Ministry launching tax audits targeting large companies

ANKARA

Teams of tax inspectors are preparing for an intensive audit program targeting large companies across Türkiye, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said.

The audits will initially focus on 31 of the country's 81 provinces, mainly Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Adana, Bursa and Konya, with the participation of approximately 500 tax inspectors, and will spread across the country in the following phase, Şimşek told state-run Anadolu Agency.

Some 3,400 large companies that are considered to be risky will be invited to provide explanations on around 30 different issues, such as whether they violate the regulations regarding inflation accounting and unrecorded revenues, according to the minister.

During the inspections, the companies will be questioned about their failure to report social media revenues.

“According to preliminary calculations, it has been determined that the large companies to be invited to explain under-declared the tax base difference of 23 billion Turkish Liras for the relevant periods,” Şimşek said.

Noting that those who do not provide explanations and those whose explanations are not deemed sufficient will be referred to tax inspection, the minister said.

As a result of those audits and inspections billions of liras could be raised, according to Şimşek.

Some 501 billion liras were collected in corporate tax in the January-August period, while income tax revenues amounted to 876 billion liras in the same period, according to data from the Finance Ministry.