ANALYSIS: Where is tax income spent in Turkey?

Şebnem Turhan - Neşe Karanfil

Social security costs have taken the lion’s share of Turkey’s tax income spending at 22 percent, followed by educational costs and interest rate payments. 

Some 5.2 percent of tax income is spent on security costs and 4.8 percent on military costs in Turkey, where indirect tax income has been quite higher than the world average. 

According to the 2016 budget, some 22.03 Turkish Liras of each 100-liras of income are spent on social security and social aid costs. 

This is followed by educational costs at 17.8 percent and interest payments at 9.9 percent. 

The largest amount of money is spent on the pre-schooling sector in the framework of education. 

Some 4.38 liras of each 100 liras of tax income are spent to cover health costs, according to the 2016 budget.

The same amount of money is spent on the transportation sector, where high speed train and highway projects take the lion’s share. 

The state has allocated 570 billion liras of the budget to cover staff, social security, education, defense, investments and other items.