Bosses call for restructuring of taxes on wages

ANKARA

The income tax brackets and rates and the wage ceiling based on the social security premiums should be restructured in order to increase the net wages received by employees, says Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, president of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB).

Speaking at a “consultation meeting” in Ankara on Sept. 23, also attended by Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan, Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that the income tax brackets have been narrowing.

"It is neither fair nor logical for a middle-income worker to fall into the 40 percent tax bracket, the highest income tax bracket, in the middle of the year,” he added.

“A similar situation occurs with the maximum wage based on the social security premiums. While the maximum wage used to be five times the minimum wage, it is now seven and a half times the minimum wage. In order to increase the take-home pay of our workers, we are calling for a restructuring of the income tax brackets and rates and the maximum wage based on the premium. We also consider employment incentives to be very important in order to protect existing jobs and open up new business areas.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that a 5-point premium incentive, which was used in the past, directly supports employment and is easy to implement.

He stressed that labor-intensive sectors, in particular, have recently lost export competitiveness due to increases in raw material, energy and other costs.

"We should provide additional incentives to prevent the loss of labor in labor-intensive sectors,” Hisarcıklıoğlu said.

“In order to protect the employment of our enterprises, whose production and sales have decreased due to the decline in their orders, we expect that the short-time working allowance will be implemented without much procedure, as it was during the pandemic period. Unfortunately, the problems of our companies in the earthquake zone continue. The cancellation of tax and insurance debts, as in the case of the 1999 earthquake, will enable our earthquake-damaged companies to get back on their feet.”

The TOBB chair argued that the labor market in Türkiye is rigid and that flexible legislation is needed according to the standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the European Union (EU).

Hisarcıklıoğlu also stated that two protocols that will enable young people and women to participate in the labor force by providing them with qualifications and will enable them to reach the labor force with sufficient professional skills in the fields that companies need have been signed.

He said that TOBB is striving to increase the qualification of the workforce and that professional qualification certificates have been given to more than 120,000 employees through exams organized in 77 professions, especially in dangerous and very dangerous professions.