Turkey’s “Tax Cheats” owe TL915 bn

Economy czar Mehmet Simsek is trying every trick in the book to raise new revenue for 2025, when the government needs to find funds equal to 2% of GDP to meet its ambitious target of cutting the deficit from ca 5% of 2024 (projected) to 3.1%. In the recent act, Turkey’s Revenue Administration has disclosed the names of 36,806 taxpayers with finalized tax debts and penalties exceeding five million liras ($146,000) owed to the state, writes Duvar English.

 

The Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, through the Revenue Administration, on Nov. 1 published a list of taxpayers with tax debts and penalties exceeding five million Turkish liras ($146,000).

 

The list included the names of 36,806 taxpayers who had unpaid obligations as of Dec. 31, 2023, and still outstanding by Sept. 30, 2024.

 

According to the administration’s statement, the list of finalized assessments included a total of 2,464 taxpayers, comprising 419 individuals and 2,045 entities. Among these, 299 have been active taxpayers, while 2,165 have ceased operations.

The total finalized taxes and penalties amounted to 53.1 billion liras, with 6.3 billion liras attributed to active taxpayers and the remaining 46.7 billion liras to those who have ceased operations.

 

In the debtors’ list, there were 36,906 taxpayers in total, with 7,948 individuals and 28,858 entities. Of these, 4,807 have been active taxpayers, while 31,999 have ceased operations.

 

The total outstanding unpaid taxes and penalties have reached 914.9 billion liras, of which 113.8 billion liras were owed by active taxpayers, and 801.1 billion liras by those no longer in operation.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek stated, “Of the 36,806 taxpayers we are disclosing as debtors, 30,696 have debts that are uncollectible. This means that 88.8% of these receivables cannot be recovered.”

 

The amount of receivables deemed “uncollectible” has been determined to be 812.8 billion liras.

 

The first three taxpayers with outstanding debts that remain unpaid included Turktab Tütün Mamülleri with a debt of 3.02 billion liras, Uluslararası Akaryakıt Dağıtım with TL 2.45 billion liras, and Enkad İnşaat Metal with TL 2.26 billion liras.

 

The list of finalized tax assessments included Yurtpet Akaryakıt with a liability of 1.27 billion liras, Mir with 740.70 million liras, and Ospet Petrolcülük with 603.83 million liras.

 

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Published By: Atilla Yeşilada

GlobalSource Partners’ Turkey Country Analyst Atilla Yesilada is the country’s leading political analyst and commentator. He is known throughout the finance and political science world for his thorough and outspoken coverage of Turkey’s political and financial developments. In addition to his extensive writing schedule, he is often called upon to provide his political expertise on major radio and television channels. Based in Istanbul, Atilla is co-founder of the information platform Istanbul Analytics and is one of GlobalSource’s local partners in Turkey. In addition to his consulting work and speaking engagements throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East, he writes regular columns for Turkey’s leading financial websites VATAN and www.paraanaliz.com and has contributed to the financial daily Referans and the liberal daily Radikal.