Failing to control planting and counting returns in relation to gross misconduct of officers

Agriculture is an important part of economy in which farmers perform the most essential agricultural activities of husbandry, namely cultivating crops. Proceeds from farming are subject to taxation. Farming tax is thus levied on agricultural income. One of the farmers' liabilities is to make a planting and counting returns on the current year's trading activities. The farmers who qualify a certain level of business capacity set out in the Income Tax Act are required before the due date to complete their planting and counting returns to be sent to an elected neighbourhood representative -i.e. mukhtar- of a village or a district where their business is situated. In accordance with the Procedural Tax Law, it is, therefore, the responsibility of the mukhtar or the village council to control whether or not the local farmers have notified their preliminary tax declaration before the due date. Mukhtars and councillors failing to discharge their legal obligation would be deemed to commit either derelict of duties or abuse of powers, both of which would be punishable as a "crime of gross misconduct" under the Turkish Criminal Code. This means that in determining the criminal act, penal law will have to be taken into consideration and applied together with tax law.