New tax developments in Turkey 2024

Hakan Üzeltürk

Istanbul Medipol University Law Faculty, Istanbul

Various changes were made to the Turkish tax system via Act No 7524, which was published in the Official Gazette on 2 August 2024. Some important changes are as follows.

Tax Procedure Act

Within the scope of the fight against the informal economy, the tax loss penalty to be applied to taxpayers who work unregistered without establishing liability has been increased by 50 per cent.

Special irregularity penalties have been increased, and the penalty to be applied to companies and individuals who do not make their collections from their own bank accounts or point of sale (POS) devices but use or make others use POS devices and bank accounts belonging to others will be three times the standard special irregularity penalty. In addition, the amount of the penalty for each transaction cannot be less than 20,000 Turkish lira.

The 25 per cent discount opportunity provided to taxpayers who pay within 30 days has been abolished.

Changes have been made regarding the upper limit of the guarantee and the refund of the guarantee of those who were found to have established a liability for the purpose of issuing false documents and whose liability was cancelled.

The principal tax has been excluded from the scope of reconciliation. The issue of reconciliation is a legally problematic issue due to both its theoretical basis and practical problems, and it needs to be reconsidered in every aspect.

Income Tax Act

As of 1 January 2025, daily revenue determination practice will begin for commercial and professional earnings. According to this practice, which was introduced as a tax security institution, taxpayers’ revenues – determined as a result of the survey – will be compared with their declarations, and if the revenue difference is more than 20 per cent, the taxpayer will be invited to explain the discrepancy. If the explanation given is found to be insufficient, the taxpayer may be subject to a tax audit and a tax loss penalty may be imposed. This regulation shall also be applied to corporate taxpayers.

The Head of the Republic has been authorised to include electronic service providers within the scope of income tax withholding as of 1 January 2025. However, the granting of such authority under the Constitution is not lawful.

A wage exemption has been introduced for the employee benefits provided by employers within the scope of techno-enterprise companies by giving them share certificates.

Corporate Tax Act

The new Act No 7524 has introduced a domestic minimum corporate tax application. According to the new regulation, the calculated tax cannot be less than ten per cent of the corporate income before deductions and exemptions. Certain exemptions are excluded from the base for the ten per cent tax, including: the participation exemption for dividends from Turkish resident entities; the exemption for emission premiums; the exemption provided under the Act on Technology Development Zones; and the allowances granted for qualifying research and development (R&D) and design activities. 

The scope will be applied in a very limited way. This is a tax security institution. It will be applied as of 1 January 2025, and 2024 earnings are excluded from the scope. There are many problems connected to this measure, especially in terms of previous year losses. Therefore, many lawsuits may be filed regarding this regulation, which the author believes is unfair as it means tax will be paid on income that wasn’t actually obtained.

The corporate tax exemption in investment funds and partnerships is tied to the condition that at least 50 per cent of the real estate income of the funds and partnerships is distributed as profit. This new rule does not impact investment funds and companies deriving income from sources other than real estate. The new rule is applicable to income generated as from 1 January 2025.

The corporate tax rate has been increased to 30 per cent for earnings obtained within the scope of the build-operate-transfer model. The new tax rate will apply to fiscal years beginning from 1 January 2025.

Local and global minimum complementary corporate tax application has been introduced. A 15 per cent tax will be levied on the profits of the affiliated enterprises of multinational business groups whose annual consolidated revenue in the consolidated financial statements of their ultimate parent enterprise exceeds the Turkish lira equivalent of €750m in at least two of the four accounting periods prior to the accounting period in which the income is reported. The Turkish Pillar Two provisions do not differ significantly from the EU Minimum Tax Directive. This will also be applied to 2024 profits.

The Head of the Republic has been authorised to include electronic commerce service providers within the scope of corporate tax withholding. However, the granting of such authority under the Constitution is not lawful.

Value Added Tax Act

The scope of tax exemptions has been narrowed. Vehicles used in activities such as travel, entertainment, sports and amateur fishing, private boats and yachts will not be accepted as sea transport vehicles.

In order to ensure that taxpayers' VAT refunds are made correctly and that unfair VAT refunds are not created, tax inspections in VAT refunds will be taken as the basis.

In order to reduce the amount of VAT transferred and therefore accumulated, the application of transferring VAT that cannot be deducted for five calendar years to a special account and considering it as an expense has been introduced. The effective date has been determined as 1 January 2030.

The scope of services provided at ports and airports for sea and air transport vehicles has been narrowed and included in the scope of partial exemptions.

In terms of mergers, transfers and divisions that could previously be made within the statute of limitations, it is now possible to allow the transfer of the transferred VAT and refund directly to the new company through tax inspection, without being subject to the statute of limitations.

The difference in VAT application in favour of imports in the import and domestic delivery of some goods has been eliminated.

Special Consumption Tax (Excise Duties) Act

The limitation of up to 20 per cent of the minimum fixed tax amount regarding the fixed tax amount collected from some tobacco products has been removed, and it is now possible to collect tax up to the minimum fixed tax amount to be collected.

The difference in the application of special consumption tax in favour of imports in the import and domestic delivery of certain goods has been eliminated.

Collection Procedure of Public Receivables Act

The cases in which a ‘no debt’ document is required have been expanded. In this context, payments to be made upon court judgments and payment or execution orders of enforcement offices have been included in the scope of transactions that cannot be made without paying public receivables, and the person collecting the money will be required to present a ‘no debt’ document.

Administrative Judicial Procedure Act

Judgments made by administrative and tax courts regarding tax cases, full jurisdiction cases and annulment cases filed against administrative transactions with a subject matter not exceeding 31,000 Turkish lira are final and no appeal can be filed against them.

Tax cases, full jurisdiction cases and administrative transactions with a subject matter exceeding 920,000 Turkish lira can be appealed.

Tax lawsuits, full jurisdiction lawsuits and administrative actions can be appealed if their value is more than 270,000 Turkish Lira but less than 920,000 Turkish Lira. This rule applies when a higher court has annulled a previous decision. When this happens, the case is reviewed again in the appeal process. The parties involved have the right to challenge the new decision made after the annulment. This ensures that important cases can be properly reconsidered.

In determining cases where a hearing is mandatory, the figures as of the date the case is filed will be taken as the basis.

In determining decisions that can be appealed, the monetary value on the date that the final decision is given by the first instance court or regional administrative court will be taken as the basis.

Free Zones Act

The income exemption provided to businesses operating in free zones is limited to export revenues, and the exemption granted to earnings from domestic sales has been abolished in order to be applied on the profits gained as of 1 January 2025. This amendment came into force on 2 August 2024 when the law was published in the Official Gazette.

Departure Fee for Foreign Travel 

The departure fee has been set at TRY 500 since 12 August 2024. It was formerly applied as 150 TRY. This amount will be increased every year according to the revaluation rate.