NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

323 TAX LAW Current Opinion of the Revenue Administration Through the Revenue Administration’s letter dated 21st May 2020 sent to Turkish Bank Association, the approach of the Revenue Administration in relation to non-physical gold sales is amended as follows: “Under Article 2/h of Decree No. 32 on The Protection of The Value of Turkish Currency, entitled “Definitions,” foreign currency is defined as foreign currency bankno- tes and all kinds of accounts, instruments, and means of enabling payments in foreign currency and Gold, silver, platinum and palladium of all kinds and in every form, qualify as precious metals. Due to the fact that (i) precious metals and foreign currencies are regulated under the foreign exchange re- gulation, (ii) no specific definition is made in relation to the non-physical amounts treated in the deposit accounts; non-physical gold sales should be accepted to be in the nature of foreign exchange transactions.” In line with the current opinion of the Revenue Administration, due to the fact that non-physical gold transactions are evaluated as foreign exchange transactions, the BITT should be calculated over the sale amount of the referred transactions. Increase in the BITT Rate and Current Situation The BITT rate in respect of foreign exchange (“FX”) transactions has increased from 0.2% to 1% through the presidential decree no. 2568 sayılı published in the Official Gazette dated 24th May 2020 and No. 31136. The BITT for FX transactions will be calculated over FX sales. The BITT will continue to be 0% for the following transactions: • FX sales made between banks and authorized foreign exc- hange dealers (amongst themselves, or to each other) • FX sales made to Ministry of Treasury and Finance