The Ministry of Treasury and Finance of Republic of Türkiye has published the communique regarding the application of announcing to the public and disclosing those who have high tax debts and do insist on not paying, who are referred to as “shameless taxpayers” in the public. The communique is being published in the Turkish Official Gazette dated 03.09.2024 and thus entered into force.
The Ministry of Treasury and Finance can be able to make this ‘naming & shaming’ practice based on the legal authority granted in the fourth paragraph of the Article 5 of the Tax Procedure Law. In fact, this application is not novel; this authority was already in practice within the rule of a communique dated 2001.
With the latest amednment, the application has been updated and tightened. The first public disclosure will be due in a month.
✍ Accordingly, finalized taxes and penalties due to assessments made ex officio or by the administration and unpaid taxes and penalties that have passed will be taken into account.
✍ Taxpayers who owe TRL 5,000,000 (approx. 148 thousand USD with the recent exchange rate) or more to each tax office seperately or have finalized taxes and penalties exceeding this amount will be disclosed to the public.
✍ Finalized assessments will be taken into account, those that are not finalized or whose investigations are ongoing will not be considered.
✍ Those who pay their debts by the deadline of September 30 2024 will not be disclosed.
DISCLOSURE DATES FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR OF 2024
✍ The disclosures to be made in 2024 will be made in tax offices throughout Turkey between 15/10/2024 and 31/10/2024 (inclusive) by being posted in the places designated for posting announcements of each tax office, and on the Revenue Administration website between 1/11/2024 and 15/11/2024 (inclusive).
✍ Those who have previously restructured or made plans to pay in installments in accordance with various restructuring laws will not be disclosed to the public unless their restructuring is invalid or disrupted.
✍ The debts of municipalities and companies of municipal authorities whose applications for exchange and offset based on debt have been accepted will not be disclosed.
✍ Debts belonging to the date of 31/12/2004 and before, structured in accordance with Law No. 6111, will not be disclosed.
✍ Debts of companies and workplaces within the scope of force majeure in the 6th of February Earthquake Zone will also not be disclosed.
