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 payment institutions' virtual POS services?
According to Article 6 of Expenditure Taxes General Communiqué No. 91, BSMV must be calculated on the amounts received in favor of the payment institution for the virtual POS service it provides.
ARTICLE 6 – (1) BSMV must be calculated on the amounts received in favor of the payment institution for the virtual POS service provided within the scope of the first paragraph of Article 12 of Law No. 6493.
(2) If the payment institution transfers a certain portion of the commission it collects to the bank from which it receives the service, this amount may be considered a transaction cost when calculating the amount received in its favor.
Example: Mr. (A) bought goods worth 200 TL from a store that has an agreement with a payment institution. Because of this transaction, the payment institution collected a commission of 10 TL from the store for the virtual POS service it provided, and transferred 6 TL of this amount to Mr. (A)'s POS bank as a commission for the service it provided. Accordingly, the payment institution must calculate BSMV on the 4 TL received in its favor, and the POS bank must calculate BSMV on the 6 TL transferred to it by the payment institution.
You can access Expenditure Taxes General Communiqué No. 91 from the link below.
