Koç firms subject to probes: Tax board

ARDA AKIN ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

The Tax Inspection Board’s head, Adnan Ertürk, sent a confidential memo to tax inspectors asking them to procure any documentation attesting to tax evasion or fraud that the Koç Group may have engaged in or committed respectively; Tüpraş, Opet&Aygaz, and Shell&Turcas, 2 percent of which is owned by Koç Group, are the Koç companies that will be thoroughly audited by the tax inspectors. 

The confidential document, numbered 24298, was sent on Sept. 19 to a number of public authorities to ask them to detect, find and deliver any relevant evidence that would implicate either Tüpraş, Aygaz, Opet and Shell&Turcas in engaging in tax evasion or committing tax fraud, particularly within the petroleum sector. 

Any data from financial years spanning from 2009 to the first six months of 2013 will be sent to the authorities as has been requested. The Police and the Finance Ministry’s tax inspectors raided the offices of the group’s Tüpraş, Turkey’s only petroleum refiner, and others in July. Officials said the operation was simply a routine inspection while Koç Group C-levels did not make any comment.