Tax and Customs Disputes
Tax Law is a sub-branch of financial law that is part of Public Law and examines the legal aspect of the state’s financial activities. Financial law is subject to three sub-classifications: tax (revenue) law, expenditure law, and budget law. Tax Law examines the legal regime of public revenues obtained by the state based on its public authority.
All public revenues collected without consideration and, if necessary, through coercion—under the names of fees, duties, funds, premiums, dues, etc.—fall within the scope of Tax Law in terms of their nature.
Customs Law is the branch of law established to control and monitor the entry of goods and commodities into and their exit from the country’s borders, resulting from the commercial activities carried out by companies operating on an international level.
Since these two branches of law are often related and their follow-up and application are intricate within the borders of Turkey, individuals or institutions affected by these areas need to seek professional legal support.
How Can We Assist You?
TEK&partners provides the following services to its clients in the field of Tax and Customs Law:
During a Potential Tax Inspection:
- Legal/Technical Support: Participating with the client in meetings for signing minutes related to the inspection, providing legal/technical support.
- Document Control: Controlling the books, documents, and information requested during the tax inspection before they are submitted to the tax/customs inspector.
- Consultancy: Providing consultancy on managing the inspection process.
- Legal Opinion: Conducting research and evaluation on the subject of the inspection, preparing the necessary information and legal opinion to be presented to the tax/customs inspector.
- Objection Filing: Advising on adding necessary explanations and objection footnotes to the minutes prepared after the tax inspection.
- Pre-assessment Conciliation: Evaluating the possibility of pre-assessment conciliation during the inspection.
- Review Committee: Participating with the client in meetings that may be held before the Report Evaluation Commissions, providing legal/technical support.
- Risk Assessment: Calculating delay interest related to disputed tax/customs debts and determining the total tax assessment and risk amount.
Post-Inspection Phase:
- Report Evaluation: Evaluating the tax/customs inspection report.
- Legal Review: Examining the subject matter of the dispute in terms of legislation and practice.
- Technical Report: Preparing a technical evaluation report to assist in making the decision to opt for conciliation or file a lawsuit.
- MAP/APA: Evaluating the possibility of applying for MAP (Mutual Agreement Procedure) where applicable, and providing consultancy on the MAP process.
- Discount Calculation: Calculating discounts that may be available through conciliation.
- Interest Calculation: Calculating the delay interest to be paid if the case is lost.
- Objections: Preparing petitions of objection regarding additional accruals and penalties issued as a result of customs inspections, and monitoring the objection process.
Conciliation Phase:
- Application: Determining the authorized conciliation commission and preparing petitions for application for conciliation.
- Document Scrutiny: Reviewing all documents from which the dispute originated.
- Report Scrutiny: Detailed examination of the inspection reports.
- Error Check: Checking for material errors in the calculations within the inspection reports.
- Legal Opinion: Legal evaluation of the inspection subject in light of tax/customs legislation and judicial precedents.
- Opinion Preparation: Preparing a detailed legal opinion to be presented to the conciliation commission.
- Limit Determination: Assisting in determining appropriate conciliation limits.
- Attendance: Attending conciliation meetings with the client.
- Control: Checking the conformity of tax accrual slips with the figures in the conciliation minutes if an agreement is reached, and controlling interest calculations resulting from the conciliation.
Judicial Phase:
- Document Review: Reviewing inspection reports and all documents from which the dispute originated.
- Legal Evaluation: Legal evaluation of the inspection subject in light of tax/customs legislation and judicial precedents.
- Petition Preparation: Conducting numerical studies for the attachments and numerical data that can be used in the petition, based on company data.
- Litigation Management: Monitoring the entire judicial process and attending hearings.
- Post-Judgment Control: Controlling the actions to be taken by the tax and customs administrations based on the judicial decisions.
The team also supports its clients in Customs Law matters, particularly in examining the reasons for additional accruals or penalty decisions, preparing petitions for correction, preparing petitions for objection, determining arguments for the statement of claim if a lawsuit is decided, conducting numerical studies for the attachments and numerical data that can be used in the petition based on company data, making explanations alongside company officials during hearings, and determining arguments for the petition during the appeal phase.