immac

From TDN:

Restrictions on house purchases and sales
Saturday, April 12, 2008

Sinan Aygün, chairman of the Ankara Trade Chamber (ATO), reacted to attempts to restrict the purchase and sale processes of homes for taxpayers with outstanding taxes.

The latest regulations, which broaden the scope of the processes that taxpayers with outstanding taxes cannot undertake, are unacceptable, said Aygün who also noted that registered taxpayers were treated like thieves while the informal economy was so prevalent.

The regulations necessitate that certain individuals have a certificate of “No Tax Due,” including people who want to purchase or sell their home, entrepreneurs who want to start a new business, firm owners who want their brands to be registered, hunters who want a license, miners who want a permit for mining, insurers who want to open a firm and many others. Moreover, those who have overdue taxes are not permitted to have a contractor's certificate, according to the recent changes in the law.



Construction sector will be harmed

Aygün said applications that restrict the purchase and sale of homes of indebted taxpayers and require the spouses and children of delinquent taxpayers to pay the outstanding tax with an interest rate of 35 percent after handing over their immovable properties would greatly damage the construction sector. Aygün also noted, “people have taken housing loans worth YTL 3 billion ($2,310,000,000) in three years, despite the economic crisis. The government will harm itself if it goes on with these kinds of regulations today. The contracting sector is already having difficulties as a result of the unfair competition from the Mass Housing Administration (TOK&#304, which produces housing using the resources of the state. Some 276 sectors feed on the construction sector. Neither the content nor the timing of these regulations are right.”

Aygün further said, “it is a must to solve the current problems with the tax issues in the country to ensure effectiveness in tax collection before implementing the latest regulations. The tax and charge claims of the Finance Ministry amount to YTL 16.7 billion ($13 billion) with interests from late payments totaling YTL 5 billion ($3.8 billion). The government should solve this problem first.”


Government should fight with illegal economy first

Noting that the government should fight with the informal economy and smuggling instead of producing inconceivable methods of tax collection without knowing what they were doing exactly, Aygün also added, “the half of the Turkish economy is illegal. Almost all of the registered taxpayers try to find a way of escaping from the Ministry of Finance. The latest regulations just serve the purpose of harming the registers taxpayers and deterring them from involving in legal processes while protecting those others who avoid tax. The people who are not registered at the Ministry of Finance will do whatever they want in this country; however the registered ones are to provide the certificate of “No Tax Due” in any attempt to form a new business or to make purchase and sales processes. This is really incredible.”

Porterspet

Hi
We live on Crete and when we sold our previous house we have to get a form from the local IKA office(sort of national insurance and pensions) stating that they had checked and we had paid IKA on all work done on our house.This can include DIY work done by the owner himself as IKA is liable on some types of work even if done by the owner,painting the outside of the house being one.If they are in any doubt they will send an inspector round who will estimate how much work has taken place and how much IKA should have been paid.The house sale cannot go ahead unless IKA agree.
Secondly we had to go to the local tax office and obtain another form to say that our tax records were fully up to date and all tax paid.Without this form the sale cannot go ahead.
Thirdly we made a visit to the local town hall and we had to get from them a note to say that all records had been checked and all amounts due to the council had been paid.The notary involved in the sale cannot go ahead unless the local council have confirmed all ok.The local council also deal with water bills so these have to be up to date as well.
Only after all this has been done can we finalise the sale of the house.This took us ages as the local tax office was very unhelpfull and even went out of thier way to make it more difficult.This attitude varies from office to office.
Is this the same or worse.
John