Examination of digital services tax in terms of Turkish tax legislation: A comparative analysis of Turkey and selected country practices

Digitalization is a transformation that has taken place in human life in the recent past and has affected many points in a short time. As a result of the greater participation of individuals in the digital world, many structures, including businesses, have been seriously affected by this transformation. One of the areas affected by the transformation is the economy. The fact that individuals, who are one of the actors in the economic structure, want to provide their transactions in daily life through various digital platforms over time, has caused businesses to start offering their goods and services using digital tools. Not only that, but at the same time, the marketing of the goods and services to be offered has also started to be carried out in digital environments. This transformation has brought various conveniences and difficulties along with it. One of the biggest challenges it has brought has been the inability to tax the income that will be obtained as a result of digital service offerings in the public sphere. Due to this difficulty, various unions and economic formations have been working for a long time and have put various solution proposals on the agenda. One of these solution proposals has been the "Digital Service Tax" introduced by the European Union. The relevant tax has been adopted by various countries and studies have been carried out at the point of implementation. Although the digital service tax was proposed within the European Union, a common agreement could not be reached by the union and the countries began to apply the relevant tax unilaterally. Based on these practices, Turkey has become one of the countries that have enacted the digital service tax as of March 1, 2020. Criticism that the digital service tax is both a new type of tax and aimed at taxing certain companies has made this tax on the agenda. For this reason, the place and importance of this tax, which has been implemented in the recent past, in the Turkish tax system will be evaluated in this study. In addition, the practices of selected prominent countries from among the countries applying the relevant tax will be included and the issue of whether the digital service tax applied by Turkey complies with the general principles of application applied on an international scale will also be tried to be revealed.