Comprehensive tax amnesty announced

ANKARA

The government is working on a draft bill for a comprehensive tax amnesty, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced.

Accordingly, the penalties for tax and premium debts will be deleted and the opportunity to be paid in installments will be introduced.

“We are preparing a law proposal restructuring the public receivables of institutions such as tax offices, SGK [Social Security Institution] and municipalities,” Erdoğan said at a press conference following a cabinet meeting on Jan. 23.

“We remove the penalties of our citizens’ and companies’ debts to public institutions, including tax and premium obligations. With the regulation, we provide the opportunity to update all debts at a certain rate and to pay in installments.”

Erdoğan said the debts that are subjects of lawsuits will also be included in the bill.

“We give the parties the opportunity to end the dispute,” he said.

The bill will also “give good news” to citizens who have debts of execution, the president added.

“We are implementing a regulation for our citizens who owe a debt not exceeding 2,000 Turkish Liras to our tax offices on all topics such as taxes, penalties and interest,” he said. “We give up the collection of fines to tax offices for one time only if the fines pre-date Dec. 31, 2022.”

The main purpose of the regulations is to prevent the state and citizens from confronting each other for small debts, Erdoğan said.

“I hope that these regulations, the details of which will be announced by the Treasury Ministry, will be beneficial to our citizens,” he added.

The regulations will also include annulment of traffic penalty points.

“We have made the highway infrastructure of our country comfortable. In this way, we have achieved a half reduction in fatal traffic accidents in the last five years,” Erdoğan said.

“Despite all the measures, the increase in the individual and commercial use of highways has caused serious increases in the penalty points of the drivers due to rule violations. In this regard, we see it as our duty to relieve the hearts of our citizens.”

With the regulation, the traffic penalty points of the drivers except those who were driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and those who were involved in accidents that resulted in fatalities and injuries, will be deleted.

“As a result, traffic penalty points of around 2.5 million drivers will be reset and approximately 10,000 drivers licenses confiscated will be returned to their owners,” Erdoğan said.