The Bill of Law regarding Amendments the Income Tax Law and Certain Laws and Decrees, which includes regulations regarding the labour life, was passed in the General Assembly of the Turksih Grand National Assembly and has became law. With the new act, important regulations concerning labour life have been made, and the regulations concerning workers and employers are as follows:
- In cases where meals are not provided by the employers at the workplace or its premises, a portion of the daily meal cost of the days worked, which does not exceed 51 Turkish Liras, will be exempt from income tax even if it is paid in cash. If the payment exceeds this amount, the excess and any other benefits provided for this purpose will be taxed as wages.
- Salary payments made to service professionals working in construction, repair, installation works and technical services abroad, which are paid from the employer’s foreign earnings in return for their actual work abroad, will be exempt from The Income Tax of Turkey.
- With the regulation made in the Unemployment Insurance Law, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and the personnel of the Turkish Employment Agency will not be held responsible for the transactions related to the receipt, evaluation and payment of short-time employment applications and wage support transactions which are made by employers due to Covid-19 Pandemic coercive reasons.
- In this context, in case it is determined that the employee benefited from the short-time working allowance or cash wage support payments due to faulty transactions and in case the employee who obtained cash wage support is actually being employed by the employer, the administrative fines applied to the employer related to these acts as of the effective date of the omnibus law are to be cancelled. The uncollected administrative fines will be abandoned. Collected items cannot be refunded or deducted.
- The sale of Social Security Institution (SSI)’s immovables in electronic environment has been made possible with the amendment. The procedures and principles regarding the execution of all kinds of sales and other works and transactions, including electronic tender, will be determined by the regulation to be issued by the SSI.
- Up to TRL 1000 of additional payments under the name of “natural gas, heating and electricity assistance” to be paid by employers to their employees until the end of June 2023 period will be exempt from tax and premium, and only stamp duty will be deducted from such payments.
- If the total accrual amount for the treatment services provided to the SSI by the health service providers belonging to the public universities, which made a lump-sum service contract with the Social Security Institution in 2022, is lower than the lump-sum contract amount, the difference will not be collected by the SSI.
- Within the condition of not being notified as of March 11, 2020, the administrative fines for not wearing a mask or not complying with the restrictions imposed which are given in order to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 Epidemic, will be canceled if the relevant person has not been notified.
