Learning from Neighbors: A Comparative Policy Analysis of Tax Education Integration in the High School Curricula of Indonesia and Malaysia

Abstract

Background. Tax compliance is a pressing concern across Southeast Asia. Indonesia and Malaysia both want tax awareness built early. They have nonetheless placed tax education in the high school curriculum in quite different ways.

Objective. This study compared the rationale, curricular placement, institutional collaboration, and implementation of high school tax education in Indonesia and Malaysia and derived lessons for Indonesia.

Methods. A qualitative comparative policy analysis covered official documents issued between 2019 and 2024 by Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology and Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) and by Malaysia’s Ministry of Education and Inland Revenue Board (IRBM), including curriculum frameworks, decrees, tax authority publications, and strategic plans. A thematic analysis compared the countries under four pre-defined themes.

Results. Two models emerged. Malaysia follows a formal, centralized model. Since 2021, tax education has been a mandatory topic in Form 5 Mathematics, providing for universal delivery through classroom teachers. Indonesia follows an emerging, decentralized model of extracurricular outreach led by the DJP, such as Pajak Bertutur. The Kurikulum Merdeka offers room for formal integration, but implementation remains ad hoc and depends on regional initiative.

Conclusion. Malaysia offers Indonesia an example of systemic integration, while the project-based Kurikulum Merdeka offers a chance to teach tax as part of civic and economic literacy, and not just as mathematics. A stronger operational partnership between the DJP and the Ministry of Education appears necessary to move from occasional outreach to curriculum-based tax education.