When payment institutions and e-money institutions were first established, the commissions they collected from customers were taxed under VAT. However, because payment and e-money institutions carry out banking-like activities in a sense, it was being discussed that they should pay BSMV (Banking and Insurance Transactions Tax).
This issue was resolved with the General Communiqué on Expenditure Taxes (Serial No: 91), published to avoid this confusion.
So how are taxation and the tax base determined for payment services related to e-money issuance?
According to Article 7 of the General Communiqué on Expenditure Taxes (Serial No: 91), BSMV must be calculated on the commission amounts that an e-money institution collects under its agreement with the payment service user.
ARTICLE 7 – (1) BSMV must be calculated on the commission amounts that an e-money institution operating within the scope of the first paragraph of Article 12 of Law No. 6493 collects under its agreement with the payment service user.
Example: Mr. (A) bought goods worth TRY 200 from the website of an online store that has an agreement with an e-money institution, and for this transaction the e-money institution collected a commission of TRY 10 from the store. BSMV must be calculated on the TRY 10 commission collected by the e-money institution for this transaction.
(2) Pursuant to the fifth paragraph of Article 18 of Law No. 6493, prepaid instruments that can be used only within the issuer’s own store network, only for the purchase of a specific group of goods or services, or only within a specific service network as a result of an agreement, are considered outside the scope of that Law. Therefore, persons providing payment services related to such e-money issuance, which are not within the scope of the said Law, do not become BSMV taxpayers.
You can access the General Communiqué on Expenditure Taxes (Serial No: 91) at the link below.
