The Communiqué on Commercial Advertising and Unfair Commercial Practices Regulation for the consumer (“Regulation”) has been published in the Official Gazette numbered 31737 and dated 01.02.2022.

The issues regulated by the Regulation are as follows:

1. Personalized Price Description

A “personalized price” description has been defined with the Regulation.

In this context, the personalized price offered by analyzing the purchasing behavior and other personal data of the consumer and the current sales price of the product will be displayed to the consumer in the same area.

2. Discount Sale Prices

To determine the sales price of the goods or service offered for sale before the discount, the lowest price applied within thirty days before the discount will be taken as a basis. The burden of proof on this matter will belong to the advertiser.

3. Advertisements Regarding Financial Services

In advertisements where the goods or services are offered for sale with a tied credit; details such as the credit period, the interest rate, the monthly and percentage value of the total cost to the consumer, and the reimbursement conditions will be made accessible to the consumer, in the area where the advertisement is published or on a separate website including a warning sign, in an area where the consumer can get detailed information easily.

4. Sorting Practices

In case of sorting by comparing certain features of the goods or services offered for sale on the internet, such as price and quality, information about principles of the sorting will be available to the consumer with a warning sign in the same or a separate website, where can be accessible by the consumer for detailed information easily.

The Turkish Revenue Administration has published a new Communiqué No. 319 regarding the wage/employment income.

The details of these amendments are as below:

The Scope and The Implementation of The Exemption

Per Article 4 of the Communiqué:

The income tax base calculated by deducting the social security premiums from the gross wage would be exempted from income tax.

The total amount and income tax brackets would be considered for the taxation of the wage amounts above the minimum wage.

The exemption amount cannot be higher than the income tax of the minimum wage on the related month.

If the employee receives a wage from more than one employer, the exemption would be applicable for the highest wage.

If there are any additional benefits other than the wage amount, the exemption would be applied to the total earning once, and the cumulative income tax base would be considered.

This exemption would also be applicable for the wage earnings of the board members, experts, official mediators, sports referees.

The minimum subsistence allowance is abolished and would not be applicable as of 01.01.2022.

The Turkish Revenue Administration would be responsible for determining and processing the disability income tax discounts. If the employee receives wage amount of minimum wage and thus would not pay any tax, the exemption would not be applicable for that employee. If the employee receives more than the minimum wage amount, the exemption would be applicable.

In Labor Law, there are some important differences between compulsory and arbitrary mediation.

Within this framework, you can find the details about compulsory and arbitrary mediation in labor law disputes as below:

Compulsory and Arbitrary Mediation in Labor Law

Mediation, one of the alternative dispute resolutions methods, is regulated by Mediation in Legal Disputes Law No. 6325 (In Turkish.), and a legal basis has been prepared for legal disputes. Mediation is the method used by the parties for a private law dispute before or after filing a lawsuit under the arbitration of an impartial third party (mediator) who has received specialized training, chosen by their own free will.

There are two types of meditation in Turkish Law; "compulsory mediation" and "arbitrary mediation."

According to 27998389 - 010.06.02 - 903791 numbered Circular published by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance with the subject "Financial and Social Rights", the coefficients used to calculate the wage of a public officers have been revised effective 01.01.2022.

The previous Circular published on 06.01.2022 has been abolished.

Income Tax Exempted Severance Pay

The following value has been calculated taking these coefficients into account and shall be applied for the period between the dates of 01.01.2022 – 30.06.2022 maximum severance pay to be exempted from income tax is determined  10,848.59 TRY.