DHYAH

In commercial practice, comprehensive support throughout every stage of a legal entity’s life cycle is essential. It calls for the capacity and capability to formulate sound legal foundations for business undertakings and legal entities.

Support for the legal standing of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) includes drafting deeds for the establishment, amendment, adjustment and dissolution of business forms such as Civil Partnerships (PD), General Partnerships and Commanditaire Vennootschap (CV), as well as Individual Limited Liability Companies under the Job Creation Law.

The practice encompasses corporate legality and business licensing for limited liability companies—whether private or public/listed—as well as foreign-investment entities (PT PMA). It spans establishment, alignment of articles of association, conversion of a CV into a limited liability company, and compliance support for risk-based business licensing through Online Single Submission (OSS-RBA), including the Indonesian Standard Classification of Business Fields (KBLI), Business Identification Numbers (NIB), Standard Certificates and sectoral operational licences.

In the social sphere, the work also supports the legal establishment of cooperatives as legal entities founded on people-centred economic principles, associations and non-profit entities such as foundations. It includes the establishment and amendment of non-governmental organisations, active participation in the institutional restructuring of the Indonesian Cancer Foundation and several philanthropic foundations—efforts intended to provide legal certainty for entities working in social, humanitarian and religious fields.

Over the course of professional practice, this has included a broad range of businesses: from early work with rural bank (BPR) corporate groups and banking institutions, to collaboration with corporate groups across manufacturing, hospitality and tourism, telecommunications, information technology, construction, healthcare and natural-resource sectors such as mining, petroleum and renewable energy. It also includes businesses in future-facing standardisation: inspection services, sustainability compliance, carbon exchanges, quality-assurance certification and halal certification.

Experience in contract drafting across varied commercial transactions deepens legal knowledge and sharpens legal skill. In the technology sphere, this expertise has been applied to technical arrangements for utility infrastructure, including the placement of internet signal-boosting equipment to support reliable telecommunications infrastructure in the development of an independent city. Further insight has been gained from reviewing electricity-related agreements between renewable-energy producers and state utility entities.

Experience gained through investing in capital markets—with due regard to regulatory compliance and professional ethics—supports a deeper understanding of capital-market legal structures. Each corporate action must be aligned with corporate governance, from the preparation of minutes of the General Meeting of Shareholders (RUPS) and complex actions such as mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and liquidation, to capital restructurings including debt-to-equity swaps, stock splits, capital reductions (buy-backs and quasi-reorganisations), rights issues (PMHMETD) and private placements (PMTHMETD). These measures require shareholder approval and the amendment or adjustment of articles of association approved and/or notified to Indonesia’s Ministry of Law.

A sound understanding of concepts, principles and theory within the framework of civil law and private international law is indispensable. Critical, logical and analytical thinking helps reconstruct a problem; communication, diplomacy and mediation are equally necessary.

These skills are needed to mitigate risk and address the legal effects of the highly dynamic issues arising in family law, including mixed marriages, cross-border ownership of wealth assets, the transformation of property into digital assets and their rights and ownership status, and secure intergenerational succession.

To separate corporate risk from the private sphere, family assets may be protected through the drafting of Marriage Agreement Deeds—both prenuptial agreements and postnuptial agreements—to ensure a legally valid separation of assets. This requires knowledge of instruments for asset protection and transfer, including Wills (Testaments), Testamentary Gifts (Legat/Legaat) and intergenerational Deeds of Gift under civil law.

This knowledge is further enriched by Islamic inheritance law (Faraidh) studied through training by Pusat Studi Waris Tazkia and Syariah Waris Center, alongside Islamic contract law at Iqtishad Consulting. Experience assisting with several waqf processes and the knowledge gained by collaborating on Islamic-inheritance matters with Ustadz Dr Erwandi Tarmidzi, MA—an expert in faraidh and fiqih muamalah—has been valuable in reconstructing and preparing the required legal documents and aligning them with administrative legal procedures.

Continuous learning throughout professional practice supports the precise handling of estate planning, whether governed by civil law (Indonesian Civil Code) or Islamic inheritance law. This includes issuing Deeds of Statement of Inheritance Rights and drafting Deeds of Distribution of Inheritance Rights and/or Deeds of Distribution of Joint Rights, to secure the lawful and equitable distribution of an estate and legal protection for the parties.

The essence of legal certainty rests on the validation of authentic data in the national public-registration system for agrarian affairs administered by the National Land Agency. Paper land certificates are transitioning to electronic certificates. The authority to prepare land deeds belongs to a Land Deed Official (PPAT).

The legality of transactions transferring land rights and ownership is secured through instruments such as a Sale and Purchase Deed (AJB), Deed of Gift, Exchange Deed (Ruislag), Deed of Contribution into a Company (Inbreng) and Deed of Distribution of Joint Rights (APHB). The latter is a key instrument for disentangling and allocating jointly owned assets, including inherited property.

Assets connected with financing facilities and bank credit may be secured through the Deed Granting Mortgage (APHT) together with a Power of Attorney to Grant Mortgage (SKMHT). Land-related legal documents may also take the form of a Deed Granting a Right to Build or Right of Use over Freehold Land. A notary may also be involved in land and building arrangements, including leases, loans for use and Build Operate Transfer (BOT) arrangements, among other variations.

Beyond these standard instruments and their variations, agrarian knowledge is also needed for more complex land-title regularisation: procedures for extending, renewing, upgrading or releasing rights; issuing land-right certificates; and consolidating certificates. Handling land-right transfers involving legal entities also requires an understanding of RDTR, technical approvals (Pertek), KKPR, PKKPR, PBG and SLF. Equally indispensable is an understanding of the various forms of land rights, whether existing today or predating the Basic Agrarian Law, together with their concepts of control and ownership.

This knowledge is needed for complex land-control documentation in industry, housing and national-scale telecommunications-tower infrastructure, as well as legal compliance for land matters directly integrated with hydroelectric power projects.

The land-administration system is integrated with the Population and Civil Registration Office (Disdukcapil), Coretax and Bappenda systems. Every transfer of rights over land and buildings—whether resulting from a legal event or a legal act—is preceded by verification, followed by compliance procedures and tax due diligence. Tax-payment obligations and tax validation must be completed before an authentic land deed is executed.

Payment requirements and administrative tax validation must be met, including Final Income Tax (PPh) through Coretax and Duty on the Acquisition of Land and Building Rights (BPHTB) through Bappenda, while also confirming any Value Added Tax (PPN). Specific transfers of land rights—such as inheritance, gifts within a direct line of descent and corporate restructuring—may also be eligible for an Income Tax Exemption Letter (SKB PPh).

For orderly tax administration, once rights registration is complete, the transfer of land rights must be recorded in each party’s annual tax return (SPT).

Document certification and authentication are crucial to the legal certainty of documents other than deeds and to a document’s validity in international circulation. Notarial acts include the legalisation of signatures to verify identity and establish a certain date for the parties, as well as the registration of private documents in a notary’s special register (Waarmerking) to establish the document’s registration date.

As cross-border legal relationships develop and Indonesia implements the Apostille Convention, public documents for use abroad are authenticated through the Apostille mechanism. A notary helps ensure the initial procedure is appropriate, documents are valid and regulatory standards are met, so Indonesian legal documents carry globally recognised evidentiary force.

As part of preparing an authentic deed, appearers are obliged to observe the regulations issued by the competent authorities. This includes the application of Beneficial Ownership (BO) requirements and the Know Your Service User Principle (PMPJ) to mitigate the risks of corruption, money laundering and terrorism offences.

Amid an evolving landscape of regulation, technological innovation and business, the office of notary must be exercised with the full awareness of a lifelong learner. There is substantial room to grow by refining legal skills and deepening academic inquiry. Legal research—the process of investigating, understanding and formulating concrete legal rules or norms when facing legal gaps, unclear norms or a client’s specific wishes in an authentic deed—is a foundation for work that may involve legal discovery (rechtsvinding).

An enduring dedication to legal knowledge is expressed not only through academic inquiry, but also through active contributions as a writer, moderator and speaker in notarial and contemporary-law forums organised by the Indonesian Notary Association (INI), the Indonesian Land Deed Official Association (IPPAT) and the Indonesia Notary Community (INC). Trust as a government discourse partner—including with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights in applying PMPJ and addressing the legality of dormant companies, alongside other ministries and agencies—has likewise informed this work. An invitation to speak at training by PPATK’s APU PPT Education and Training Centre provided an opportunity to explain the limits of notarial authority.

Invitations from corporate institutions have been used for public education on estate planning, wealth management and land law, through activities held by financial-planning professionals, Persatuan Wanita Patra Makassar—PT Pertamina Patra Niaga—and PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, Cibubur Branch, which frequently collaborates with developers including Kota Wisata and Metland.

This active role in legal literacy is an expression of professional responsibility. It helps ensure that notarial practice remains adaptive and extends beyond administrative routine, serving as a discourse partner able to offer precise legal perspectives amid the dynamics of society, business and public policy.