From a gendarme state to a regime of unjust taxation

In the presence of an economic crisis where society cannot even meet its most basic needs, the government is deepening the crisis further with wrong policies instead of improvement policies.

In these crisis conditions, the public, from children to the elderly and retirees, has been forced to work under poor conditions just to survive.

The public is paying the price for these wrong policies. They are being exploited even when they have nothing left. The solution lies in the state doing what is required of it. Nothing beyond the capacity of the public can be expected. The government is trying to whitewash its mistakes through the public. The expectation should not be from the public to the state, but from the state to the public.

Laborers, workers, and the poor are paying the bill for a crisis they are not responsible for. However, whoever created the crisis should also pay the price. It is the government that has created a system aimed at destroying all strata, including farmers, minimum wage earners, and retirees. Those who created this economic destruction do not have the luxury of expecting sacrifices from the public.

For 22 years, the government has always blamed others for the crisis it caused. It is painful that, as always, this time too, the workers, laborers, retirees, and farmers are paying the price for the crisis. New tax regulations also continue to protect the capital sector. The proposed tax on stock market earnings and the removal of the tax on unexplained wealth from the draft are examples of this.

The tax system in Turkey works for the rich and capital.

Turkey has the most unjust tax system among OECD countries. The injustice of the tax system in Turkey is deepening day by day. When compared with the economies of other member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Turkey unfortunately ranks first in the share of 'indirect' taxes, such as VAT and SCT, which the state collects from everyone—rich or poor—through their consumption, within total tax revenues. This shows that indirect taxes are dominant in Turkey's public finance.

The fact that indirect taxes are so dominant both proportionally and nominally leads to a major erosion of tax awareness and tax justice. This means that the state is increasing the burden on the poor rather than the wealthy and capital owners in its economy, and budget expenditures are being unfairly placed on the backs of the country's poor and middle-income earners.

In terms of 'direct' taxes collected from income tax, profits, and capital gains, Turkey is at the bottom of the OECD with a very low rate. This means that the government prefers to cover budget deficits with taxes collected from the poor rather than from the wealthy and companies that earn money with their capital. In a country, the ratio of direct to indirect taxes is proportional to development. Constant tax amnesties and tax expenditure regulations are another practice that makes the tax system completely ineffective and unjust.

Justice, in its simplest definition, means conformity to rights and law. Taxes are the most important source of income for states, and according to our Constitution, everyone is obliged to pay taxes according to their financial capacity. Therefore, the State is obliged to ensure a fair and balanced distribution of taxes and to produce fiscal policy accordingly.

This order cannot continue by placing the burden of the economic crisis on the backs of the public; by taking from the poor without disturbing the comfort of the rich. These policies are not sustainable, and a transition to a social state in the full sense must be made immediately. The political power's concept of a gendarme state has turned into an imposition of unjust taxation. If taxation is unjust, democracy and the rule of law cannot be mentioned in that country.