ANKARA: the Turkey becomes a second highest tax surging after Portugal among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. In Turkey the ratio between the total tax revenue of the government and the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, rose to 29.3 percent in 2013, 1.7 percent increase from 2012 marking the highest.
The corresponding ratio in Turkey was 27.6 percent in 2012.
The average tax burden for OECD countries also increased 0.4 percent, from 33.7 to 34.1, between 2012 and 2013.
According to the report, the highest increase in tax burden on countries’ GDPs occurred in Portugal, where the ratio rose by 2.2 percent, to 33.4 percent, in 2013. While Turkey followed Portugal with 1.7 percent increase in the same period, Slovakia came in third place, with a 1.5 percent increase.
The report of the organization also said that Denmark had the highest tax burden among OECD countries in 2013 with 48.6 percent, followed by France and Belgium, with 45 and 44.6 percent, respectively. On the other hand, Mexico had the lowest tax-to-GDP ratio in 2013, with 19.7 percent, behind Chile with 20.2 percent and South Korea with 24.3 percent.
The OECD published its “Revenue Statistics” report, announcing changes in the proportions of total taxes revenues in OECD countries, on Wednesday.The report also revealed a lot about the structures of tax systems in each OECD country, with details of sources of tax revenues, item by item, in each country.
According to the report, taxes on goods and services constituted the greatest portion of tax revenues of the Turkish government, with 45 percent, of which 21 percent came from value-added tax (KDV) in 2013. While social security contributions made up 27 percent of all taxes in the country, taxes on personal income, profits and gains contributed 14 percent to total tax revenues. Taxes on corporate gains and taxes on property constituted 7 and 4 percent, respectively, of total tax revenues. All other taxes constituted roughly 2 percent of total tax revenues. Tax revenues of the government totaled TL 392 billion in 2013, according to the report.
