Türkiye launches specialist international-tax audit unit

The new unit targets multinational and cross-border reviews

The Istanbul International Taxation and Transfer Pricing Sectoral Audit Department is intended to increase specialist audit capacity for multinational groups and cross-border transactions. The Board lists transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, foreign-income taxation, controlled foreign companies, limited taxpayer status, double-tax treaties and treaty shopping among its work areas.^[1]

Its remit connects international reporting and dispute processes

The unit’s remit also covers BEPS, master and local files, country-by-country reporting, the Common Reporting Standard, information exchange, mutual-agreement and advance-pricing procedures, and the global minimum tax. The Board says reviews may assess a group’s worldwide activities, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction income and profitability, intragroup transactions, functions-assets-risks allocation and financing structure.^[1]

The operating model is data-led

Specially selected and trained inspectors are to use digital audit techniques alongside national and international information sources. For multinational groups, the practical implication is a greater likelihood that transfer-pricing files, country-by-country data, treaty positions and financing arrangements will be tested together rather than in isolated workstreams.^[1]

The announcement changes enforcement capacity, not tax law

The announcement does not itself amend Türkiye’s tax legislation, create a filing obligation or state a new audit power. Groups should treat it as an enforcement-capacity development and test whether contemporaneous documentation, country-by-country data and treaty or mutual-agreement positions reconcile across jurisdictions. Two separate organised tax-evasion audit departments in Ankara and Istanbul also began operating on 1 October.^[1]