In the early days, when payment institutions and electronic money institutions were established, the commissions they received from customers were taxed under VAT. However, since payment and electronic money institutions carry out a kind of banking activity, there was discussion that they should pay BSMV (Banking and Insurance Transactions Tax).
This problem was resolved with Expenditure Taxes General Communiqué No. 91, which was published to end the confusion.
How are taxation and the tax base determined for a payment institution's bill payment intermediation services?
According to Article 10 of Expenditure Taxes General Communiqué No. 91, taxation in bill payment intermediation services is carried out as set out in the paragraphs below.
ARTICLE 10 – (1) In bill payment intermediation services provided within the scope of the first paragraph of Article 12 of Law No. 6493, BSMV must be calculated on the amount received by the payment institution, in its favor, from the person paying the bill and/or from the party collecting the receivable tied to the bill.
(2) If the agent intermediating the transaction is a person who is not liable for BSMV, the agent must calculate VAT on its own share of the commission. The payment institution, in turn, must calculate BSMV on the commission amount transferred to it by the agent.
Example: For a bill collection of 500 TL, the payment institution's agent (Y) A.Ş. received the bill amount plus a related commission of 3 TL and transferred 2 TL of the commission collected to the payment institution. Accordingly, the payment institution must calculate BSMV on 2 TL, and (Y) A.Ş. must calculate VAT on 1 TL, its own share of the total commission.
You can access Expenditure Taxes General Communiqué No. 91 from the link below.
