In accordance with the Communiqué on Tax Procedure Law No. 529 published on the Official Gazette dated July 13, 2021; it has become obligatory to declare the "real beneficiary" for legal entities and other organizations.

1.    The scope of the Communiqué

In order for the "real beneficiary” (ultimate beneficial owner) information of legal entities and other certain organizations to be determined in an up-to-date, complete and accurate manner; Tax Procedural Law Communiqué No. 529 entered into force, determining the scope of the taxpayers who are obliged to notify with respect to the determination and notification of the real beneficiary, the form of the notification, the time of notification, the method of sending the notification, as well as the application of other procedures and principles.

2.    Definition of the real beneficiary

The term “real beneficiary” refers to the individuals who ultimately control or have ultimate influence over legal entities or other organizations.

3.    Those who are obliged to report

The real beneficiary information notification shall be made by the followings.

·         Corporate taxpayers,

·         The person authorized to represent the company or the partner in the collective companies, one of the limited partners in the anonymous limited partnerships and the person with the highest shareholding ratio for the ordinary partnerships, the manager of the trusts and similar organizations established in a foreign country whose management center is in Turkey or whose manager resides in Turkey

On the other hand; banks, bank and credit card institutions, authorized institutions specified in the foreign exchange legislation, financing and factoring companies, intermediary institutions and portfolio management companies, payment institutions and electronic money institutions, insurance, reinsurance and pension companies, financial leasing companies, notaries, lawyers, certified public accountants, independent audit firms and some other individuals and institutions, upon request by the Revenue Administration, shall submit the real beneficiary information of the transactions carried out by their clients to the Revenue Administration.

4. Identification of real beneficiaries

For legal entities, the followings will be considered as the real beneficiary.

·         Individual shareholders who own more than twenty-five percent shares in the legal entity,

·         If it is suspected that the individual shareholder holding more than twenty-five percent shares of the legal entity is not the real beneficiary or if there is no individual shareholder holding such shares, the real person or persons who ultimately control the legal entity,

·         In cases where the beneficial beneficiary cannot be determined as above, the real person or persons with the highest executive power.

In entities such as unincorporated business partnerships;

·         The individual or individuals who ultimately control the unincorporated entities,

·          In case the real beneficiary cannot be determined as above, the individual or individuals with the highest level of executive power before the unincorporated entity,

will be considered as the real beneficiary and will be subject to notification.

In Trust and similar organizations; those who hold the title of founders, trustees, managers, auditors or beneficiaries or those who have influence over these organizations will be considered as real beneficiaries and will be subject to notification.

5. Period of notification and time of submission

Corporate taxpayers, who are obliged to report, will submit their real beneficiary information in the annex of their advance corporate income tax returns and annual corporate income tax return.

Other taxpayers and other persons are obliged to submit the real beneficiary information to the Revenue Administration in electronic form by the end of August of each year.

6. Form of notification

Corporate taxpayers will make a notification in the annex of their annual and advance tax returns, and taxpayers other than corporate taxpayers and other persons who need to make a notification will make a notification with a separate notification form.

In the notifications, the real beneficiary's name, surname, citizenship, identity numbers and addresses, telephone, fax and e-mail information, if any, shall be declared.

Taxpayers and other persons included in the scope are required to obtain a user code, password and password from the tax office they are affiliated with. Paper form (by hand or by post) will not be accepted.

7. Other Considerations

The information subject to the real beneficiary information notification must be kept by the taxpayers for 5 years starting from the beginning of the calendar year following the date of the notification.

The relevant penalty provisions of the Tax Procedure Law No. 213 will be applied to the taxpayers who do not report the information required to be reported within the scope of the regulations made in the said Communiqué, and make incomplete or misleading notifications.

8. Initial notification

The first notification for the real beneficiary information shall be made electronically to the Revenue Administration until August 31, 2021.

The said Communiqué entered into force on the date of its publication.

Regards,