Top boss calls for cut in employment tax

ISPARTA - Anadolu Agency

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The head of Turkey’s top business organization has called for a cut in tax on employment while also urging structural reforms to increase income per capita in the country. 

“We need to focus on making structural reform again to increase income per capita. This must be our county’s priority. It is not possible for any country to become wealthier without making structural reforms. We need to raise our competitiveness level to become wealthier as well. The 25th Transformation Plan of the government has already included these targets and plans,” said the head of the Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges (TOBB), Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu. 

The TOBB head said Turkey was one of just three or four countries to offer the highest minimum wage, while asking for authorities to extend their support for businesspeople to share the burden of a recent minimum wage hike over the present single year. Noting that the job market needed urgent and comprehensive reform, Hisarcıklıoğlu said: “The tax burden on employment is around 60 percent in Turkey, which is one of the highest in the world. We want these burdens to be decreased as businesspeople. Turkey also offers one of the highest severance payments in the world. These taxes should be revised.” 

The government vowed to cover 40 percent of the cost of the minimum wage hike, which came into effect on Jan. 1, but only until the end of the year.