Six members of Koç Holding in top 10 tax champions list

Ankara – Anatolian News Agency

Rahmi Koç. Hürriyet Photo

Turkey’s income tax champions have been declared for 2012 with six members of the Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding taking their places within the top 10 of the list.

Semahat Sevim Arsel, a member of the board of the Koç Holding, became the tax champion of 2012, as in 2011. She paid 26.9 million Turkish Liras in taxes on her incomes from the mutual fund in 2012 although she paid 33.6 million liras in 2011.

Rahmi Koç, honorary president of the Koç Holding who ranked second in the list, accrued 26.1 million liras in taxes on his security incomes. Suna Kıraç, another member of the Koç Holding, ranked third in the 2012 list with over 20.5 million liras paid taxes.

Mustafa Koç, chairman of the Koç Holding, ranked fourth in the 2012 top tax payers list paying just under 16 million liras, followed by one of his brothers, Ömer Koç, who paid 14.4 million liras in income tax. Their brother Ali Koç, also a member of the Koç Holding board, ranked seventh in the list, paying 13.3 million.

Şarık Tara, honorary president of the Turkish construction conglomerate ENKA Holding, ranked sixth with 13.5 million lira. While the top tax payers in the eighth and 10th places wanted to remain anonymous, Aydın Doğan, founder and honorary president of the Aydın Doğan Foundation, ranked ninth in the 2012 list by paying 12.3 million liras in income tax.

Some artists ranked highly in the 2012 list, such as TV producer Acun Ilıcalı, and comedian Cem Yılmaz. Ilıcalı ranked 31st in the 2012 top 100 tax payers list by paying 4.6 million liras in tax. Cem Yılmaz came in 50th place on the list with 3.5 million.

While Turkey collected 530.5 million liras from the top 100 income tax payers in 2011, this sum amounted to 503.2 million liras in 2012, mostly due to the fall in the taxes paid by the top 10 tax payers.

The first three of the top tax payers of 2012 on their incomes from immovable properties wanted to remain anonymous. Rüksan Ürgüplü ranked fourth in the 2012 top taxpayers on income from immovable property. While the number five, six and 10 of this list wanted to remain anonymous, Necat Hepkon, Şükrü Karagül and Ali Haydar Ersoy ranked seventh, eighth and ninth in the list, respectively.

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek expressed his thanks to the Turkish tax champions, adding that 86 liras of 100 liras in tax was used to pay Turkey’s interest payments in 2002 but now this amount had decreased to 17.4 liras. “The remaining 82.6 liras in tax is used to provide more service, investment and subsidy for the good of the Turkish society,” Şimşek said.

TOP 10 TAX CHAMPIIONS

1 Semahat Sevim Arsel 26.8 million liras
2 Mustafa Rahmi Koç 26.1 million liras
3 Suna Kıraç 20.5 million liras
4 Mustaha Vehbi Koç 15.9 million liras
5 Mehmet Ömer Koç 14.4 million liras
6 Şarık Tara 13.5 million liras
7 Yıldırım Ali Koç 13.3 million liras
8 Anonymous taxpayer 12.3 million liras
9 Aydın Doğan 12.2 million liras
10 Anonymous taxpayer 10.6 mililon liras