This blog was last updated on July 6, 2020

On 3 April 2020,  storage guidelines for e-ledger were published by the Turkish Revenue Authority (TRA).

The guidelines set out the requirements and standards for special integrators, and the requirements for supporting secondary storage services for e-ledgers, e-ledger summary report (Berat) files and other documents created through the e-ledger system.

Background

The Communique, first published on 19 October 2019, states that secondary copies of e-ledgers and Berat files must be kept in the database of the accredited special integrators or TRA for 10 years for security and safety purposes. Therefore, any documents created in the e-ledger system must be stored twice. The new guidelines only refer to the secondary storage process.

Other e-ledger related services (maintaining the books, creating an e-ledger summary and other related documents) are not part of the scope of these guidelines. Special integrators accredited for e-ledger can provide services related to the initial creation of the e-ledger, as well as other documents and reports within the e-ledger context.

What do the guidelines include?

The guidelines specify the requirements for special integrators to be able to support the secondary storage of e-ledgers and other documents that need to be kept. These include:

• Infrastructure requirements
• Technical obligations
• Safety and security related information
• Certification conditions.

To provide a secondary storage service for e-ledgers, special integrators must submit their documents confirming that they meet these requirements to the TRA.