A Turkish Tax Audit Requests a Foreign Company’s Records: Production and Scope

Identify the company’s capacity and the request

The request must first be connected to the correct legal person. Determine whether the company is the taxpayer under examination, a person responsible for a tax obligation, or a third party asked for information about dealings with a taxpayer. Article 8 of Tax Procedure Law No. 213 distinguishes taxpayer and tax-responsible roles. A foreign parent and its Turkish subsidiary should not be treated as one addressee simply because a group finance team holds both companies’ records.

Read the issuing authority, reference, statutory basis and attachments. Article 140 requires written notice of the examination’s subject and commencement. Article 148 separately provides for requests for information from taxpayers and other persons dealing with them. The response should identify the actual procedural capacity rather than assuming that every inquiry means the addressee’s entire worldwide business is under a full Turkish audit.

A foreign company’s substantive Turkish tax position remains a separate issue. Our permanent-establishment and representation guide explains the nexus analysis. Responding to a document request does not require the company to obscure a genuine objection about its status, but an objection must be stated accurately and handled through the applicable procedure. It should not be used as a reason to ignore the actual request.

Read the audit’s subject and period

Article 11 of the Regulation on Procedures and Principles for Tax Audits identifies the minimum contents of the commencement notice. These include the person examined, audit type, reason, subject, period, tax type, preparation date and information about rights and duties. Create a scope record from that notice before collecting a large volume of group material.

Regulation Article 6(3) confines an examination to the subject and period specified in the assignment and prohibits requesting unrelated information or documents from the taxpayer. It also explains how findings concerning another subject or period are reported to the assigning authority. Findings within the assigned subject that require a report on another tax type do not, under the same provision, always require a new assignment. Scope must therefore be read with the regulation’s qualifications.

Map each requested category to the notified subject and period. A request that appears unrelated should be queried with a precise explanation of the mismatch. Do not silently omit the category and assume the authority will infer the objection. Preserve the request, clarification and response so the file distinguishes a genuine scope issue from an unexplained failure to produce relevant records.

Establish the production period and any justified obstacle

Regulation Article 12(1) requires books and documents to be requested in writing and received against a record. The request must identify what is to be produced, the place, the consequences of nonproduction and a production period of at least fifteen days. Tax Procedure Law Article 14 also requires administratively fixed periods to be at least fifteen days where the Law does not expressly specify a period.

Establish the notice’s service and the actual deadline using the applicable service and calculation rules. Internal forwarding to headquarters and translation are operational steps, not automatic substitutions for legal receipt. The fifteen-day minimum is not a general permission to postpone all preparation until its final day. Identify records held by local accountants, foreign finance teams and service providers immediately so their production can be coordinated.

Article 139 provides that persons who do not bring the requested books or documents within the specified time without an excuse are treated as not having produced them. It also provides an appropriate further period for a person showing a justified excuse. Document any actual obstacle, the records affected and the work needed to overcome it. A request for more time should be supported and addressed promptly; the company should not assume its own preferred extension has been granted.

Apply the current examination-location rules

Current Article 139 states that tax examinations are generally conducted at the authority’s office. This differs from the former statutory starting point and must be reflected in current advice. The necessary books and documents are requested in writing. Conducting the examination at the office does not prevent findings and work at the taxpayer’s workplace.

The taxpayer or tax-responsible person can request a workplace examination where the premises are suitable. Regulation Article 13(5) requires a written request and a finding that the workplace is suitable. Foreign headquarters’ preference for an online meeting does not itself determine the legally prescribed location or production process. The applicable arrangement should be confirmed with the authorised examining official.

Regulation Article 12(5) addresses receipt of records where the taxpayer’s workplace, or residence if there is no workplace, and the examiner’s permanent workplace are in different provinces. It provides the stated local-office route while allowing receipt at the examiner’s permanent office on the taxpayer’s request, subject to the electronic-production rule. This provision concerns a particular domestic arrangement; it should not be transformed into a general entitlement to insist that a Turkish examination take place abroad.

Locate records and make them readable

Article 253 requires persons obliged to keep books under the Tax Procedure Law to retain their books and the specified documents for five years from the calendar year following the year to which they relate. That tax-law period should not be confused with every other retention duty. Commercial-law records and particular claims or regulatory obligations can require separate review before material is destroyed.

Article 256 requires the persons within its scope to produce retained books, documents and records, including electronic media, together with information and passwords necessary to access the records or make them readable, on request by authorised authorities and officials within the retention period. An encrypted export that cannot be opened does not provide the same evidential access as readable records. Identify the applicable format, access information and secure production method.

The duty concerns the relevant retained records and required information; it should not be described as an automatic demand for unrestricted access to every global corporate system. Map the requested material to the entity, tax period and storage location. Explain the structure of electronic records sufficiently for the examiner to understand the entries, while raising any specific scope or legal issue through the documented response.

Use the prescribed electronic production procedure

Regulation Article 12(4) makes electronic production through the Ministry’s system the principal route for books and documents the Ministry permits to be kept electronically. The 13 May 2025 amendment adds that the system generates a document showing the production status, which the taxpayer or a person authorised for production signs with a secure electronic signature. An ordinary email attachment should not automatically be treated as completion of that prescribed step.

Check the authority of the person producing the records and the instrument required for the actual transaction. Preserve the uploaded record set, the system-generated production document and its signed version. Reconcile the submission with the request’s document list. A successful login or an upload begun by a service provider does not establish that all requested records were submitted and the required production record completed.

The regulation’s 2025 amendments also allow use of Ministry electronic system tools during the audit and electronic preparation of minutes. These provisions support remote handling of specified steps but do not remove the taxpayer’s responsibility for accurate information or proper authority. The company should coordinate the electronic process with the same care given to a physical handover, including readable files, complete annexes and retained confirmations.

Distinguish information requests and confidentiality

Article 148 requires public bodies, taxpayers and other natural or legal persons dealing with taxpayers to provide information requested by the Ministry or officials authorised to examine taxes. Information can be requested orally or in writing. Where an oral request is not answered, the Law requires written confirmation and an appropriate period for response. It also states that people cannot be forcibly brought to the tax office merely to request information.

Article 151 provides that the confidentiality rules in special laws do not generally justify refusing requested information, while listing specific exceptions. Its lawyer-related exception protects information learned through entrusted work or duties, with express qualifications concerning client names, fees, expenses and information learned in another capacity. A document copied to a lawyer should not be labelled protected without examining the actual source and scope of the rule.

Tax confidentiality also binds the examining officials. Regulation Article 15 prohibits disclosure or personal use of specified confidential information learned through their duties and continues that prohibition after departure from office. This does not eliminate the need to produce relevant records, but it is part of the legal framework governing their handling. Raise a genuine confidentiality issue by identifying the exact provision and material rather than relying on a general “commercially confidential” stamp.

Review minutes and record objections

Article 141 allows relevant events and account positions to be established in minutes and requires the person’s objections and observations to be recorded. A copy must be left with the taxpayer or person examined. The minutes can become important evidence, so verify identities, dates, figures, attachments and the distinction between an established fact and a disputed interpretation before signing.

Regulation Article 16(2) provides that, on the taxpayer’s request, draft minutes are supplied two days in advance so objections and observations can be included. It also prohibits language expressing the examiner’s opinion or conclusions in the minutes. Article 17 specifies required contents, including objections and observations and whether the taxpayer seeks to be heard by the report evaluation commission. These are concrete procedural matters the response team should review.

The 2025 amendment permits electronic minutes through the Ministry’s system, signed securely by the taxpayer or a person authorised specifically to sign the minutes. Producing documents and signing substantive minutes are different acts. The representation file should establish authority for the act actually performed, and the company should preserve the final signed text together with the objections incorporated into it.

Address missing records without reconstructing history

When a requested record cannot be located, establish whether it was never created, was lawfully disposed of, is held elsewhere or has been lost. These explanations have different evidential implications. Preserve the retention policy, storage history, provider correspondence and any incident evidence relevant to the actual reason. A statement that foreign headquarters is still looking should identify the specific records and work outstanding.

Do not create a replacement entry and present it as a contemporaneous original. A reconstruction or reconciliation prepared during the audit should be identified by its date, source records, method and limitations. Available bank, invoice and transaction records can assist the factual assessment, but their role should be explained accurately. They do not automatically become the missing statutory book or cure every consequence of nonproduction.

Regulation Article 12(6) allows the examination to proceed using the tax-office file, permitted electronic data, other available information and documents and risk-analysis results where contact cannot be made or the records are not produced in time. Noncooperation therefore does not necessarily stop the audit. The company should address the legal and factual problem directly while preserving its specific objections and justified-excuse evidence.

Separate production from the audit’s outcome

Producing records is not an admission that every proposed adjustment is correct. The company can explain the transaction, submit supporting documents and ensure its observations appear in the record. Equally, a receipt for documents is not a decision that the records establish full tax compliance. The examination’s factual findings, report evaluation and any later assessment are distinct stages.

Article 140 sets the basic completion periods for full examinations, limited examinations and VAT-refund examinations, with specified extension mechanisms and written reasons where the examination cannot be completed. Those examination-management periods are separate from the taxpayer’s document-production deadline. They should not be confused with the period for challenging an assessment that may later be issued.

The same article requires a document showing completion to be provided when the examination ends. Preserve that record and any later report or assessment separately. A taxpayer still needs to review the service date and remedy for a subsequent tax measure. An earlier objection made during document production should not be assumed to constitute a court challenge to a later assessment.

Coordinate the response from foreign headquarters

Assign responsibility for the legal scope, accounting reconciliation, record retrieval, authorised submission and translation. The response schedule should show each requested item, its location, production status and any supported objection. This coordination is particularly important where the Turkish entity’s accounting records and an overseas service provider’s technical records must be read together.

For matters involving a disputed identity or administrative record, the tax identification guide explains why identifiers require consistent treatment. The audit file should maintain that same consistency across notices, books and submissions. A documented, readable and properly authorised production allows the company to address the examination’s actual questions while preserving the evidence needed for any later dispute.

Frequently asked questions

1. Must an audit always take place at the taxpayer’s premises?

No. Current Article 139 makes the authority’s office the general location. A workplace examination is possible under the specified conditions, including a written taxpayer request and suitable premises under the Regulation.

2. What must a document request identify?

Regulation Article 12(1) requires the records, production place, a period of at least fifteen days and the consequences of nonproduction to be stated in the written request.

3. Is every foreign parent automatically the taxpayer under audit?

No. Identify the addressee and capacity. A parent, subsidiary, taxpayer, tax-responsible person and third-party information recipient have distinct roles that must be assessed from the actual request.

4. Can an examiner request material unrelated to the assigned period?

Regulation Article 6(3) limits the examination to the assigned subject and period and sets procedures for other findings. Raise a specific mismatch in writing and seek clarification rather than silently disregarding the request.

5. Does storage at foreign headquarters remove the production duty?

Storage location alone does not determine the duty. Article 256 concerns the relevant retained records and information needed to access or read them. Examine the entity, scope and authorised production method.

6. Can a justified obstacle support more production time?

Article 139 provides an appropriate further period where a justified excuse is shown. Explain and document the actual obstacle promptly. The company should not assume a requested extension has been granted.

7. Are electronic records produced simply by emailing them?

Not necessarily. Regulation Article 12(4) provides the Ministry-system route for permitted electronic books and documents, with a system-generated production record signed using a secure electronic signature.

8. Can the company request draft audit minutes?

Yes. Regulation Article 16(2) provides for draft minutes to be supplied two days in advance on request so objections and observations can be included. Check the final text and retain a copy.

9. Does failure to produce records prevent the audit continuing?

No. Regulation Article 12(6) allows continuation using the specified administrative files, electronic data, other information and documents and risk-analysis results. Missing records require a documented response.

10. Does submitting documents waive objections to a later assessment?

Production and assessment review are separate stages. Preserve factual explanations and objections during the audit, then assess the proper remedy and deadline for any later measure. An audit-stage letter is not automatically a court filing.