Tax Procedure Law General Communiqué No. 572, published in Official Gazette No. 32696 of 18 October 2024, requires persons who are not registered taxpayers to make collections and payments above TRY 7,000 through financial institutions.
The amendment made by Article 6 of Law No. 7524, published on 2 August 2024, to repeated Article 257 of the Tax Procedure Law brought persons who are not registered taxpayers within the scope of the power relating to the obligation to evidence collections and payments.
Tax Procedure Law General Communiqué No. 572, published in Official Gazette No. 32696 of 18 October 2024, now requires persons who are not registered taxpayers to make their collections and payments above TRY 7,000 through financial institutions.
1) General framework
Those within the scope of the documentation obligation must make all collections and payments above TRY 7,000 through intermediary financial institutions and evidence those collections and payments with documents issued by those institutions.
Within that scope, persons who are not registered taxpayers must also make collections and payments above TRY 7,000 relating to purchases from those within the scope of the documentation obligation through intermediary financial institutions. Otherwise a penalty will be imposed on both the unregistered person and the seller.
The documentation obligation will not apply to transactions between persons who are not registered taxpayers.
For example, if a person buys a refrigerator worth TRY 20,000, since the amount exceeds the TRY 7,000 threshold the collection and payment for that transaction must be made through intermediary financial institutions. Otherwise a penalty will be imposed on both the buyer and the seller.
1.1) Definitions
Tax Procedure Law General Communiqué No. 459 defines “persons who are not registered taxpayers” and those “within the scope of the documentation obligation” as follows.
Persons who are not registered taxpayers: for the purposes of this Communiqué, persons other than first and second class traders required to obtain invoices under the first paragraph of Article 232 of the Tax Procedure Law, self-employed persons, traders whose income is determined on a simplified basis, farmers required to keep books, and tradespeople exempt from tax.
Those within the scope of the documentation obligation: for the purposes of this Communiqué, first and second class traders required to obtain invoices under the first paragraph of Article 232 of the Tax Procedure Law, self-employed persons, traders whose income is determined on a simplified basis, farmers required to keep books, tradespeople exempt from tax, and persons who are not registered taxpayers.
2) What those without a bank account or credit card must do
As the examples in the Communiqué show, a person without any bank account or credit card must, in order to comply with the documentation obligation, make the payment directly into the payee’s account through a bank. This is done by going to the bank and providing the necessary explanations about the payment. Where a cash payment is made directly to the seller, the obligation is not met even if the seller deposits that payment into their own bank account, and a penalty will be imposed on both parties.
3) Documentation of transactions with foreign nationals and/or natural persons not resident in Türkiye
For collections and payments relating to transactions with foreign nationals and/or natural persons not resident in Türkiye, the passport number of those persons must be entered on the invoices issued, and amounts collected in cash must be evidenced with documents issued by intermediary financial institutions by those within the scope of the documentation obligation, by the end of the first business day following the collection.
4) Penalty
A special irregularity penalty of 10% of the transaction amount, and not less than TRY 5,000 per transaction, will be imposed on those who fail to comply with the obligation.