8 March 2010 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
Account experts discovered last year that TL 14 billion in taxes were not paid by 812 individuals and corporations.
According to information provided by Hadi Ekinci, president of the Account Experts Board, which operates under the Finance Ministry, account experts audited 812 individuals and corporations in 2009 based on risk analysis results. Taxpayers audited because of corporate taxes numbered 512, while 432 were audited because of value-added tax (KDV), 196 for income tax, 105 for inheritance and transfer tax, 374 for temporary tax, 58 for stamp tax, seven for private consumption tax (ÖTV), seven for banking and insurance transactions tax and 31 for other taxes. A total of 2,538 reports were prepared, Ekinci said. The amount of revenue declared by these taxpayers was TL 72.38 billion, while avoiding some TL 14 billion in taxes, with an average of TL 17.25 million not paid per taxpayer. Ekinci said that the largest amount of tax evasion was in relation to stamp and corporate taxes. The percentage of tax evasion in relation to stamp taxes was 509.9, while this figure was 365.4 percent for temporary taxes and 168.1 percent for corporate taxes. Corporate taxpayers did not pay $5.03 billion in taxes, while declaring only $2.99 billion as income.
