Treasury squeezes tenants to claim rental taxes

ANKARA

The Treasury and Finance Ministry has started to collect information from tenants in order to accurately determine rental income.

The ministry, which sent letters to tenants asking for a meeting about rents, has now told tenants, "You do not need to come to the ministry, you can fill out a form online."

The tenants will be able to fill out a "Rent Notification Form" from the Digital Tax Office, which asks for information about the tenant, the property owner, the property, and the account information where the rent is deposited.

The income tax filing period will begin on March 1st for rental income received in 2023. Until the end of March, declarations will be made and the taxes will be paid for the income earned last year.

Prior to the declaration payment period, the Finance Ministry also used data from the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadaster, the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs and Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) statistics to identify the addresses of potential tenants.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek recently said that as a result of the examination of the land registry and population data, approximately 4.5 million houses with the potential to generate rental income have been analyzed and actual determinations will be made at the addresses identified as rented.

The information obtained from the tenants is transferred directly to the tax administration's systems via an electronic report. This information is compared with bank account data and tax returns, and necessary checks are performed.

After identifying potential tenants, information letters were sent to taxpayers inviting them to voluntary compliance. Tenant surveys were conducted. Now, tenants who cannot be reached are given a specific day and time and a letter is left with them regarding the rent paid.

Landlords may be subject to tax penalties for filing incomplete returns or no returns at all. On the first page of the Rent Notification Form, the statement "Dear Taxpayer, you can help fight the informal economy by filling out the Rent Notification Form" appears.

In the Rent Notification Forum, the Turkish ID number and the first and last name of the tenant are requested first. The real or legal entity, Turkish ID number or foreign ID number of the property owner is requested.

In the property information section, it is asked whether the property is a residence, workplace or one of the other options. Lease is in progress / Lease has ended information, lease date, rent amount and currency are asked one by one. In addition, the account information where the rental fee is deposited is also requested.