Turkish Revenue Administration Directorate’s Fresh Ruling: How to Pay “Which” Tax through “Which” Bank?

Turkish Revenue Administration Directorate (“GİB”) terminated its engagements with private banks in accordance with its public announcement dated December 15th, 2019 published on GIB’s official website, became effective as of January 1st, 2020, restraining private banks’ authority to collect tax payments from taxpayers by cash, debit card, cheques, wire transfer or EFT.

Therefore, taxpayers intend to perform their tax payment operations through private bank accounts without needing to physically visit tax offices should kindly note that only below listed public banks shall be in charge as of January 1st, 2020.  

• T.C. Ziraat Bankası A.Ş.
• Türkiye Halk Bankası A.Ş.
• Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O.
• Ziraat Katılım Bankası A.Ş.
• Vakıf Katılım Bankası A.Ş.
• Türkiye Emlak Katılım Bankası A.Ş.
• Any PTT Office.

The announcement provides a fundamental exception to the basic principle by removing certain type of tax payments out of scope such as;

• income tax;
• motor vehicles tax;
• traffic and other administrative fines arising from transportation law including toll fines;
• debts installed by financial restructuring laws;
• title deed fees;
• foreign mobile phone registration fees;
• passport and valuable paper (değerli kağıt) fees; and
• driver’s license, Turkish ID card and residence permit fees.

The exception ensures taxpayers to process their above-mentioned tax payments via private bank accounts only if they conduct the relevant payment operation with a credit card. In other words, there is no way out to make tax payment via private banks by cash, debit card, cheques, wire transfer or EFT. It is worth underlying that the exception shall not be applied to each private bank.   Accordingly, the very-limited number of private banks remain entitled to collect exceptional tax payments are as follows:

• Türk Ekonomi Bankası A.Ş.
• Akbank T.A.Ş.
• Şekerbank T.A.Ş.
• Türkiye Garanti Bankası A.Ş.
• Türkiye İş Bankası A.Ş.
• Yapı ve Kredi Bankası A.Ş.
• ING Bank A.Ş. 
• QNB Finansbank A.Ş.
• HSBC Bank A.Ş. 
• Alternatifbank A.Ş.   
• Denizbank A.Ş.
• Aktif Yatırım Bankası A.Ş.
• Odea Bank A.Ş.
• Albaraka Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş.
• Kuveyt Türk Katılım Bankası A.Ş.
• Türkiye Finans Katılım Bankası A.Ş. 

Finally, taxpayers shall be also allowed to make their tax payments through the GIB’s internet tax office system in case they have their personal accounts.