Withholding tax under the Turkish taxation system

Like income tax, the corporate tax is also assessed on the base declared through tax returns filled annually by taxpayers. Tax returns contain the results of related taxation period. VAT is also reported but VAT tax returns are given monthly. Each month?s VAT return must be submitted to the tax office by the 24th of the following month by taxpayers.Under the Turkish tax system, certain taxes are collected through withholding by the taxpayers in order to secure the collection of taxes. These include income tax on salaries of employees, lease payments to individual landlords, independent professional service fee payments to resident individuals; and royalty, license and service fee payments to non-residents. Companies in Turkey are responsible to withhold such taxes on their payments and declare them through their withholding tax returns.However, please note that local withholding tax rates may be reduced based on the available bilateral tax treaty provisions. For example, in order to apply the lower withholding tax rate stipulated by the treaty, the dividends should be distributed either actually or on an account basis. The benefit provided by the tax treaty will vary based on the ratio of the foreign shareholding, the maximum withholding tax rate specified by the treaty and the amount of dividend distributed.In the event that the taxpayer is not resident or does not have a place of business in Turkey, a legal head office or place of management in Turkey, or in other cases deemed necessary, the Ministry of Finance is authorized to hold any one of the people involved in a taxable transaction responsible for the payment of tax. In some situations like toll-manufacturing and ready-made materials (textiles) are subject to partial withholding, some amount of the calculated VAT is paid to the seller by the purchaser. Therefore, the purchaser will be responsible for paying another part of calculated VAT to the tax office directly.Key Words: 1) VAT2)Withholding3) Tax payers4) Tax treaty 5) Tax return