 2025 under PMK 68/2022, the rates were lower but the same structural distinction applied: 0.1% for registered exchanges and 0.2% for unregistered exchanges. If you are reconciling multi-year history, apply the correct rate to the correct period.

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Why This Matters More Than the Rate Difference

The higher rate is significant, but the more important issue is the self-reporting requirement.

When you trade on Indodax, the exchange withholds the applicable tax on each transaction automatically. You see it deducted in real time. By the time you file your annual SPT, the tax liability has largely been settled — you are reporting activity that has already been taxed, not calculating a new liability.

When you trade on Binance, nothing is withheld. Every transaction passes through without any tax collection. This creates a growing unreported liability that accumulates across every trade, every swap, every withdrawal you make throughout the year — and across every year you have been trading.

For someone who has been actively trading on Binance for two or three years without reporting, that cumulative exposure can be substantial. The calculation is not difficult once you have the transaction data, but reconstructing years of exchange history and applying the correct rates retroactively is exactly the kind of work that requires proper reconciliation before you can file.

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The Expat Exposure Problem

This issue disproportionately affects foreign nationals living in Bali and other parts of Indonesia.

Most expats who trade crypto came to Indonesia already using Binance, Coinbase, or Kraken — the international platforms they were using before they arrived. They continue using those platforms after establishing Indonesian tax residency, often without realizing that Indonesian tax obligations now apply to their activity.

Indonesian tax residency is triggered at 183 days in the country within a 12-month period. Once you cross that threshold, your worldwide income — including crypto gains and income — falls within Indonesian tax jurisdiction. The platform you use to trade does not change your residency status or your obligations.

The combination of unregistered exchange activity plus multi-year unreported liability is the most common situation we see when expat traders come to us for a Health Check.

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What About Crypto-to-Crypto Swaps on Binance?

Under PMK 50/2025, swapping one crypto asset for another on an unregistered exchange remains a taxable income event — subject to the 1.0% PPh rate on the full transaction value. The VAT obligation on crypto-to-crypto swaps was removed under PMK 50/2025, but the income tax obligation under PPh remains fully in effect.

For active traders who regularly swap between assets, this creates a large number of individual taxable events that all need to be captured and reported. A trader executing 50 swaps per month across a year has 600 individual taxable events to account for — each at the 1.0% rate on the full transaction value.

This is a significant change from the pre-August 2025 framework, where the unregistered rate was 0.2%. If you have activity spanning both periods, you will need to apply each rate to the correct transactions.

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Practical Steps If You Trade on Binance

Step 1 — Export your full transaction history. Binance allows you to export transaction records going back several years in CSV format. Do this before anything else. You cannot calculate your liability without the raw data.

Step 2 — Identify your Indonesian tax residency period. Your obligations only apply from the point you became Indonesian tax-resident. If you arrived mid-year, your first partial year of obligation starts from that point.

Step 3 — Reconcile and calculate by period. Apply 0.2% PPh to transactions before August 1, 2025. Apply 1.0% PPh to transactions from August 1, 2025 onward. This is the core reconciliation work.

Step 4 — Assess your voluntary disclosure options. If you have unreported years, voluntary disclosure is almost always the better path compared to waiting for DJP to identify the exposure.

Step 5 — File correctly going forward. Once your historical position is clean, establishing correct reporting from the current year forward is straightforward.

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The Common Mistake to Avoid

Many traders assume that because Binance does not withhold Indonesian tax, Indonesia has no visibility into their Binance activity. This assumption is increasingly incorrect.

OJK and DJP have expanded their data-sharing capabilities, and Indonesia participates in international frameworks for financial information exchange. The absence of automatic withholding does not mean the absence of a reporting obligation — it means the obligation sits with you rather than the platform.

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Where to Start

If you have been trading on Binance or other international exchanges from Indonesia and have not been reporting that activity, the right first step is understanding your actual exposure before your next SPT filing.

A Compliance Health Check reviews your exchange activity, identifies your obligations under PMK 50/2025, and gives you a clear picture of your position and your options — including whether voluntary disclosure makes sense for your situation.

Book a Compliance Health Check — Rp 6.500.000

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Crypto Tax Indonesia provides reconciliation and advisory services for crypto asset tax compliance in Indonesia. Formal SPT filing is handled through our licensed BKP-certified partner. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute formal tax advice.