David Hamzah Damian

Indonesia Tax Court

David is the Partner of Tax Compliance & Litigation Services at DDTC. He is an experienced practitioner in transfer pricing, customs, and all aspects of Indonesian taxation with more than 18 years of experience. He holds tax consultant license to practice before the Indonesian tax authority and tax attorney license to practice at the tax court.

David is well known for his advocacy skills both during dispute resolution process with the Indonesian tax authority and at the tax court. In 2019, all the cases that he handled during dispute resolution process with the Indonesian tax authority are closed or settled with agreements from both taxpayer and tax authority.

David have been with DDTC for over 10 years where currently he leads four teams of tax compliance and litigation services of DDTC which consists of more than 30 persons. three teams are responsible for tax dispute and litigation services, and one team is responsible for tax compliance services.

With full support from DDTC, David has attended various seminars and conferences from reputable universities and international organizations. The topics of the seminars and conferences were mostly on transfer pricing, international tax, customs, and VAT.

David is an expert contributor of DDTC News (Indonesia leading tax news portal), co-author of two chapters in “Transfer Pricing: Idea, Strategy, and Practical Guidance in International Tax Perspective” (in Bahasa Indonesia) published by DDTC and co-author of the Indonesian chapter in the 8th edition book entitled “The Tax Disputes and Litigation Review”, published by Law Business Research.

As a leader in the field of tax dispute and litigation, David speaks regularly on tax disputes and tax litigation topics in various seminars, trainings, and group discussions held by DDTC, private institutions, educational institutions, and government agencies. 

• In early 2020, he was a proxy, represented a client during a tax audit. The client is engaged in freight forwarding Industry. At the end of the audit, tax officer proposed a tax adjustment on the VAT payables due to sales of freight forwarding service to overseas customers. Such tax adjustment was copied from the prior years assessment result and is currently still undergoing a tax appeal.
  Initially the client did not charge VAT and the nature of the services did not meet the requirements for 0% VAT on export of services. David however, argued that there is a specific regime for freight forwarding services for domestic services which is taxed at 1% VAT. Thus under the neutrality principle and the equal treatment principle embodied in the VAT law, the same rate should be also applied.
  Tax officers was agreeable to the facts and arguments presented and withdrew the proposed adjustment of USD 8 million.
• In 2019, he acted as a proxy of a client engaged in maintaining a e-commerce marketplace. He represented the client before the tax authority during a tax objection dispute resolution (please note tax objection is a dispute resolution process prior to tax appeal at tax court). The case was about constructive marketing services where the tax authority argued that the client was performing excessive marketing activity for the benefit of the brand owner.
  During objection process, David argued directly in front of the tax authority that the marketing activity performed by the client was for the purpose of its own business in Indonesia and not for the brand owner. David’s argument was backed up with several notable industry analysis saying that during start-up phase of an e-commerce business, expenditure on marketing would soar high.
  The tax authority was agreeable on the presented arguments and the tax adjustments and its payable was cancelled in an objection decision.
• During 2019, he led a team of tax advisors in providing advices on tax matters related to restructuring and corporate financing mostly to Indonesian state-owned enterprises (SOE) to support the government in revamping the SOE structure, business, and finances. SOE’s consecutively trusted DDTC team led by David to support the tax analysis of the proposed business plan and structures, and to provide reliable tax advices.
  The largest securitization (based on future income) was done in 2017 by Jasa Marga (the largest toll road operator in Indonesia) with a value of USD 140 Million (IDR 2 Trillion). To support the securitization, DDTC was the appointed tax adviser. (see https://bit.ly/jsmrgtoll).
  The second largest assets backed securitization supported by DDTC was done in 2018 by Garuda Indonesia a national flag carrier with a value of USD 126 Million (IDR 1.8 Trillion). DDTC team led by David supported the securitization by providing a memorandum to assure the tax treatment of such scheme. (see https://bit.ly/garuda-kik-eba).

• Restructuring
• Audit defence
• Litigation
• Tax consulting
• International tax advisory

• Agriculture
• Automotive
• Consumer goods and services
• Energy
• Pharma
• Life sciences

• Member of Indonesian Tax Consultant Association

• Bachelor’s degree in Fiscal (Tax) Administration, University of Indonesia
• Advance Diploma in International Taxation, the Chartered Institute of Taxation, United Kingdom