While discussions on mutual and automatic information sharing continue, Abdullah Eren, President of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), made very important warnings to citizens living abroad regarding the tax cooperation agreement to which 136 countries, including Turkey, are parties.
Emphasizing that account information held in financial institutions in Turkey is within the scope of information exchange, but information on movable assets such as immovable property and vehicles will not be shared, Chairman Eren said
“The financial accounts to be shared under the agreement consist of 5 categories: deposit accounts, custody accounts, debt and partnership interest, cash value insurance contracts and regular payment contracts. Therefore, within the scope of automatic information sharing, financial account data in financial institutions will be shared, but information such as real estate information or pension accounts will not be shared.”
BEWARE OF THOSE WHO PROMISE TO KEEP YOU OUT OF THE NOTIFICATION!
Stating that it is not possible to exclude the information belonging to the accounts that meet the sharing criteria from automatic change with any intervention, President Eren warned citizens on this issue.
“Automatic information sharing is a process that many countries are parties to within the framework of international agreements and is carried out on the basis of reciprocity. The content and method of sharing are made according to international agreements,” said President Eren, adding that people and companies who demand information such as fees, Turkish ID numbers, e-government passwords with the promise that financial account information will be excluded from the notification should be careful. President Eren also added that provocative news on this issue should not be ignored.
CITIZENS CAN GET INFORMATION ON LINE 189
Stating that personal information can be used for fraudulent purposes, Eren gave the following information:
“It should not be forgotten that no lawyer, consultant or company has been authorized to provide services for a fee in Turkey or abroad. Within the framework of a citizen-oriented, participatory and transparent service approach, our citizens can obtain information through the Tax Communication Center (VİMER) on line 189. It is also possible to obtain information through the Revenue Administration or the Presidential Communication Center (CIMER). Turkey's notification obligation, which has been a requirement of international law for a long time, will not cause any problems if the account holders who are taxpayers in the relevant country act within the framework of the law.”
“TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS ARE STILL ONGOING”
Stating that technical infrastructure work for financial data sharing is ongoing, Chairman Eren also stated that Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria are not among the countries that will share information in 2020, as the infrastructure work has not been completed.
As a result of the efforts of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the G20, 136 countries, including Turkey, reached an agreement by adopting the ’Convention on Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters“ in 2011 in order to set out the basic principles in the fight against tax loss and evasion on an international scale. As a result of international negotiations, countries agreed not to keep banking information confidential worldwide in order to ensure tax transparency. The main purpose of this transparency was to exclude tax haven countries from international financial markets and minimize tax evasion. In this context, 112 countries committed to an automatic exchange of information with the OECD to avoid being blacklisted.
As a matter of fact, both the OECD and the European Union have decided to impose sanctions against countries that do not automatically exchange information. In order to avoid these sanctions and maintain their presence in the financial markets, more than 100 countries under the umbrella of the OECD signed the ’Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information“ and accepted the automatic exchange rules.
Turkey signed this agreement on April 21, 2017 and ratified it by Presidential Decree on December 31, 2019. Within the framework of the agreement, financial account information of individuals outside their country of residence is automatically sent to the country of residence by tax administrations every year. Turkey's first automatic exchange of information started in 2018 with Norway and Latvia, and as of 2020, there are 54 countries that are subject to the agreement. Detailed guidance on this agreement was published by the Revenue Administration.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE AUTOMATED INFORMATION SHARING GUIDE
Speaking about the agreement, which is of great interest to Turkish citizens abroad, Abdullah Eren, President of the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB), pointed out that the guide containing detailed information on the list of countries to be shared and the scope of financial sharing was published by the Revenue Administration. Stating that the information regarding the financial accounts of taxpayers residing abroad in Turkey will be sent to the countries where they reside, Eren said: “The Revenue Administration's ‘Information Guide on the Standard of Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information on Tax Matters” includes the years of information to be shared and which financial details of the person will be sent to the relevant countries. Our citizens can reach the questions they are curious about from this guide." Our citizens
UNTIL TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IS COMPLETED
Underlining that the regulation requires technical infrastructure, Eren said, “Collecting and transferring the information of account holders living abroad from financial institutions operating in Turkey electronically in a certain format requires technical infrastructure work. In order to complete this preparation process in the healthiest way possible, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, where account holders residing abroad reside the most, were not included in Turkey's 2020 information exchange calendar. Therefore, there will be no automatic information exchange with these 5 countries this year. Information exchange is ongoing with 54 countries, including other EU countries where fewer account holders reside. However, the number of countries with which information is exchanged will increase in the coming years.”.