Turkey Amends the General Communique

This blog was last updated on September 15, 2020

The Turkish Revenue Authority (TRA) continues to innovate digital tax controls, most recently by introducing a new document type among other changes. They recently published a Draft Communique including several amendments to existing regulations which were opened up for public consultation. The General Communique on the Tax Procedural Law (General Communique), which this recent draft amends, originally aimed to unify all e-document regulations when it was published in October 2019. It regulates matters such as procedures and principles related to the involvement in and the transition to electronic document practices, information to be included in such electronic documents, and the various instances where electronic document practices are mandatory. Now, the Draft Communique introduces a new document type and other changes to the scope of e-invoice and e-arsiv invoices as well as new requirements and changes to the General Communique.

E-Tab – a new document type

The Draft Communique introduces a new document type called e-tab. The tab (reckoning) is a document used in restaurants, bars, and cafes to keep a running total of the amount a customer needs to pay. It’s a mandatory document for businesses that provide services at the table, and currently, is issued in paper form. E-tab will become mandatory for certain businesses depending on their turnover.

A new requirement to include standard codes for goods and services

Another new requirement in the Draft Communique is to include the standard codes for goods and services provided as published by the Turkish Statistic Institution. The codes must be included in e-invoice, e-arsiv invoice, e-delivery note, e-accounting receipt and in self-employment receipt. There’s a phased approach with different timelines for different groups of taxpayers to comply with this new requirement.

Declaration Forms will be auto populated

According to the Draft Communique, a declaration form related to goods and services supplied and received will be auto populated by the TRA system. The TRA will use the gathered data to auto populate these forms which will then be approved by taxpayers.

E-invoice and e-arsiv invoice scope expanded

Another change prescribed by the Draft Communique is to expand the scope of e-invoice and e-arsiv invoices. The issuance of e-invoice and e-arsiv invoices will be mandatory for health service providers (pharmacies, hospitals, medical product suppliers, opticians, etc.). For e-invoice and e-arsiv invoices, if taxpayers in the mandate’s scope don’t choose a method to connect to the TRA portal, the TRA can automatically generate user accounts for those taxpayers.

Turkey is rapidly expanding the scope of its e-documents and from the Draft Communique it’s clear that the digital tax transformation is ongoing. In the coming weeks, the TRA might complete their review on the feedback received from stakeholders and then finalize the Draft Communique provisions.