Mehmet Şimşek reveals the group that evades the most taxes: They don't issue receipts...

Responding to questions about the fight against the informal economy and tax evasion, Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek made statements regarding the problems in the tax system.

Speaking to Türkiye Gazetesi, Şimşek stated that they are fighting against a mentality that does not want to pay taxes, and emphasized that cross-auditing is essential in the fight against the informal economy.

BAKERS DO NOT ISSUE RECEIPTS

Drawing attention to tax evasion, Şimşek noted that there are serious problems in certain sectors in particular. Şimşek said, "The lowest VAT is on bread. Have you ever seen a baker give you a receipt? The places where there is the most tax evasion are bakeries. They don't issue receipts at the beginning, middle, or end of the day. One of our citizens bought 32 apartments in one of the metropolitan cities, and there is no tax record for them in our system. There are thousands of our citizens who bought luxury vehicles for 65 million liras within the year. We call them and say, 'explain this,' but they have no explanation."

IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO IMPLEMENT THE MODEL WE WANT

Stating that they are developing new strategies to bring the informal economy under control, Şimşek indicated that the solution lies in cross-auditing. "Unless we perform cross-audits, we cannot implement the model we want. We will carry out the strategy expected of us regarding issues such as credit card usage and tax discounts," he added.

Explaining the reason why the public turns to foreign currency and gold, Şimşek said, "Because for 50 years, except for 10-15 years of AK Party governments, inflation in this country has been in the double digits. When there is double-digit inflation, the citizen will either go to interest, gold, or foreign currency to protect themselves from inflation. We cannot blame the citizen; we have to respect their choices," he expressed.

EMPHASIS ON CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT

Touching upon the fact that the way to solve the current account deficit is to increase value-added, Şimşek drew attention to the importance of reducing energy dependency. Minister Şimşek said, "910 billion dollars have been spent on energy in 22 years. We will utilize solar and wind energy and reduce oil and natural gas imports," he stated. Furthermore, emphasizing that investments should be made in sectors with high value-added, Minister Şimşek stated that they are determined to find permanent solutions.

Minister Mehmet Şimşek shared a barber anecdote experienced by his friend to explain how the informal economy operates in daily life. Şimşek said, "My friend goes to a barber in Istanbul, he is asked to pay a fee of 2,500 liras, but card payment is not accepted. The tradesman says the IBAN belongs to his brother. We have to fight this mentality," he said. Şimşek stated that audit personnel are working strictly to prevent such situations.