Turkey Scraps Plans for Stock and Crypto Profit Tax
Turkey has abandoned its plans to levy a tax package on profits from stock trading and cryptocurrency transactions. The move, announced by Turkey's Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, is a sudden about-face regarding the country's stance on financial market oversight.
Yilmaz ruled out the stock tax once proposed and now taken off the agenda. "We don't have a stocks tax on our agenda. It was discussed previously and fell from our agenda," he said in an interview with Bloomberg. On his part, the Vice President gave an indication of what the government's priority would be in the coming period: "narrowing" the tax exemptions.
This move comes after a period of turmoil in the financial markets of Turkey. In June, the government had delayed plans to impose taxes on stocks after a steep fall in the equity market of the country. The decline in the market was largely blamed on news about the proposed additional taxes-a proof of how sensitive such a fiscal policy change could be.
In that case, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek announced the delay on X, formerly Twitter. "We are postponing the draft tax study for the stock exchange for a while to re-evaluate in line with feedback from all relevant parties," said Simsek, buckling under pressure from the markets to show that the administration was open to market reaction and stakeholder input.
The withdrawal of the draft tax package, which also included levies on cryptocurrency gains, places Turkey in step with what has been an ongoing global debate to seek better ways of regulating and taxing digital assets.
Countries around the world, including the leading economic hubs like the United Kingdom and Japan, have been racing against time, trying to come up with appropriate tax frameworks for cryptocurrencies.
