Those who make rent payments by hand will be fined 10 percent of the rent amount

Those who do not make rent payments through banks and PTT, but make them by hand, will be fined 10 percent of the rent amount for each detection.

The Revenue Administration (RA) opened the “Draft Income Tax General Communiqué on the Obligation of Certification in Rental Payments” for comment on its website.

In this context, collections and payments to be made regarding workplace and housing rental transactions carried out by income and corporate taxpayers and those who do not have any taxpayer registration will be made through banks or PTT.

Collections and payments made for weekly, daily or similar short-term residential leases are also included in the scope of certification.

In the current practice, it was obligatory to pay workplace lease payments regardless of the amount, and housing lease payments had to be paid through banks or PTT if they exceeded 500 liras. According to the draft, this limit is abolished for residential rents and all payments must be made through a bank or PTT.

Tenants can also be fined

In the current communiqué, both the lessee and the lessor were penalized in workplace leases, while the lessee was not penalized in residential leases. With the Law on the Amendment of Tax Laws and Certain Laws and the Decree Law No. 375, which was adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in July, the imposition of penalties on the tenant was moved to the legislation.

According to the draft, special irregularity penalties will be imposed on those who do not make rent payments via bank and PTT and make them by hand, at the rate of 10 percent of the rent amount for each determination. The amount of the fine will not be less than 5 thousand liras. Currently, this is applied as 5 percent of the rent amount and a minimum of 3 thousand liras.

If the tenant notifies the administration within 5 business days following the payment that the payment is made by hand, the tenant will not be fined for special irregularity.

On the other hand, the upper limit of the special irregularity fine to be imposed within a calendar year is increased from 8 million 700 thousand liras to 20 million liras.

“The aim is to completely eliminate informality”

Hakan Akçam, President of the Ankara Professional Chamber of Realtors, told AA correspondent that the draft communiqué introduces some obligations.

Stating that these obligations will be positive for tenants, Akçam said:
“Because when the tenants send everything through the official figure, it will support both in terms of the taxes of the rental income to be paid by the owner and in solving problems such as rent increases not being too exaggerated. Because Mr. Cevdet Yılmaz, our Vice President, recently announced. The e-contract system will be implemented. When this is integrated with this, that is, when rental incomes are determined, there will be nothing overlooked. The aim is to completely eliminate informality.”

Akçam stated that they support the regulation and pointed out that extending the penalties to cover the tenant will prevent what they call “fake contracts”.