The evaluation of tax amnesty in Turkish Tax Law in light of constitutional taxation principles

With tax amnesty, all or some of the tax liabilities of the previous periods are forgiven. In the literature, tax amnesty is among the reasons that end tax debt. It is seen that studies on this subject generally focus on the economic effects and results of tax amnesty. However, tax amnesties need to be investigated more thoroughly and carefully in the field of financial law. At this point, the subject of the study is the legal examination of tax amnesty implementations. The aim of the study is to evaluate whether tax amnesty is compatible with constitutional taxation principles. In the light of the evaluations made, it was concluded that tax amnesty is against many principles arising from article 73 of the Constitution. tax amnesty, especially from the principles of tax justice; In the context of "tax generality principle", "tax equality principle", "taxation principle according to financial power" and "principle of distribution of the tax burden in a fair and balanced manner" it contradicts many points of the constitutional perspective. On the other hand, "the principle that tax is the income of public expenditures" can be evaluated in different ways in terms of tax amnesty. The important thing here is whether the tax amnesty applied is financially successful. For this reason, in the general evaluation and conclusion part of the study, various suggestions are presented for the assessment of tax amnesty to be applied more accurately and successfully in terms of the constitutional.