General Communiqué (Serial No: 4) of the Law on Restructuring of Certain Receivables ("General Communiqué (Serial No. 4)") entered into force with the publication of the Official Gazette dated 02.12.2016 and numbered 29906.

General Communiqué (Serial No:4) clarifies the matters mentioned in Article 7 of the Law on Restructuring of Certain Receivables ("Law No. 6736"). As per Article 2 of the General Communiqué (Serial No:4) any money, gold, foreign exchange, instrument and other capital market instruments will be disposed freely, regardless of their acquisition date, provided that they are brought to Turkey as of 31.12.2016. Other assets brought which are not defined under the mentioned article, such as immovable, can also be brought to Turkey by converting them into the mentioned assets. There will not be any taxation for the said assets within the scope of the Law No. 6736.

Furthermore, money, gold, foreign exchange, instrument and other capital market instruments shall be transferred to banks or financial intermediaries in Turkey via a new or existing bank account or will be brought to Turkey physically. It should be emphasised that, declaration of instruments and other capital market instruments shall be sufficient in order to bring these assets and to benefit from the advantages of the Law No. 6736. It should be noted that the physical transfer of the mentioned assets is regulated as discretionary. The banks or financial intermediaries are required to preserve these declarations and cannot open an account for them or follow them up. Real persons and legal entities shall use certificated documents obtained from the relevant institutions or organizations for the declaration of such assets.

According to Article 2/11 of the General Communiqué (Serial No. 4), the assets of the companies which are registered in the name of the legal representatives, shareholders or attorneys, but originally belong to the companies, shall also be brought to Turkey within the scope of the said article. In this regard, companies may also bring their assets which have been evaluated abroad via their legal representatives, shareholders or attorneys (provided that there is a power of attorney or representation agreement issued before 19.08.2016 by the authorised institutions) to Turkey. The assets that will be transferred to a new account or an existing account registered in the name of the company, shall be deemed as "assets brought to Turkey" by the company.

The institutions and organizations may not conduct an investigation regarding the acquisition or valuation of such assets that took place abroad and cannot request any documents other than the annexed form of the General Communiqué (Serial No. 4) and its exhibits.

Besides, the evaluation criterion of "assets brought to Turkey from abroad" is regulated under Article 3 of the General Communiqué (Serial No. 4).

Last but not least, no inspections, tax penalties, administrative penalties, tax audits or tax assessments shall be conducted for the assets brought to Turkey within the scope of the Law No. 6736. It should be further noted that, neither retroactive tax audits nor tax assessments shall be conducted for the assets brought to Turkey in this respect, within the scope of any legislation. In this regard, for example incomes and earnings obtained in the past, including the incomes and earnings obtained abroad until the end of 2016, and the sources of such shall not be audited or assessed.

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.