Under General Communiqué No. 538 on Tax Procedure Code (“Communiqué”) published in the Official Gazette dated May 31, 2022, explanations were made regarding the determination of the procedures and principles regarding the request of certain information related to the advertisements published on the internet. According to the Communiqué, intermediary service providers, social network service providers and hosting providers, which mediate the publication of advertisements for the purchase, sale or rental of movable and immovable properties, as well as the goods and services, should submit certain information to the Revenue Administration (“RA”), with regards to the transactions performed each month.

Who is Required to Provide Information? What is the Information to be Notified?

• Intermediary service providers, social network service providers and hosting providers, who mediate the publication of advertisements for the purchase, sale or rental of movable and immovable properties and goods and services, will electronically submit the following information to the RA, regarding the transactions they have carried out within one month of the calendar year: 
  o The internet address or addresses of the service provided,
  o Name, surname, title, Turkish Republic Identification Number / Foreign Identification Number / Tax Identification Number information along with office address of real or legal persons whom the services are provided,
  o Collected amount/sales amount and collection date for each realized sale/rent of goods and services in the name of persons whom the services provided, the date of each collection or sale transaction and the bank account information regarding the payment of the collected amounts,
  o Other information to be determined by the RA.

• According to the Communiqué, the intermediary service provider is the natural or legal person who provides the electronic commerce environment for the economic and commercial activities of others as defined in the Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce; social network service provider is a natural or legal person that allows users to create, view or share content such as text, images, sounds, locations on the internet for the purpose of social interaction, as defined under the Law No. 5651 on Regulation of Broadcasts on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed through these Broadcasts; and the hosting provider means the natural or legal person who provides or operates the systems that host services and content, as defined in the Law No. 5651.
• People who release advertisements through intermediary service providers, social network service providers and hosting providers are obliged to notify the relevant providers of the information regarding their advertisements.
• If the ownership of the movable, immovable, goods or services that are the subject of the advertisement belongs to a real or legal person other than the advertiser, information regarding the owner should also be reported to the intermediary service providers, social network service providers and hosting providers.
• If additional information about the advertisements is required from the advertisers in order to make the notification, this will be announced to the advertisers and those who do not complete the required information despite this announcement will also be reported to the RA.

Notification Format and the Period

• Requested information will be reported to the RA on a monthly basis via the Information Transfer System (BTRANS) until the end of the next month at the latest.

First Notification

• Those who are obliged to provide information are required to notify the RA until 01.08.2022 regarding the advertisements made for the first time, in June 2022.
• Regarding the advertisements made until 1 June 2022, the first notification must be made until 31.08.2022.

Liability and Penalties

• Advertisers, intermediary service providers, social network service providers and hosting providers are responsible for the accuracy of the information they have to report.
• The relevant penalty provisions of the Tax Procedure Code No. 213 will be applied to those who do not report the information that needs to be reported, and who make incomplete or incorrect reporting