Türkiye'de vergi avantaji ve devlet katki payi: Bireysel emeklilik sistemindeki teşvik değişiminden kim yararlaniyor

Turkish government changed the financial incentive mechanism of the individual pension system (IPS) to boost domestic savings and to increase pensioner base. Previously introduced tax-advantage was poorly utilized and benefited mostly the highest income groups who are subject to a higher marginal tax rate. Coming into effect as of January 1, 2013, the nationwide incentive shift to government matching contributions in the IPS targets low income groups and those who were not eligible to benefit from tax-advantage. This research approaches the private pension systems from household's perspective by using an administrative panel data set on individually held pension contracts. We examine the composition of new entrants to the system and whether the incumbent participants respond the incentive shift by changing their contribution amount. Our results show that the composition of new participants to the IPS differs from the incumbents? in several ways. In the first quarter of 2013, older groups and middle income earners enter the system at an increasing rate, whereas the percentage of high income groups within the new participants drops significantly by 5 percentage points when compared to the same period of previous year. The policy shift is successful in attracting retirees and housewives who are mostly non-tax-payers (and were not eligible for the tax-advantage). We find that the policy's implementation does not have any impact on the amount of discretionary changes in contribution levels across different income groups, whereas the participants from different educational backgrounds responds the policy change with varying amounts.