Doğan Yayın Holding, the Doğan Group's publication wing, which runs newspapers such as Hürriyet and Milliyet, numerous magazines and TV stations, received the record tax fine last month. The Finance Ministry slapped a fine of TL 3.76 billion ($2.53 billion), the highest ever imposed on a Turkish company, on Doğan Yayın for tax evasion during the time period covering 2005, 2006 and 2007. Inspectors said the fine was imposed due findings that Doğan companies had concealed profits from share transfers among partner companies and had avoided paying corporate tax and value-added tax (KDV) on the revenue from the transfers.
During an interview with the Wall Street Journal's Marc Champion in İstanbul on Sunday, Erdoğan said: “The issue here is of a routine tax examination. In the US, too, there are people who have had problems with evading taxes. Al Capone comes to mind. He was very rich, but then he spent the rest of his life in jail. ... Nobody raised a voice when those events happened."
Erdoğan said the Doğan Group can challenge the fine in court and has already settled one tax-evasion case out of court, related to its petroleum business Petrol Ofisi. Asked if it was acceptable for the government to demand collateral that would collapse the company before the case reaches court, Erdoğan said the court might issue an injunction, or the group could settle first.
He bristled at the comparison some critics have drawn between his government's pursuit of the Doğan Group and the Russian government's bankrupting of oil company Yukos with back-tax charges, under then-President Vladimir Putin.
"I find it to be very ugly, very improper. I think those words have been expressed by some people from the Doğan Group, like the daughters of [chairman Aydın] Doğan," Erdoğan said. He described the charges as "disrespectful" to both himself and Putin as elected leaders.
