My article on 27 March 2023 sparked up disputes in the market, “If taxpayers under-declare incomes in their records for 2022 and then benefit from tax base increase, is this situation considered an accounting fraud and does it damage the amnesty, and/or trigger the penal sanctioning mechanism?” The fact that the taxpayer declares its income lower although it gains a higher income according to the records in books and documents does not bring about claims for accounting fraud alone. Therefore, it cannot be argued that declarations not matching with records constitute a crime under TPL No. 359. In the event that income taxpayers under-declare their annual income for 2022, which they earned from different sources at home or abroad and directly reflected in the declaration, without the need for preparing accounting records or financial statements, and then increase their tax base, the protective nature of tax base increase cannot be argued. However, the situation can be evaluated differently if they entered records that constitute accounting fraud in order to conceal income or make fictive increases, thus reducing profitability, or created a trial balance, balance sheet and income statement that are very different from actual records. In such cases, increasing the tax base with regard to 2022 declarations filed on the basis of financial statements that do not match with books, records and documents can both damage the tax base increase and constitute a crime (that can be referred to as accounting fraud) under TPL No. 359. Do income declarations that do not match with records constitute an accounting fraud? Following my article on 27 March 2023, valuable tax lawyer Feridun Güngör drew attention to the fact that the issue should be evaluated in terms of TPL No. 359. In order to increase the tax base in 2022, the annual declaration for 2022 should be filed first, and the increase should be made according to this amount. In the event that the declaration is filed on the basis of an accounting fraud, the invalidity of the tax base increase can be asserted. I would like to state in advance that we have not encountered such claims in previous amnesties. It comes to mind and is discussed today because the opportunity to increase the tax base for 2022 was brought before tax declaration. In cases when taxpayers benefited from tax base increases in previous years, we did not focus on how the declarations for the year of tax base increase matched with books, records and received/issued documents, and did not think that the discrepancy could be considered as a crime under TPL No. 359. Tax base increase does not prevent audits or remove the obligation to present relevant documents. Tax base increase does not prevent being subject to tax inspections. The obligation to retention and presentation of documents continues. Even if a tax base increase is made in VAT, it is possible to inspect VAT refunds and tax credit in deferred VAT aspects at all times. Since the Earthquake Supplementary Tax is not within the scope of the tax base increase, it is always possible to conduct examinations in this respect and for taxes, withholding taxes and similar grounds such as VAT, stamp tax, etc., which are not within the scope of the tax base increase. In the event that taxpayers attempt to utilize the new amnesty law in the ways below with various justifications, considerations and motives, such as fraudulent safe deposit box, receivables from shareholders and stock amnesty, outside the purpose of the new amnesty law, beyond the elimination of the results of the period before 31 December 2022, and if this situation is detected, the protective nature of the amnesty will be ruled out and it can be considered as a crime under TPL No. 359. Especially in records after 31 December 2022, the following can lead to problems: - Benefitting from the amnesty by creating fictive inventories, - Benefitting from the amnesty by creating fictive receivables, - Benefitting from the amnesty by creating fictive debts, - Benefitting from the amnesty by swelling cash account in a fictive way. The conditions for benefitting from the amnesty can be harmed and it can constitute a crime under TPL No. 359 in the event that fraudulent records (fictive inventories, fictive cash accounts and fictive receivables/debts) are created after the amnesty law, which would mean using it prospectively rather than recovering the current situation. The situation of Certified Public Accountants and Sworn-in Certified Public Accountants? Any members of profession who create, audit and approve financial statements that do not match with books, records and documents can be subject to both financial and penal accusations. In other words, the issue may not be limited to professional disciplinary proceedings. We’d better continue to discuss the issue with the contribution of other valuable authors and practitioners.