Recent development
As part of efforts to strengthen its monitoring of e-commerce in
Turkey, the Ministry of Finance's Revenue Administration
published a draft General Communiqué on the Tax Procedure
Law on its website on September 15 that, if adopted as expected,
would require certain taxpayers to provide additional information
on their e-commerce operations.
Taxpayers affected
The groups that would be affected by these changes and the
additional requirements are as follows:
Intermediary service providers: Providers of software,
hardware or technical infrastructure via an intermediary service
that acts as an agent for the performance of purchase, sale, rent
or distribution of goods and services over the Internet would be
required to provide the Revenue Administration with the domain
names through which the intermediary service is provided, as well
as the personal information of the seller. Additionally, the dates
on which the intermediary services were provided, amounts paid, as
well as transaction dates would also need to be reported.
Advertising services agencies: Agencies who provide their
services over the Internet would be required to provide the name
and Turkish identity or tax number of both the advertisers and
Internet address owners, the Internet addresses of the published
advertisements and the fee collected for the advertising
service.
Banks: All banks would have additional reporting
requirements for Internet purchases by their customers.
Cargo and logistics businesses: Such businesses would be
required to provide the name and Turkish identity or tax number and
address information of the shipper, the total number of deliveries,
the total delivery amount, payment method, and the total payment
regarding payments executed at the door.
Conclusion
While it will not enter into force until the date of its official publication, we expect that the communiqué will be adopted in its current form without substantial changes, taking effect from January 1, 2016. In the meantime, affected taxpayers should take steps to ensure that they will be able to comply with the additional reporting requirements.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
