General Communiqué No. 518 on the Tax Procedure Law (Law No. 213) (“Communiqué”) was published in the Official Gazette on March 24, 2020 with number 31078 (Reiterated). In the Communiqué, a statement was made regarding the taxpayers who were directly affected by the CoronaVirus outbreak (COVID-19). The Communiqué presents a number of new measures taken to address the epidemic such as identifying the taxpayers who will benefit from the force majeure provisions of Tax Procedure Law with the numbered 213 (“TPL”).

A. TYPES OF TAXPAYERS TO BENEFIT FROM THE FORCE MAJEURE EVENT

1. In Article 3 of the Communiqué, a force majeure event is declared based on the authority of Article 15/3 of the TPL between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020 (including these dates) and it was decided to postpone tax duties for the following types of taxpayers.

1. Taxpayers with income tax liability in terms of commercial, agricultural and professional earnings,
2. Taxpayers directly affected by the coronavirus epidemic and operating in retail sectors, including shopping malls, healthcare services, furniture manufacturing, iron steel, and metal industry, mining, and quarrying, building construction services, industrial kitchen, manufacture of parts and accessories for the automotive manufacturing and trade, and the automotive industry, car rental, logistics and transportation, including storage activities, artistic services such as cinema and theatre, publishing activities of books, newspapers, magazines and similar printed products including printing, accommodation activities including tour operators and travel agencies, food and beverage services including restaurant, cafe, coffee house, event and organization services including textile and apparel manufacturing and trade and public relations by their main business,
3. Taxpayers who are operating in the sectors where the workplaces are decided to be temporarily suspended within the scope of the measures taken by the Ministry of Interior in terms of their main field of activity.

1. In Article 5 of the Communiqué, postponement of tax duties for the taxpayers and members of professions who are covered by the curfew due to being 65 years or older or have chronic illnesses and taxpayers whose declaration/statements are regulated by this profession has been regulated.

B. POSTPONEMENT OF TAX DUTIES

1. The duration of declarations and notifications regarding the postponement of the tax duties related to taxpayers who are with income tax liability in terms of commercial, agricultural and professional earnings or taxpayers directly affected by the coronavirus epidemic or taxpayers operating in the sectors where workplaces are decided to be temporarily suspended within the scope of the measures taken by the Ministry of Interior within the scope of Article 3 of the Communiqué has been extended as follows.

1. Submission of declarations until Monday, 27 July, 2020, and the payment periods of the taxes accrued based on these declarations are extended until Tuesday, 27 October, 2020:

• Brief Statements (including Brief and Premium Service Declarations) and Value Added Tax Declarations that must be submitted by April 27, 2020,
• Submission of “Form Ba-Bs” notifications that need to be submitted by April 30, 2020 and creation of them by the mentioned date and the loading period of the “Electronic Ledger Charts” that must be uploaded to the Revenue Administration Information Processing System within the same period of time when the e-Books to be signed is created and signed.

b. Submission of declarations until Monday, 27 July 2020, and the payment periods of the taxes accrued based on these declarations are extended until Friday, 27 November 2020:

• Brief Statements (including Brief and Premium Service Declarations) and Value Added Tax Declarations that must be submitted by May 27, 2020,
• Submission of “Form Ba-Bs” notifications that need to be submitted by June 1, 2020 and creation of them by the mentioned date and the loading period of the “Electronic Ledger Charts” that must be uploaded to the Revenue Administration Information Processing System within the same period of time when the e-Books to be signed is created and signed.

c. Submission of declarations until Monday, 27 July, 2020, and the payment periods of the taxes accrued based on these declarations are extended until Monday, 28 December, 2020:

• Brief Statements (including Brief and Premium Service Declarations) and Value Added Tax Declarations that must be submitted by June 26, 2020,
• Submission of “Form Ba-Bs” notifications that need to be submitted by June 30, 2020 and creation of them by the mentioned date and the loading period of the “Electronic Ledger Charts” that must be uploaded to the Revenue Administration Information Processing System within the same period of time when the e-Books to be signed is created and signed.

1. The duration of declarations and notifications regarding the postponement of tax duties related to taxpayers who are within the scope of a curfew due to being age 65 or professions whose declaration/notifications are given by these members of professions older or chronic illness or within the scope of Article 5 of the Communiqué has been extended as follows.

1. Within the scope of Article 5, it has been found appropriate to extend the last day of the payment days of the declaration/notifications regarding the force majeure period and the payment days of the taxes accrued for them until the end of the 15th day following the curfew.
2. The extension of declaration/notification and payment due to the taxpayer being age 65 shall be made ex officio based on the determinations to be made by the tax authorities, and no application in regards to the extension of time within this scope shall be received.
3. In order to extend the declaration/notification and payment periods due to chronic illness, this illness must be proved and verified with valid documents from health institutions. The extension of this period shall be made based on the written application of the taxpayer through the Interactive Tax Office, which includes the declaration that the taxpayer has chronic illness, and the documents received from the health institution must be submitted to the Tax Office within 30 days following the day of the a curfew period ends.

C. OTHER ISSUES

Within the scope of the Communiqué, the regulation was made regarding the taxpayers who were directly affected by the CoronaVirus epidemic, the measures taken in this context of the epidemic, and the benefits are determined for the taxpayers. On the other hand, in the Article 7 titled “Other Issues” in the Communiqué provides (i) instructions in case the force majeure event ceases to exist within the postponement periods, and (ii) arrangements have been made to inform the insured related to the earnings and service information based on premiums in accordance with the social security legislation.

In the event that the curfew ends in the period specified in Article 3 of the Communiqué, taxpayers who benefit from the provisions of Article 5 of the Communiqué may benefit from the force majeure provisions set out in Article 3 if they meet the conditions in Article 3 of the Communiqué (taxpayers with income tax liability in terms of commercial, agricultural, and professional earnings or taxpayers directly affected by the coronavirus epidemic or taxpayers operating in the sectors where workplaces are decided to be temporarily suspended within the scope of the measures taken by the Ministry of Interior).

However, in accordance with the social security legislation, in case the insured be obliged to report the premiums, and service information related to the force majeure with the Withholding and Premium Service Tax, it is stated that the force majeure part shall be valid for the delay of the declaration and payment periods of tax deductions.

D. CONCLUSION

In accordance with the Tax Procedure Law General Communiqué (Serial No: 518) issued by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and published in the Official Gazette dated 24 March, 2020 and numbered 31078 (Reiterated), the limitations imposed pursuant to the authority in article 15/3 of the TPL and the taxpayers who will benefit from the postponement of tax duties and their postponement periods are determined. We believe that it is possible to extend the limits of this Communiqué for other professions as well. Accordingly, we shall continue to inform you with up-to-date information.