The Law on Restructuring of Certain Receivables and Amendment of Certain Laws (“Law”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 17 November 2020 and numbered 31307.
Various receivables, administrative fines, and tax penalties which are subject to the provision of the Law are regulated in the 1st paragraph of article 1 of the Law. While in the 2nd paragraph, the definitions of taxes, customs duties, declaration, and D-PPI (Domestic-Producer Price Index) monthly rate of change are given within the scope of the Law.
Bankruptcy postponement under the Turkish Bankruptcy Law was heavily criticised on the basis that it was open to manipulation. Critics also claimed the protections offered in this scope went beyond the legislators’ intentions due to systematic errors which had emerged in the process.
A range of legislative changes have been made in Turkey following the attempted coup on 15 July 2016, as well as changes to the structures and compositions of government, military and judicial bodies. Notable aspects for companies include bankruptcy suspension requests being deemed invalid during the national three month State of Emergency, as well as increased powers for guardians appointed to companies under investigation.
Bankruptcy postponement requests suspended
Turkey has tightened up its postponement of bankruptcy regime. Bad faith debtors would regularly exploit the prior legislative arrangements and court processes, using them to threaten or bargain with their creditors by depriving them of enforcement and execution avenues for a significant and uncertain amount of time. However, legislative amendments go a significant way towards evening up the balance between creditors and debtors in this area.
Turkey has introduced regulations regarding new and existing bankruptcy suspension requests and company guardians in the wake of the 90 day of State of Emergency declared on 21 July 2016. Drastic changes have recently been introduced for the Turkish bankruptcy postponement regime (more).
Turkey has restructured methods for settelement with Finance Revenue Administration (“Administration”) for related party transcations. The developments widen and clarify the scope of advance pricing agreement methods, as well as introduce time limits for the Administration to consider taxpayer requests.
The Communiqué Amending the General Communiqué of Hidden Profit Distribution through Transfer Pricing (“Amendment Communiqué”) was published in Official Gazette number 30263 on 7 December 2017.
Turkey has updated rules related to pledges on movable assets. Notably, all future legal interests in a movable asset will now be directly covered by a pledge, together with the movable asset. If a production process is pledged together with a movable asset used in the process, the pledge will now be deemed to have been automatically established.
The Law Amending Certain Laws for Enhancing the Investment Environment number 7099 (“Omnibus Law”) was published in Official Gazette number 30356 on 10 March 2018.
Turkey has amended and clarified the requirements for collecting public receivables. Changes particularly apply to obtaining documents to show an overdue debt, calculating the limitation period, as well as deleting records. Further explanatory information is also provided for existing requirements.
The Ministry of Finance-Revenue Administration published the General Communiqué regarding Collection of public receivables in Official Gazette number 29686 on 16 April 2016.
Key changes introduced by the amendments include: