Turkey's Revenue Administration has issued explanations about special consumption tax ("SCT") for pay TV services. The clarifications apply to services rendered on satellite platforms, transmitted by cable, or provided through wired, wireless and mobile ISPs, by entities which have been issued licenses by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority ("Authority"). The Special Communication Tax Communiqué (Rank No: 13) ("Communiqué") was published in Official Gazette number 29635 on 25 February 2016, entering into force on the same date.

Explanations provided by the Communiqué include:

  • Pay TV services includes allowing subscribers/clients to watch/listen to different kinds of broadcast, in addition to standard broadcasts.
  • Licensed operators which pay SCT on the basis of providing transmission services can provide their own content, as well as content created by other content providers.
  • If an authorized operator transmits content owned by entities which are outside the Authority's competence to subscribers, SCT will be calculated based on the transmission fees received from subscribers. However, if authorized operators also charge content providers for transmitting works, the SCT tax base will also include fees received for this.
  • SCT also applies to transmission services rendered for radio and TV broadcast on cabled, wireless and mobile internet service providers. If a price is determined for internet access to transmit and watch such broadcasts, then SCT will also be calculated upon this price.
  • For pre-paid TV services, SCT will be calculated by taking into account the portion of collected fees which correspond to the transmission services.

Please see this link for the full text of the Communiqué (only available in Turkish).

Information first published in the MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.

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.