Communiqué No. 325, published in Official Gazette No. 32674 of 26 September 2024, broadened the scope of the income exemption for social content production and mobile application development.
The “Communiqué (No: 325) Amending the Income Tax General Communiqué (No: 318)”, published in Official Gazette No. 32674 of 26 September 2024, broadened the scope of the income exemption for social content production and mobile application development.
As is known, this exemption is set out in repeated Article 20/B of the Income Tax Law, and the explanations on the subject were provided in Income Tax General Communiqué No. 318.
This Communiqué amends Income Tax General Communiqué No. 318 to broaden the scope of the income exemption for social content production and mobile application development.
Accordingly, services provided over the internet and electronic media, such as individual courses, training, data processing and development, and product promotion, have also been brought within the exemption.
Scope:
Following the amendment, the scope of the provision is as follows: income derived by social content producers who share content such as text, images, audio and video over the internet and similar electronic media from those activities, income derived from services provided over those media such as individual courses, training, data processing and development, and product promotion, and income derived by developers of applications for mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets through electronic application sharing and sales platforms, is exempt from income tax.
Conditions for benefiting from the exemption:
The Communiqué makes no change on this point. Accordingly:
To benefit from this exemption, an account must be opened with a bank established in Türkiye and all revenue from these activities must be collected exclusively through that account.
Banks are required to withhold income tax at 15% on the revenue transferred to accounts opened for this purpose, as at the date of transfer, and to declare and pay that tax.
Taxpayers having income or revenue from other activities are not thereby prevented from benefiting from the exemption.
Those whose total income exceeds the amount in the fourth income bracket of the tariff in Article 103 of the Income Tax Law (TRY 3,000,000 for 2024), and those who do not collect all of their income from the activity in accordance with the stated conditions, cannot benefit from this exemption.
Examples:
The Communiqué provides examples on the following matters within the scope of the exemption:
- a taxpayer deriving advertising income through a social network,
- application sales and advertising income of a mobile application developer,
- a taxpayer deriving paid training and advertising income through a social network,
- training and private tuition income through the taxpayer’s own website,
- the position of a taxpayer sharing training videos and giving private tuition,
- the position of a taxpayer providing search engine optimisation (SEO) services,
- a taxpayer providing financial training courses outside a social network,
- a social content producer holding an exemption certificate,
- the position of a taxpayer changing their field of activity,
- the position of a taxpayer starting activity without an exemption certificate,
- collection of income through a bank account by a taxpayer sharing training videos,
- a social content producer not exceeding the annual income limit,
- a mobile application developer exceeding the income limit,
- a social content producer deriving subscription income and advertising income,
- a taxpayer providing intermediation services,
- a taxpayer deriving donation income through a social network,
- a taxpayer deriving income through third-party service providers,
- a taxpayer deriving income from intermediation activities,
- an application developer generating income on electronic platforms,
- the income position of a computer application developer,
- a social content producer deriving advertising and sponsorship income,
- a social content producer deriving income through third parties,
- the owner of an online training platform deriving income from intermediation services,
- the position of a taxpayer sharing paid training videos,
- whether a social content producer exceeding the annual income limit may benefit from the exemption,
- the position of a social content producer benefiting from the exemption for part of a period,
- the position of a taxpayer wishing to leave the scope of the exemption.