Luxury watch trade in tax inspectors’ crosshairs

ISTANBUL

The Treasury and Finance Ministry's Tax Audit Board (VDK) has identified taxpayers engaged in unregistered watch trade, discovering 4 billion Turkish Liras ($117 million) worth of informal trading between 2023 and 2024.

Inspections carried out at the board’s Risk Analysis Center scrutinized 6,500 taxpayers for off-the-book transactions.

Those inspections uncovered irregularities, including the sale of watches and luxury watches without proper documents and the sale of unregistered watches.

Millions of transactions made through banks and intermediary institutions were examined which discovered informal watch trading business reaching a volume of 4 billion liras. Authorities found that thousands of genuine or imitation watches of different brands and models are changing hands without any tax payment.

It was also found that e-commerce is also widely used for such trading. Unregistered products are sold through online marketplaces, social media platforms, or websites by using virtual POS machines or payment at the door, according to authorities.

Inspections discovered unregistered sales of 944 different brands and models, including imitations of brands such as Rolex, Omega and Patek Philippe.

Authorities are also looking into who bought those watches and inspecting the income and expenditures of the buyers of luxury watches, some of which cost millions of liras.

The source of these earnings was also investigated. During these inspections authorities also focus on money laundering.