Turkey is not going to impose taxes on profits from trading crypto assets and stocks, clarified an official from the country’s finance ministry. The clarification comes after news reports mentioning Ankara’s plans to impose crypto taxes started making rounds few days ago.
According to news reports from earlier this week, Mehmet Simsek – Turkey’s treasury and finance minister announced plans to put the country on the path of economic recovery. Taxing income from cryptocurrency and stock market trades was reported as one of the measures under consideration to establish new revenue streams. These reports led to confusion among the country’s crypto community due to lack of clarity regarding crypto taxes.
In fact, up until 2008, gains from trading stocks on the Istanbul Stock Exchange were taxed at 10%. Meanwhile, there is no framework in place to implement crypto taxation in Turkey which needs to be addressed before taxes can be collected on crypto trading profits.
No Taxes on Profits from Crypto or Stock Trading at the Moment
While some economists believe that taxing crypto and stock trades is a logical option to shore up revenues, Turkish government officials have clarified that there are no such plans in action at the moment.
Minister Simsek clarified the government’s stance at an event organized by the International Investors’ Association (YASED). The minister was quoted by one of the news outlets saying, “We have not currently included taxation on profits for crypto assets and the stock market in our agenda. There may be a very limited fee or taxation on a transaction-based basis.”
What kind of levies the Turkish government is going to come up with for crypto transactions, is something to be seen. As cryptocurrency trading gains popularity in Turkey, the country is planning to introduce regulations.
The country’s Planning and Budget Commission has already approved a crypto regulations bill. The draft law requires crypto exchanges and service providers to secure licenses issued by the Capital Markets Board.
Once crypto asset regulations come into effect, the Turkish crypto economy is set to thrive as people will have safeguards and redressal mechanisms in place, keeping scams and crypto-related crimes in check.
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