Tax planning in businesses as a method of tax avoidance: A research on the perceptions of accounting professional members about tax planning

Tax planning which is a course of action of businesses towards taxation is an implementation that in accordance with the letter of law, has an economical self and aims to reduce the tax burden without cross trades. Facilities of tax planning which are legal rights in terms of taxpayers do not create any problem because they are done in accordance with the law. Aggressive tax planning which is a kind of abusing of tax planning is seemingly legal operation; though, it differs from tax planning in such a way that it benefits from legal gaps and disagreements between tax regulations or tax systems resulting in countries' erosion of tax bases and causing revenue loss. In this study; the effects of taxation on business behavior, theoretical aspect of tax planning which is a legal implementation towards taxation, aims, features, principles, stages, methods, necessities, the situations that prevent tax planning, appearance of aggressive tax planning, a way of abusing of tax planning, its results, fighting against it, unilateral or lateral ways of countries' fighting against aggressive tax planning and studies of international institutions like EU, OECD against aggressive tax planning are examined. As a result, thoughts of accounting profession members are tried to put forward concerning tax planning and aggressive tax planning.