Turkey's need is not a new constitution, but a new tax law

Whenever social and societal unrest and collapse increase in our country and we enter an economic crisis, the government immediately thinks of constitutional amendment. As if the constitution were the cause of all crises and collapses. This time, the Turkey Century Education Model, ÇEDES, caliphate workshops, and sharia marches have been added to the constitution. It is no coincidence that these are happening at the same time. This is not the sound of footsteps leading our country into darkness, but rather a counter-revolution shouting and screaming that it is coming.

The regime thinks it can distract from itself with speculative agendas and make people forget about poverty, impoverishment, unjust income distribution, and the crushing of retirees and workers. Many segments of society are becoming complicit in this process.

Our country is being crushed under very ruthless tax laws. According to Article 73 of the Constitution, everyone is obliged to pay taxes according to their financial capacity to cover public expenditures. The fair and balanced distribution of the tax burden is the social objective of fiscal policies. In recent years, Article 73 of the Constitution has been rendered void by the government's unjust practices. The concepts of ability to pay and financial capacity in Article 73 of the Constitution have lost their validity in practice. The concept of ability to pay and financial capacity is applied only to retirees, the poor, the destitute, and wage earners. The wealth, consumption, spending, and living conditions of capital companies and the capital class are not monitored or taxed. Furthermore, the fact that these capital companies and the capital class are rewarded with exemptions, exceptions, incentives, deductions, tax expenditures, and tax amnesties is another dimension of the injustice.

Our country urgently needs a new tax law. The Turkish tax system has become identified with the government's understanding of injustice and lawlessness. A tax system where 60% of income tax is paid by wage earners and 75% of consumption taxes are paid by the public, the poor, and retirees is an unjust tax. The history of taxation and the history of democracy in a country are two fundamental phenomena that complement each other. The history of democracy is the history of taxation. The more unjust the taxes are in a country, the more unjust the democracy is in that country.

The Turkish tax system is not simple, not effective, and not fair. The existing tax base is shrinking due to exemptions, exceptions, and deductions. Forgone tax expenditures and tax amnesties lead to the country borrowing more. Because of this tax injustice, workers, retirees, and low-income earners are becoming even poorer.

The principle of justice or equality in taxation means that the ability to pay of the taxpayers must be taken into account when determining their liabilities. In other words, those in the same situation should be taxed the same, and those in different situations should be taxed differently. This means that those who earn more should pay more, and those who earn less should pay less. However, in our country, those who earn less are taxed more, and those who earn more are taxed less. Is it possible to talk about tax justice if a newly hired civil servant or a worker pays more tax than a merchant?

One of the most important conditions of the principle of justice in taxation is whether the parliament considers the interests of the public, the laborer, the worker, and the poor when enacting laws. If tax laws are made in the legislative process by considering the interests of pressure and rent-seeking groups and in accordance with their interests, this makes the parliament questionable. In other words, it causes tax bills that enter parliament as fish to come out as fish bones. In our country, tax laws enter parliament as fish; during the legislative debates, the meat of the fish remains with the pressure and rent-seeking groups, while the bones are left to the public.

In conclusion, where there is no tax justice, there is no legal security, and there is no democracy.