Example of Tax Evasion by an Industrialist

Feti Çevik, the Chairman of the Board of a company producing and exporting wood processing machines in the Adana Hacı Sabancı Organized Industrial Zone, initiated a model application to support the government’s fight against tax evasion. Feti Çevik announced that he would provide a 5% bonus to all employees who bring in receipts and invoices amounting to their salary every month.

The 58-year-old businessman stated that the government suffers significant revenue losses from purchases made without documentation and said, “Recently, our government has initiated a comprehensive fight against tax losses and evasion. We also see this in the public service announcements on television. In this context, while thinking about what I could do as a businessman who loves his country, I wanted to encourage my employees to obtain receipts and invoices for their purchases, thereby contributing to both our government’s struggle and my employees’ budgets.”

5% Bonus for Receipts and Invoices Equal to Salary

Feti Çevik, who announced this new application to all his employees and stated that he would give a 5% bonus if they brought their receipts or invoices for that month, expressed, “This country belongs to all of us. If we want to live in a more developed and economically stronger country and think about future generations, we must document our purchases.”

A First in Turkey

Feti Çevik, who has been adding value to the national economy through production and export for almost 30 years, crowned this unique application in Turkey. He emphasized that the fundamental point in the emergence of tax losses and evasion in developed and developing economies is the conscious or unconscious cost-benefit analysis conducted by taxpayers, and articulated his views as follows:

“Let’s not leave our government alone in the fight against tax losses and evasion. Every citizen who loves their country should obtain a receipt for their purchases, even if they don’t gain any monetary benefit from it. The thought of ‘it’s of no use to me anyway’ is not compatible with patriotism. Just think, if everyone approaches it this way, the VAT and income taxes from uncollected receipts will not reflect in the government treasury. So how can we expect the government to provide services? In my understanding, documenting purchases is an important civic duty.”

Employees are Very Happy

Employees who will earn a 5% bonus for every receipt and invoice they bring under the new application are happy and expressed their thanks to their employer Feti Çevik, who continued: “I started this application with three goals. The first is to contribute to our government’s fight; the second is to support my employees’ budgets. My third aim is for this application to serve as a model and raise awareness in society. We have 60 employees in our facilities. If we make a rough calculation, an employee with a salary of 30,000 TL and 10,000 TL in overtime will earn 2,000 TL for the invoices he brings in this amount. When we multiply this by 60 employees, we would have at least an additional cost of 120,000 TL. But we are more than willing to pay more than that. As long as our tax awareness develops and our country benefits.”

Feti Çevik also stated that the receipts and invoices collected every month would be reviewed one by one by the accounting departments to verify their authenticity and that they would keep these documents archived for up to 5 years if necessary. He noted that the bonus payments corresponding to these receipts would be transferred to the employees’ accounts after presenting the receipts and invoices.

Feti Çevik added that he hopes this application will serve as an example for other employers.