TAX CRIMES

ENTRANCE

According to the Tax Procedure Law , the main tax offenses are tax irregularities, tax evasion, and tax loss. Tax offenses are examined in VUK Article 213 and are prosecuted based on violations of the provisions of this law. The legislature's aim in regulating these offenses is to control commercial life and prevent tax losses for the state. Taxes, the state's most fundamental source of income, are protected by criminal sanctions. Tax offenses are: Tax Loss , General Irregularities , Specific Irregularities , and Tax Evasion .

THE CRIME OF TAX LOSS

Tax Loss Crime is a crime that occurs when a taxpayer or responsible party creates a tax loss . Tax loss occurs when a taxpayer or responsible party fails to fulfill their duties, resulting in a tax that is not accrued at all, not accrued on time, incompletely accrued, or unjustly refunded. The acts of tax loss are not regulated by law. Therefore, it is a free-running crime. It is subject to a fine , which is one times the amount of the tax lost. If the crime is committed in conjunction with tax evasion, a fine of three times the amount of the tax lost is imposed. This penalty has the status of an administrative penalty and is imposed by the tax office .

GENERAL IRREGULARITY CRIME

Article 351 of the Tax Procedure Law states , "Failure to comply with the formal and procedural provisions of tax laws constitutes the crime of irregularity." General irregularity is not a crime of damage, but rather a crime of risk. Unlike tax loss, it is punishable by unlawful conduct. It is important to note that while this crime may not result in tax loss, there is a possibility of tax loss. To determine the elements of general irregularity, it is important to examine the meaning of the terms "procedural and procedural irregularity" in the article . For transactions to be lawful, the conditions of validity and validity must be met as specified in the law. Article 352 of the Tax Procedure Law distinguishes irregularities into first-degree and second-degree irregularities . The table in the law specifies the degrees of offense and penalties.

Article 352 – (Amended: 30/12/1980-2365/76 art.)

Irregularities are punished according to the degrees listed below and Schedule 1 attached to this law. If the irregularity requires ex officio assessment, the penalties listed in Schedule 1 are doubled.

First degree irregularities :

1. (Amended: 4/12/1985-3239/25 art.) Failure to submit tax and duty declarations on time ;

2. Failure to keep any of the books required to be kept in accordance with this law;

3. The book records and related documents are incomplete, irregular or confusing to the extent that a correct tax audit cannot be conducted;

4. (Repealed: 22/7/1998-4369/82 art.)

5. Failure of farmers to respond to the invitation made by the headman and the council of elders in accordance with the provision of Article 245;

6. Failure to comply with the provisions of this Law regarding the recording system (Articles 215 - 219 and Article 242 bis) (In each review, irregularities detected for the same calendar year until the date of review are considered as a single act);

7. Failure to notify the start of work on time;

8. Certification of any of the books that require certification

(Those that are certified after 1 month from the end of the legal period are deemed not to have been certified.);

9. Income Tax collected on other wages, the tax has not been assessed although the assessment period has passed;

10. (Repealed: 18/4/1984-2995/4 art.)

11. (Added: 4/12/1985-3239/25 art.) The inheritance and transfer tax return must be submitted within the period specified in the second paragraph of Article 342.

II . Degree irregularities:

1. (Amended: 4/12/1985-3239/25 art.) Inheritance and Transfer Tax Returns must be submitted within the period specified in the first paragraph of Article 342, starting from the end of the deadline; (Repealed: 3/4/2002-4751/7 art.)

2. Failure to submit planting and census declarations within the time limit or in a correct manner that includes the information required by law;

3. (Repealed: 18/4/1984-2995/4 art.)

4. (Amended: 3/12/1988-3505/4 art.) Failure to make timely notifications as written in the tax laws (except for notification of commencement of work);

5. The tax certificate should not have been received even though 15 days have passed since the expiry date; 6. The certification process for any of the books that require certification should have been completed within one month after the expiry date;

7. (Amended: 4/12/1985-3239/25 art.) Failure to comply with the provisions regarding the legally specific form and content of tax returns, notifications, documents and certificates, their annexes and other regulations made in relation to them;

8. The absence or non-presentation of certain documents and papers, provided that it does not impair the accuracy or clarity of the accounts or transactions.

SPECIAL CRIME OF IRREGULARITY

The specific irregularity penalty is regulated in Article 353 of the Tax Procedure Law under the heading "Failure to issue or receive invoices and similar documents, and failure to comply with other formal and procedural provisions." Specific irregularity penalties carry more severe penalties than general irregularity penalties and arise in cases of non-compliance with the obligations to issue and receive documents regulated in the Tax Procedure Law. Articles 353 and 355 of Tax Procedure Law No. 213 (VUK) provide information on situations that warrant the application of sanctions in the event of specific irregularities. These provisions include:

1) Not receiving or giving documents such as freelance receipts and invoices, or issuing these documents in a way that contradicts the actual amount (VUK 353/1)

2) Failure to prepare retail sales receipts, receipts issued with payment recording devices, passenger transport tickets, delivery notes, transportation delivery notes, passenger lists, and daily customer lists, or preparing them in an improper manner (VUK 353/2)

3) Special irregularity penalty to be applied to the end consumer (VUK 353/3)

4) Failure to submit books and records and not obtaining the tax certificate (VUK 353/4)

5) Failure to comply with accounting standards and uniform charts of accounts (VUK353/6)

6) Special penalties imposed on printers for irregularities in document printing (VUK 353/8)

7) Special irregularity penalty imposed on notaries who certify or issue copies of documents on which stamp duty has not been paid or has been paid incompletely, before the tax and penalty have been collected (VUK 355)

TAX EVASION CRIME

Tax evasion is the failure by a taxpayer to properly prepare, alter, destroy, or fraudulently execute documents, records, and ledgers that must be kept, prepared, preserved, and presented in accordance with tax laws. Investigations and prosecutions related to tax evasion, arising from violations of the rules set forth in Article 359 of Tax Procedure Law No. 213, are conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. Pursuant to Article 359 of the Tax Procedure Law , fraudulent conduct in tax-related accounts and accounting transactions, keeping illegal private ledgers , opening accounts in the names of false or unrelated persons , falsifying documents, using falsified documents, failing to present, concealing, or using misleading documents is punishable by imprisonment of 18 months to 3 years. Destruction of books, documents, and records containing tax-related information, altering or removing book pages and adding new ones, creating and using forged documents are punishable by imprisonment of three to five years, according to VUK Article 359. Penalties for crimes such as printing documents that can only be printed by those under contract with the Ministry of Finance without an agreement , and using documents printed by unauthorized persons are punishable by imprisonment of two to five years, according to VUK Article 359 .

ACTS CONSTITUTING THE CRIME OF TAX EVASION

Falsifying Books, Records and Documents: Deleting the entries in the book containing tax-related information that must be kept and presented, scribbling the numbers in such a way that they cannot be read, and making it difficult or impossible to determine the tax base in the records in the same way constitutes the crime of tax evasion.

Concealing Book Records and Documents: Not providing to authorized persons and hiding records containing tax information approved by a notary during a tax audit or books and documents whose existence is detected in any way constitutes the crime of tax evasion.

Issuing or Transacting with Misleading Documents: When documenting tax-related matters, altering the nature or quantity of information and using documents containing such inaccurate information can lead to tax evasion. A company may make false statements regarding the type of goods when invoicing purchased construction equipment. In such cases, the company's misleading documents could constitute evidence of tax evasion.

Accounting and Accounting Fraud: This method is often used to conceal illegal activities . This method aims to reduce tax payments and prevent the true tax base from being revealed due to improper taxation .

False Account Opening: Opening an account in the name of someone who has no connection to tax records constitutes the crime of tax evasion. An example of this crime is creating an account in the name of a non-existent person and presenting the goods as if they were sold to a customer who is actually present.

Duplicate Bookkeeping: Keeping tax records is certainly necessary, and even mandatory in some cases. However, keeping separate books for recording business accounts and transactions, outside of the legally mandated circumstances, could constitute a crime. This situation can be exemplified by a credit ledger where a company records its debits and credits related to sales by hand .

Forgery of Books, Documents and Records: Tax evasion can occur by destroying, altering or adding new pages to books, documents or records containing information regarding tax calculations .

RESULT

For the supreme public interest, there must be economic power within the state. This power is provided and sustained by taxes. In our world's economies, where state-led commercial enterprises are increasingly restricted, taxes come to the fore with this characteristic. We certainly acknowledge this powerful ability of taxes. However, we would like to emphasize that the most important method for accelerating commercial activity and increasing tax collection is revisions in tax rates favoring merchants.

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