Several sectors on government’s radar for tax inspections

ANKARA

Some 1,000 tax inspectors will be out in the field in 50 of the country’s 81 provinces to check if large companies are complying with tax regulations in key industries, such as retail, transportation, jewelry, energy, health services, hospitality, construction and textile.

This is part of a wider government effort to prevent tax evasion. Officials from the Treasury and Finance Ministry have been conducting inspections for some time to detect if businesses are resorting to practices which violate tax regulations.

Inspections have found that some restaurants or cafes were pretending to sell products such as meat, water and fruit juice instead of food and beverage services and were charging value-added tax (VAT) at 1 percent instead of 10 percent.

Some grocery stores were found to be pretending to sell food when they were selling cleaning supplies.

In response, the ministry took action and prepared a draft communiqué to amend the General Implementation Communiqué on VAT to prevent abuse and ensure a level playing field.

Now, officials are shifting focus to larger companies for detailed inspections in several sectors to prevent such abuses and violations.

They will check money transfers, mail orders and bank transactions. In the meat industry, they will inspect if businesses are engaging in unrecorded transactions and whether large companies are abusing tax exemptions.

They will also investigate the transactions in the cryptocurrency market as well as luxury car trade.

Medium-sized and large companies will be asked several questions about their tax practices as part of those inspections.

Authorities are working to integrate artificial intelligence and algorithms with tax inspections to help them detect tax abuses.

Upon the request of Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, officials have identified the industries which should be investigated to see whether companies operating in those sectors are committing tax fraud.

They single out the sectors where tax abuse and fraud practices are more common than the others. The inspections will focus on companies which pay low tax even though their profits surged due to elevated inflation.

Officials are also acting on tips about tax fraud and inspections will include companies with foreign partners.

Tax inspectors are collaborating with prosecutor’s offices, the department of anti-smuggling and organized crime and the Financial Crime Investigation Board (MASAK).