The Law of Agriculture Products Tax and its practices

Agricultural Products Tax, which was implemented during the abnormal conditions caused by the World War IInd, is anaysed in this study. During that period, it was aimed to tax the rural population, which prospered through exploiting the negative situation in the market arising from the World War IInd Agricultural Products Tax was accepted by the law dated 4-April-1943 and numbered 4429. The taxing rates for products on which there were National Protection Law enforcement was 8% , and for products which weren?t subject to this enforcement was 12%. The products were taxed without exluding the seedling and other expenses, and the amount of taxes were determined based on a measuring method.After the implementation of The Agriculture Products Law number 4429 for a production year; it was altered, due to the reasons arising from inadequacies of measuring methods failures or infraction of rules,and approved as number 4553 in 25-April-1944. The rate of tax was 10% for all products. The calculation of tax was based on an estimation method. However, the same problems and exploitations were experienced throughout the implementation period of this law. As the same rate of taxes were implemented for all farmes, without discrimination, it was devastating for small-scale farmers.During the years of war, the Agricultural Products Tax, which was taken only three times, the government was not successful in obtaining tax revenues at targeted rates. Although the tax was removed when the war ended, the effects of the taxes maintained for a long time. Moreover this implementation provoked reaction of the farmers, which comprised 80% of the country?s population, against Republican People?s Party. Therefore, rural areas supported the Democrat Party with the transition to the pluralistic political system.Keywords: Agricultural Products Tax, World War IInd, Warfare Economy, Şükrü Saraçoğlu, Rural Population, Republican People?s Party