Foreign Consultant with KITAS/KITAP Performing Work in Indonesia

[Chiron]

I'm tentatively planning a move from Houston to Solo sometime in the next 6-36 months. The original plan has been a full retirement, and getting a spousal KITAS/KITAP for the visa. However, the idea of semi-retirement (i.e. working part-time) has crossed my mind.

As chance would have it, an opportunity has come up where I could live in Solo and be employed as a freelance consultant for a European company. In this case, it's a German company with an office in Singapore. My job function would center around business development and project management. This would be a part-time traveling job, taking me all over Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Currently the work would be in places like Hong Kong, Auckland, and Singapore. However, the company eventually hopes to build business in every country within this region, and may eventually include Indonesia at some point.

So here are my questions:

1. I'm guessing that having a job with a foreign company, and living in Indonesia on a spousal KITAS/KITAP is okay - since I'm not actually employed by an Indonesian company. There would be lots of travel, so I would need the MERP (which I would get regardless). Can anyone see issues with this so far?

2. As a hypothetical example, the German company one day in the future dispatches me from Singapore to perform functions in Jakarta. They end up selling their systems and software to an Indonesian firm, of which I would probably play a role. The second part of the transaction, would be contracted project management to assist the Jakarta team with an implementation. This would be a temporary situation, and could last 3-12 months - both onsite and remote (working from home). In this example, I would sometimes be flying from Solo to Jakarta, and spending time with this Indonesian firm as a consultant from a German company. The only difference is that I would actually live in Indonesia with a KITAS/KITAP. Would the German company need to obtain a working visa for me? Or would I be okay to assist the Jakarta team per the contract signed between the companies without anything more than my KITAS/KITAP?

Thanks.

 

[Davita]

1. Not at all...perfectly acceptable.... and will make many of us green with envy.
2. The spousal Kitas/Kitap w/merp allows you to live in Indonesia and freely leave and return. In that visa capacity you are a temporary/permanent resident of Indonesia therefore your job, as described, may require a work permit (IMTA).
If, hypothetically, you lived in Singapore and wished to do business in RI you would need another type visa but which wouldn't need an IMTA. You cannot have two different visas simultaneously.

 

[snpark]

Go for it, don't foresee any problem with it really, you can even get "paid" to your non Indo account

 

[Chiron]

Thanks for the confirmation on these questions. From all the reading about visas, I was pretty sure that this would be okay. In the hypothetical example, I would just make sure the contract had appropriate language to cover the IMTA.

My next thing to figure out is the taxes. It should be an interesting problem, but as the saying goes - a "good" problem to have. Even after reading everything I could find on the Kantor Pajak, I still think it's going to be a tricky business dealing with them...

 

[snpark]

Well personally I wouldnt try too hard to find them, make a token effort to report and leave the rest to them, no point giving money away needlessly since your situation is a little different anyway