JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Indonesia is investigating Google over five years of unpaid taxes on advertising revenue that could lead to a bill of $400 million for last year alone. <br /> <br />Indonesia thinks Google only paid 0.1 percent tax on its Indonesian ad revenue last year by diverting the cash to its Singapore office, Reuters reported. <br /> <br />Australia has also raised questions in recent years about Google’s practice of booking Aussie ad revenues through Singapore, according to the Financial Times. <br /> <br />Australia’s corporate tax rate is 30 percent. That figure drops to 25 percent in Indonesia and just 17 percent in Singapore. <br /> <br />Web giants Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook are also being investigated by Indonesia, which has launched a separate probe into taxes paid by the Ford Motor Company. <br /> <br />Indonesia claims Google allocated just 4 percent of the total revenue it generated in the country last year to its Indonesian branch. <br /> <br />The Indonesian communications ministry estimates that the digital advertising industry in the country was worth $800 million last year, and none of it was taxed. <br /> <br />Economic growth is slowing in Indonesia and the resource-rich country faces a revenue shortfall this year because of low commodity prices.
