Synchronization of Tax and Zakat Regulations in Indonesia’s Positive Law: A Legal Certainty Perspective

Abstract

This article examines the synchronization of tax and zakat regulations in Indonesia’s positive legal system and its implications for legal certainty for Muslim taxpayers. It employs normative legal research with prescriptive and descriptive-analytical characteristics, using statutory and conceptual approaches. Primary legal materials include the 1945 Constitution, taxation legislation, the Zakat Management Law, and implementing regulations; the materials are qualitatively analyzed through legal reasoning. The study finds no direct vertical normative conflict: the recognition of zakat within the tax system is generally consistent from statutes to implementing regulations. Horizontally, the Zakat Management Law and the Tax Regulation Harmonization Law mutually recognize zakat, yet substantive integration remains incomplete because zakat functions as a deduction from income rather than a direct credit against tax payable. Consequently, the framework provides formal legal certainty but does not yet achieve optimal substantive certainty. Muslim taxpayers continue to bear zakat and tax obligations through separate mechanisms, while the fiscal benefit of zakat recognition remains limited. The article recommends stronger regulatory integration and a gradual, carefully limited tax-credit model at the statutory level, supported by improved administrative and data integration between authorized zakat institutions and tax authorities. This approach is intended to strengthen substantive legal certainty, justice, and utility without eliminating the distinct legal character of tax and zakat.