Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek pressures tax inspectors for collection

According to Article 4 of the Tax Procedure Law No. 213, tax collection is the responsibility of the tax office.

The tax office is the authority that identifies the taxpayer, assesses and accrues the tax, and collects it. According to Article 135 of the Tax Procedure Law No. 213, tax inspectors are authorized to conduct tax audits. They have no authority, either direct or indirect, regarding the collection of taxes.

Although the budget ran a surplus of 48.6 billion lira in July, the cumulative budget deficit for the January-July period reached 434.7 billion lira. The reason for this increase is the further rise in the budget deficit due to factors such as earthquake-related expenditures, waste and corruption, rising inflation, and election spending.

In this situation, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance has taken action through inappropriate means.

At a time when the Central Bank is accelerating monetary tightening and banks are reluctant to provide funds to the real sector, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance has taken unethical steps to collect tax receivables by forcing tax inspectors into collection duties.

With the omnibus bill, the public's additional borrowing authority was increased to 2 trillion 181 billion lira. For this reason, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance has launched a major debt collection drive through tax inspectors and tax offices, which lack the authority to do so.

As the political power becomes strapped for cash and the crisis deepens, it is resorting to various methods.

One of these is seating tax inspectors, who have no authority regarding collection, in tax offices to apply mobbing to taxpayers alongside tax office directors and revenue specialists. Their justifications include statements such as, "Your debt is too high, it is overdue, pay it immediately or we will audit your books or place a lien on all your assets."

It makes no difference even if the taxpayer has benefited from a tax amnesty. They are receiving formal or informal letters from taxpayers regarding the payment of taxes.

On the other hand, they are placing liens on bank accounts, export and import proceeds without the taxpayers' knowledge. They are preventing commercial activities by placing liens on commercial vehicles registered to the company and towing them to parking lots. They are also demanding the immediate sale of the seized commercial vehicles.

The government, which issues a tax amnesty every year or year and a half, is forcing taxpayers to increase their tax base and declare stocks in order to benefit from the amnesty. As a justification, they provide a guarantee that they will not audit taxpayers for the years covered by the tax amnesty.

For this reason, taxpayers are specifically increasing their VAT base so that "nothing happens to us" and they are not audited. In fact, if an audit has been initiated for the years covered by the amnesty, the books of the taxpayers who apply for the amnesty are returned and no audit is conducted. Furthermore, if taxpayers who benefit from tax amnesties have issued fake invoices or documents that are misleading in content, no audit is conducted if those who issued these documents pay half of the VAT.

And although it is stipulated by law that no tax base difference can be assessed, the government has violated the tax amnesty law it enacted itself in its own favor.

This creates a great sense of distrust among taxpayers toward the political power. Specifically: Tax office directors call taxpayers and ask them to remove certain invoices from their declarations for years covered by the tax amnesty. They tell them that otherwise, they will be referred to tax inspectors for an audit, placed under "special procedures," or that these invoices will be removed from the declarations ex officio, and tax office directors pressure taxpayers on this matter. None of these three situations has a legal basis for taxpayers. Such a claim cannot be made for years covered by an amnesty, they cannot be placed under special procedures, and they cannot be referred for an audit. Taxpayers placed under special procedures cannot receive VAT refunds or export refunds. If a taxpayer has been placed under special procedures, other taxpayers cannot trade with the taxpayer under special procedures because if they do, they cannot receive tax refunds due to the taxpayer under special procedures. In fact, there is no legal basis for placing them under special procedures. Taxpayers can apply to tax courts to have this administrative action by the tax office canceled. If tax office directors force a taxpayer to remove invoices from their declaration for years covered by a tax amnesty even though the taxpayer has increased their VAT base, the taxpayer is then forced to pay the VAT on the removed invoices along with a late payment penalty.

Now I ask the political power: Why are you enacting a tax amnesty law? Why are you sending tax inspectors after taxpayers to force collection? Tax inspectors are not tax police or collection officers.