With the opportunity to increase the tax base before tax declaration, which was brought for 2022 by the new amnesty law, taxpayers have almost been encouraged and stimulated to file 2022 Income and Corporate Tax Declarations that do not reflect the truth.

The opportunity to increase the tax base before tax declaration for 2022 means advance tax amnesty in a sense; therefore, taxpayers will only test “To what extent is base increase financially meaningful?”, and not hesitate to choose this path, especially if they become safe by paying less at the first stage, let alone the risks.

“The Purge 2” or “Red Monday”. Unrecorded tax has been amnestied in advance. It is almost as if there is a pre-announced amnesty for unrecorded tax amnesty, as in the movie “The Purge”.

In other words, if taxpayers duly increase their tax base for 2022 just after making their 2022 Income and Corporate Tax Declarations, their declarations for 2022 cannot be audited in terms of taxes that are included in the scope of base increase. To put it differently, they will not be subject to a tax assessment if they make declarations as per Law no. 7440 and fulfill the necessary financial obligations.

The reason we call it “The Purge 2” is that this opportunity has been brought for unrecorded incomes and assets at home and abroad, as it was previously brought with the Cash Repatriation Law until 31 March 2023 (The Purge-Advance Tax Amnesty for Unrecorded Incomes, www.dunya.com, 22 November 2022). The Cash Repatriation Law brought this opportunity until 31 March 2023; now it has been introduced for 2022 declarations.

I use the “Red Monday” analogy, because everyone is aware of this situation. As the lawmakers saw it coming, at least they tried to minimize the use of this method with the minimum declaration amounts I will discuss below, and with the prevention of using the whole loss in 2022, if any.

Is there now a Minimum Declaration Principle for 2022 Income and Corporate Taxes?

Your tax base for 2022 should be 122.93% higher than your tax base for 2021, or 40% higher than the tax base in the third provisional tax declaration in 2022.

If no declaration is made, or if loss is declared, if there is no tax base due to deductions or exemptions, there is no minimum declaration obligation. In brief, if you do not declare the portion exceeding these minimum amounts -let alone unrecorded incomes- out of the amounts that should be declared according to your books, records and documents, and then increase your tax base (if you have gained profit from these activities), not only the risky issues but also your tax base that should be declared under normal circumstances will be excluded from tax.

Isn’t this risky at all?

If you increase your tax base only in terms of corporate tax and not for profit distribution, you may be subject to tax withholding assessment with claims of disguised profit distribution. In brief, if you attempt to do it, don’t forget to increase your tax base in terms of profit distribution withholding as well.

Is it possible that the tax office do not accept the declaration?

At the stage of submitting the declarations electronically and receiving the accrual vouchers through the ready-to-use declaration system activated for income taxpayers, it is possible to prevent issuance of accrual vouchers for declarations that do not match with data in the ready-to-use declaration system, and to request correction of the declaration.

However, to the best of our knowledge and experience, there is no system that interfere in the electronic declarations as well as accrual vouchers and subsequent tax base increases for income or corporate taxpayers. In case of annual income declarations that do not match with books and records, Sworn-in Certified Public Accountants will have to notify this situation in their certification reports or not express their opinions for the relevant year.

However, it is possible to experience problems while receiving VAT refunds with CPA reports. Will CPAs sign a declaration that does not match with books, records and documents, as members of the profession, knowing that it is incorrect? As a rule, they should not sign it.

In this case, the declaration should be signed by the taxpayer. If Certified Public Accountants and Sworn-in Certified Public Accountants approve declarations that do not match with books, records and documents, and if taxpayers benefit from the amnesty, there will be no problem in terms of tax; however, they may be subject to investigation in terms of professional legislation.