COVID-19 Turkish Tax Policy, Directions and Legal Priorities

In the project, it is aimed to contribute to the existing knowledge on financial measures against COVID-19 in two ways. The first is to determine the possible COVID-19 Turkish tax policy orientations after urgent measures by making an inventory of national and international COVID-19 tax policy orientations in various countries. Secondly, the legal priorities that should be taken into account in the design of Turkey's financial measures in the crisis period are presented by analyzing the decisions of the Turkish Constitutional Court regarding the financial measures against the previous period. In the project, various findings were obtained that will contribute to the decision makers' determination and implementation of effective COVID-19 tax policy measures. Firstly, as a result of the determination and subsequent analysis of twelve decisions of the Constitutional Court in which the constitutionality of the recent crisis tax policy measures were examined, it was seen that the principles of taxation according to financial power, equality before the law and non-retroactivity came to the fore among the financial law priorities in the crisis period in our country. These are the principles that decision makers should consider in tax law design in order to effectively implement COVID-19 tax policy measures. Secondly, in terms of digital taxes, it will be the legislation that will be shaped as a result of the Column 1 and Column 2 studies carried out under the umbrella of the OECD Inclusive Framework, not the Digital Services Tax, which will enable Turkey to get the desired share from the global tax base. Third, in terms of wealth taxes, the most revenue-generating solution for COVID-19 tax policies would be to impose a tax on net wealth. In terms of the applicability of this tax, the order created by international automatic information exchange will play a key role by enabling tax administrations to determine the foreign assets of taxpayers. Fourth, the removal of fossil fuel tax incentives or at least the revision of the incentive and support system targeted in the Medium-Term Plan by taking into account the impact assessment studies, will make a significant contribution to the budget. Considering the main directions of COVID-19 tax policies, the (multilateral) digital tax, wealth tax and environmental tax reforms that are likely to be introduced in our country have been read with the legal priorities of the crisis period, and the following three concrete suggestions have been developed: • In order to ensure a fair and balanced distribution of the tax burden according to financial power, the taxation of the multilateral digital economy should be completed and the global tax base should be understood. • In accordance with the principle of taxation according to financial power, net assets should be taken as a basis while imposing wealth tax. • Considering the point reached by the climate crisis, it should be questioned again whether the just cause of inequality before the law created in favor of entrepreneurs with fossil fuel energy tax incentives is objective and reasonable.