June 1, 2022 

Legal Basis

With the Tax Procedure Law Communiqué No.538 published in the Official Gazette dated May 31, 2022 and numbered 31852, a notification obligation was introduced to those who mediate sales and rental transactions over the internet.

Implementation started as of May 31

Obligation started as of May 31, 2022, the publication date of the Communiqué.

The scope of the obligation includes the sale and rental of movable and immovable goods and services.

Intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers that mediate the publication of advertisements for the purchase, sale or rental of movable and immovable properties and goods and services are now obliged to report the following information to the Revenue Administration Information Transfer System regarding the transactions they have carried out within one month of the calendar year.

Information to be included in the notification

a) Internet address or addresses where the service is provided,

b) Name, surname/title, T.R. ID Number/Foreigner ID No./Tax No. information and workplace address information of the real or legal persons served,

c) The amount and date of each collection or sale transaction regarding the sales/rentals of movable, immovable, goods and services performed on behalf of the service providers, and bank account information regarding the payment of the collected amounts to the intermediary service providers,

d) Other information to be determined by the Administration

The notification will be submitted electronically.

Notifications will be submitted to the Administration via the System within the framework of the announcement to be made by the Revenue Administration (RA) via BTRANS.

Notifications will be made monthly.

Information required to be reported within the scope of the Communiqué will be reported to the Administration on a monthly basis. Information pertaining to a month must be submitted until 23:59pm on the last day of the following month.

Announcements regarding the scope of notification will be made through the BTRANS system of the RA.

The Administration is authorized to determine the scope and content of the information that must be reported, and the changes to be made in the data format and standard regarding these will be announced via BTRANS.

Mediating the payments shall not affect the notification obligation.

It shall not affect the obligation of informing those who are obliged to act as an intermediary in the payment due to being the commercial representative of the seller/lessor regarding the payments or to receive the payment service from the bank or payment institution as an external service.

Advertisers are obliged to provide the necessary information to the internet service providers for which notification obligation is imposed.

Those who advertise through intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers are obliged to provide them with the information that the said providers have to notify to the Administration within the scope of this article, regarding their advertisements.

It is understood that the advertisements cannot be published if the minimum information required to be included in the notification is not given to those who are obliged to provide information by those who want to advertise.

In case of an announcement by the intermediaries, it is obligatory to inform the owner of the property on the internet platforms.

If the ownership of the movable, immovable, goods or services that are the subject of the advertisement belongs to a real or legal person other than the advertiser, it is obligatory to inform the intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers about the owner of the property.

Accordingly, for example, in the advertisements to be placed on real estate websites by a real estate brokerage firm on behalf of the property owner, information about the property owners will also be reported to the platform, but as stated in the following sections, it is not obligatory to include the information within the scope of the obligation on the internet platforms. In other words, in this example, the property owner’s information will be reported to the internet platform that mediates the buying and selling of real estate, but it is not mandatory to include this information in the advertisement.

The first notifications regarding the announcements made in June will be given until  August 1, 2022.

Those who are constantly obliged to provide information within the scope of the Communiqué, have to make their first notification to the Revenue Administration until August 1, 2022 (because July 31, 2022 coincides with the weekend) regarding the announcements made for the first time in June 2022.

Intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers who mediate the publication of advertisements for the purchase, sale or rental of movable and immovable properties and goods and services are meant for those who are obliged to provide information.

Notifications regarding the announcements published as of 31 May and newly issued on this date will be given until August 31, 2022.

Those who are obliged to provide continuous information within the scope of the Communiqué are required to make the notification regarding the announcements published as of May 31, 2022, the date of publication of the Communiqué, and the announcements made (including those that were unpublished from the date of publication of the Communiqué until May 31, 2022, and those whose publication continued or were canceled in June 2022) for the first time until May 31, 2022 (including this date) from the date of publication of the Communiqué until August 31, 2022. In the event that the advertisers need to provide additional information regarding the announcements in order to make the notification, this situation will be announced to the advertisers by appropriate methods and those who do not complete the required information despite this announcement will be reported to the Revenue Administration.

Advertisers and intermediary service providers are responsible for the accuracy of the information within the scope of the notification.

Advertisers, intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers are obliged to provide them with the information they have to submit within the scope of the aforementioned Communiqué, and they are also responsible for the accuracy of this information.

Notification format will be submitted by RA through BTRANS.

Intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers are not only responsible for the accuracy of the information they report through BTRANS, but also have to report this information in accordance with the format, standard and notification method determined by the Administration.

It is also stated in the Communiqué that information submitted other than the format, standard and notification method determined by the Administration will not be accepted and the notification will be deemed not made.

Those who are obliged to notify have to keep the notifications included in the scope in accordance with the Tax Procedure Law.

Those who are obliged to provide information have to keep the information they are obliged to submit to the Administration system within the retention periods stipulated for the books, records and documents by the Law No. 213, and to submit them via electronic means and media when requested.

In Article 114 of the Tax Procedure Law, titled Timeout Periods; It is stated that “Taxes that are not levied and not notified to the taxpayer within five years, starting from the beginning of the year following the calendar year in which the tax receivable arises, are time-barred.”

Those who are obliged to notify are obliged to keep the information included in the scope in accordance with the Tax Procedure Law.

It has been stated that the relevant penalty provisions of the Tax Procedure Law No. 213 will be applied to those who do not submit the information required to be reported within the scope of the regulations made in the Communiqué, who make incomplete or misleading notifications, and those who do not comply with the obligations imposed by this Communiqué.

It is comprehended that the penalty rates specified in Article 352 of the Tax Procedure Law will be applied. Penalties are specified in this article according to the type of liability and the duration of the notification.

Intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers are required to complete their applications regarding the use of BTRANS before the date of the first notification.

It is not obligatory to include the information required to be notified in the advertisements.

It is not obligatory for the intermediary service providers, social network providers and hosting providers to include the information that is obligatory with the Communiqué in the advertisements to be published. The obligation is to report this information to the Administration.

As stated in the previous sections, the information required to be declared while placing an advertisement will be entered into the intermediary platforms, but it will not be mandatory to be published in the advertisement.

The Revenue Administration has been given the authority to extend the notification periods and to determine the principles regarding implementation.

The Administration is authorized to extend the periods in this Communiqué, to determine the information period to be notified and/or taxpayer groups together or separately, and to determine the procedures and principles regarding the implementation.

 

Ali KARAKUŞ
May 31, 2022
Istanbul

Source: Official Gazette – 05/31/2022
Legal Notice: The information in this article is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended for professional information purposes specific to a person or an institution. Every institution has different requirements because of its own circumstances even though they bear a resemblance to each other. Consequently, it is your interest to consult on an expert before taking a decision based on information stated in this article and putting into practice. Neither Karen Audit nor related person or institutions are not responsible for any damages or losses that might occur in consequence of the use of the information in this article by private or formal, real or legal person and institutions.