Ministry announces: It will be mandatory for all professions starting January 1st

The Ministry of Treasury and Finance will determine average daily, monthly, and annual revenue figures by examining the daily revenue of taxpayers. Those who have a 20% discrepancy between their declared income and actual revenue will be invited to provide an explanation. This practice covers many sectors, from jewelers to tourism-related water sports activities.

The Ministry of Treasury and Finance will call upon taxpayers who have a 20% discrepancy between their declared income and their revenue to provide an explanation.

The General Communiqué on Income Tax (Serial No: 326), prepared by the Revenue Administration under the Ministry, has been published in the Official Gazette.

Accordingly, a wage exemption will be provided to employees provided that certain conditions are met. Within the scope of the contracts made, employees may be granted the right to purchase shares of the employer or group companies free of charge or at a discount, provided that they work for the employer for a certain period and meet specified performance and similar criteria.

With another regulation, according to the criteria determined by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, the portion of the fair value of shares given to employees free of charge or at a discount by employers who qualify as "tech-entrepreneurship companies"—which is considered as wages—that does not exceed the employee's annual gross wage amount for that year has been exempted from income tax.

A regulation was also made to encourage employees to hold onto the shares given to them for a longer period. For this purpose, it is envisaged that the said exemption will be applied at different rates depending on the holding period of the shares acquired by the employee.

CONDITIONS FOR BENEFITING FROM THE EXEMPTION

In order to benefit from the said exemptions, the company providing shares to its employees must qualify as a "tech-entrepreneurship company" according to the criteria determined by the Ministry of Industry and Technology.

The portion of the benefit provided by giving shares that will be subject to the exemption cannot exceed the employee's gross wage amount for that year.

It will be essential for the said exemption to be applied in the period in which the shares are given to the employee. These shares will need to be held for a certain period.

If the shares acquired by the employee are disposed of within 3 full years from the date of acquisition, the entire exempted tax will be collected from the employer along with delay interest without applying a tax loss penalty; if disposed of within 4-6 years, 75% will be collected; and if disposed of within 7-10 years, 25% will be collected.

The communiqué includes detailed examples regarding the application of the exemption.

TAXPAYERS WITH DISCREPANT REVENUE WILL PROVIDE AN EXPLANATION

With the communiqué, a tax security mechanism has been established for the determination of the actual revenue of those who are taxpayers in terms of commercial or self-employment activities.

In this context, the daily revenue amounts of the said taxpayers may be determined through inspections to be conducted no less than 3 times in a month and 12 times in a calendar year. This regulation, which will come into effect on January 1, 2025, will also apply to corporate tax taxpayers.

To determine the daily revenue amounts, the total of the daily revenue amounts determined on the days of inspection in the relevant month will be divided by the number of days inspected to determine the "average daily revenue" amount. This revenue will be multiplied by the number of days worked in the month of the determination to form the revenue amount for that month.

The total of the monthly amounts for the months in which inspections were conducted will be divided by the number of months in which the determination was made to calculate the "average monthly revenue". The average monthly revenue will also be multiplied by the number of months in operation in the relevant year to determine the taxpayers' revenue amounts for the relevant calendar year.

As a result of the inspections, the determined revenue amounts will be compared with those declared by the taxpayers. If the difference is more than 20%, taxpayers will be invited to provide an explanation.

TAXPAYERS WILL BE DETERMINED THROUGH RISK ANALYSES

Risk analyses will be conducted to determine the taxpayers to be inspected. The results will be determined by taking into account criteria such as system records and discrepancies between declared income and expenditures made.

In order to obtain results close to the actual situation in determining the annual revenue amount based on the determination of the daily revenue amount, factors such as the nature of the activity of the taxpayers to be inspected, whether they work seasonally, the number of days and months they are actually in operation, their weekend and weekday work, and holidays will be taken into consideration.

RESTAURANT OPERATORS, HAIRDRESSERS, AND DENTISTS ARE ALSO INCLUDED

The communiqué includes detailed explanations regarding the application of the exemption. In this context, examples are provided on how revenue determinations will be made for taxpayers engaged in various services, including restaurant operators, jewelers, beauty salon operators, physicians in the field of plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery, hairdressers, those performing tourism-related water sports activities, beach operators, dentists, and those performing periodic maintenance of motor land vehicles.