Turkey’s Tax Audit Board had announced the establishment of three specialised departments to expand audit capacity for organised tax evasion, multinational companies and international transactions.
Turkey’s Tax Audit Board announced that three new specialised departments would become fully operational from 1 October 2026 as part of efforts to strengthen tax audits through specialisation, data analytics, digital auditing and risk-based work.
The new structures comprise the Ankara Organised Tax Evasion Audit Department, Istanbul Organised Tax Evasion Audit Department and Istanbul International Taxation and Transfer Pricing Sectoral Audit Department.
Organised tax evasion
The two Organised Tax Evasion Audit Departments will examine complex structures involving multiple individuals and companies, including shell companies, financial flows and professional intermediary mechanisms.
The departments will focus particularly on organisations involved in issuing and using fraudulent documents, as well as structures linked to the laundering of proceeds of crime and organised economic crimes.
Their areas of focus will include fuel, tobacco and cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, mobile phone and general goods smuggling. They will also examine shell companies and organised fraudulent document networks, price manipulation structures, organised abuse of public incentives and support, and other financial and economic crime typologies.
The approach will cover not only companies directly involved in organised structures but also the organisational capacity that enables such structures to be established, managed and maintained.
International tax and transfer pricing
The International Taxation and Transfer Pricing Sectoral Audit Department will focus on multinational companies and cross-border transactions.
Its areas of work will include transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, foreign-source income, controlled foreign company income, limited tax liability, Double Taxation Agreements, treaty shopping, BEPS, Master File / Local File, CbCR / CRS, international exchange of information, MAP / APA processes and global minimum corporate tax.
Audits of multinational companies will consider their global operational structure, country-by-country income and profitability, intra-group transactions, functional-asset-risk allocation, financing structure and international data sources alongside local records and tax returns.
Data and specialised expertise
Data analytics and digital auditing will form part of the working model of all three departments. Information from the Tax Audit Board’s existing audit and analysis systems, together with national and international data sources, will be assessed by specialised tax inspectors.
Inspector selection will take into account practical experience, technical and legal knowledge, data and systems skills, reporting and analytical capacity, foreign language skills and specialised training.
The Board said specialisation would also be supported through continuous training, practical work and mentoring.
The new structure aims to strengthen efforts against organised tax evasion, increase audit capacity for multinational companies and international transactions, and ensure complex transactions are assessed by specialised teams, while maintaining taxpayer rights, legal certainty and equality.
