THE IMPACTS OF TAX REGULATIONS FOR FOUNDATIONS ON TAX AVOIDANCE AND EVASION

VAKIFLARA YÖNELİK VERGİSEL DÜZENLEMELERİN VERGİ KAYIP VE KAÇAKLARI ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİLERİ

Abstract

Foundations are the organizations aiming to serve the public interest. Foundations of the period of Republic were not established for only public interest; nevertheless, they have some differences in their bodies. Because the foundations established by the Civil Code after the Republican era were not founded for only social and religious purposes, but also for commercial activities as they are in Europe. In this case, taxation of the foundations came to the forefront, while it has been necessary to update current legislation. However, some of these regulations were converted into practices that are beneficial for some certain taxpayers and groups rather than having the aim of taxation of the foundations. This situation has brought some concerns from the public. Thus, the aim of this study was addressing the issue of foundations in our country as well as in the world based on current critics related to them since their numbers are increasing in recent years. In this regard, such organizations were tried to be analyzed based on structural, tax and legal regulations. In Turkey, the Law on Foundations recently put into force seems to have conflicting practices. One of these practices is the regulation allowing foreign people to establish a foundation in our country and regulations allow community foundations to be re-structured. However, considering that the collapse of the Ottoman Empire shows parallelism with the strengthening of these community foundations, the importance of this process is an indisputable fact. On the other hand, today, another problem emerging regarding foundations is the tax issues. Tax deductions or tax exemptions offered to the foundations by governments are considered to be extremely important advantages. These advantages offered by governments are considered to be one of the reasons why number of such institutions is increased in recent years. However, in practice, it seems like taxpayers, donors and third parties take advantage of these foundations. Thus, foundations often defraud the tax authorities by falsifying their tax return statements or using the tax credit provisions illegally; on the other hand, taxpayers are able to turn out irregularities by making donations to the foundations. Therefore, today’s understanding of foundation has transformed into a practice of associations that are established for personal benefits and internalize the public interest by drifting away from the culture of social aid. Some of the most common examples of this type of corrupt practices in our country can be listed as follows: In accounting for inkind donations; although clothes, construction materials, equipment and donations received from foundations should be accounted based on their current values, foundations account these items for either lower or higher values compared to their current values and perform incomeexpense/reduction-increasing activities. Although donation receipts used by the foundations should be the ones issued and given by General Directorate of Foundations, they may have personal interest by using old or fake receipts. Despite the fact that foundations cannot make any payments to those who are assigned for some duties except Vakıflara Yönelik Vergisel Düzenlemelerin Vergi Kayıp ve Kaçakları Üzerindeki Etkileri 699 Turkish Studies International Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 10/2 Winter 2015 their documented expenses spent for the foundation itself, foundations make payments to these people under different names not specified by provisions of the law and prevent the emergence of tax liabilities through these expenditures. Although it is stated by the law that public institutions and organizations, professional associations, trade unions, local authorities and universities cannot transfer their duties, specified by legislation, to the foundations established under their bodies, some transactions seem to be fulfilled throughout the companies founded over foundations. Foundations, next to their bodies, that can be audited by independent auditing firms are subject to the supervision of the General Directorate of Foundations in terms of auditing commercial enterprises and assessment of being fit for purpose. However, the problem arises from these audits to remain extremely weak and inadequate. In our country, where control mechanism doesn’t/cannot work properly, this may be due to the unsettled institutional structures, and current issues adversely affect the functioning of control mechanisms. In addition, the frequency of submitting declarations to authorities about financial situation of the foundation is very low compared to European countries; thus, the frequency of submission should be limited to cover a maximum of 3 months duration. Today, although the tax crimes are increased, electronic methods provide significant contributions to tax administrations. Therefore, it is necessary to put all aspects of electronic data filing system into practice. In this way, in addition to solving problems of taxpayers quickly by transferring transactions related to tax returns into e-portal, preventing negativities will also be possible. Since the final status of tax exploitation cannot be measured, such systems are very important for not only taxpayers but also tax administrations. In particular, the size of the non-profit sector enables tax revenues to remain at high risk and establishes a ground for tax evasion. It is important to create a substantial knowledge base for this area and sort out the foundations established with social aims from other foundations that can support terrorism activities financially. For this purpose, it is needed to train competent auditing personnel, conduct qualified training programs, perform typology and information sharing of red flag transactions that are considered to be suspicious transactions and carrying the risk of corruption. Furthermore, central registry agency should be establ

Özet

Yeni Vakıflar Kanunu ile çelişkili uygulamaların yürürlüğe girdiği görülmektedir. Bu uygulamalardan biri, yabancıların ülkemizde vakıf kurabilmelerine imkan tanıyan değişiklikler ile cemaat vakıflarının yeniden yapılandırılmasına olanak sağlayan düzenlemeler şeklinde ortaya çıkmaktadır. Oysaki Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun çöküşü ile cemaat vakıflarının güçlenmesi arasındaki paralellik dikkate alındığında bu sürecin ne denli önemli olduğu tartışmasız bir gerçektir. Öte yandan günümüzde vakıflar üzerinden ortaya konan bir diğer sorunsal, vergisel konulara yönelik olmaktadır. Hükümetler tarafından vakıf statüsündeki hayır kurumlarına sunulan vergi indirimleri veya vergi muafiyeti şeklindeki avantajlar son derece önemli kabul edilmektedir. Bu durum söz konusu kurumların son yıllarda artış gerekçelerinden de biri olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Aslında vakıflar kuruluş gayeleri itibariyle kamu yararına hizmet eden oluşumlardır. Bununla birlikte özellikle Cumhuriyet dönemi vakıfları, yalnızca hayır maksadıyla kurulmadığı gibi birtakım farklılıkları da bünyesinde barındırmıştır. Çünkü Cumhuriyet dönemi sonrası Medeni Kanuna göre kurulan vakıflar, sadece sosyal ve dini amaçlarla değil Avrupa'da uygulanan haliyle ticari sahalara da el atmıştır. Bu durum vakıfların vergilendirmesi hususunu ön plana çıkarırken, yasal düzenlemelerin güncellenmesi ise gerekli hale gelmiştir. Ancak vakıflara yönelik bu düzenlemelerin bir kısmı vakıfların vergilendirilmesinden çok adeta vergi yükümlüsü kişi veya grupların yararına imkân sağlayan uygulamalara dönüştürülmüştür. Bu durum kamuoyundan kaynaklı endişeleri de beraberinde getirmiştir. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma mevcut eleştirilerden hareketle son yıllarda ülkemizde olduğu gibi dünya genelinde sayıları hızla artan vakıflar konusunu ele almakta, söz konusu kuruluşlar yapısal, vergisel ve yasal düzenlemelerden hareketle bütünsel bir yaklaşımla analiz edilmeye çalışılmaktadır