Türkiye increases tax scrutiny of high-income taxpayers

Türkiye is stepping up its efforts to audit individuals in the high-income bracket, the Daily Sabah reported, quoting state-run news agency Anadolu.

The Tax Inspection Board (VDK) is reportedly using several methods including formal tax inspections, requests for explanations and monitoring activities to check whether taxpayers are meeting their obligations accurately.

Around 31.3% of large-scale taxpayers have been inspected by the board this year, the report said. This equates to almost one in three taxpayers in that category, compared with a rate of approximately 11% in previous years.

The inspection rate stood at 7.3% among medium-sized taxpayers and 1.1% among small-scale taxpayers.

Authorities generally use requests for explanations when dealing with medium-sized taxpayers, while monitoring measures are reserved for smaller taxpayers.

The board also introduced the second High-Income Groups Monitoring and Compliance Programme this year.

The initiative aims to ensure that taxpayers in the high-income category accurately report their earnings for 2025.

According to the report, taxpayers involved in the programme increased their declared tax base by a combined $1bn (Tl48.7bn).

A total of 16,307 taxpayers were identified as belonging to the high-income group and placed under monitoring.

The taxpayers were divided into two categories.

The first included individuals with stakes in some of Türkiye’s 42,000 largest companies, whose income tax payments did not match the earnings identified through risk assessments.

The second comprised individuals without company holdings whose tax payments were considered inconsistent with their visible luxury lifestyles.

The VDK also found that around 7,000 of the monitored taxpayers had not submitted tax returns in earlier periods. After monitoring, most of them filed returns and declared their income for the first time, the report added.