ANKARA
Turkish banks were the top taxpayers among corporates in 2014, according to a list published by the Turkish Revenue Administration on Friday.
There are eight banks, including the central bank, on the list of Turkey's top corporate taxpayers, the report showed.
Turkey's state-owned lender Ziraat Bankasi, up from second in the 2013 list, topped the corporate tax champion list in 2014 with payments of about 1.59 billion Turkish liras ($597 million).
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, which topped the list in 2013, ranked second in the list paying about 1.46 billion liras ($549 million), followed by Garanti Bankasi, a major private lender and, with a total of 1.315 billion liras ($494 million).
Is Bankasi, one of the largest Turkish lenders, ranked fourth in the list, paying 1.135 billion liras ($492 million). It was followed by the Akbank, owned by Sabanci Holding, at just over 1.05 billion liras ($394 million).
Another state-run bank, Halkbank, ranked sixth in the 2014 list, paying 902 million liras ($339 million) of taxes.
Yapi Kredi Bankasi, a joint venture between Turkish Koc Holding and Italy-based Unicredit, ranked seventh in the list with 656 million liras ($247 million).
Turkey’s biggest mobile operator, Turkcell, was eighth, paying 623 million liras ($234 million) in tax, followed by another national bank, VakifBank which ranked ninth paying 602 million liras ($226 million).
The last in the top 10 list for 2014 was Turk Telekom, Turkey’s biggest telecommunications company, paying 548 million liras ($205 million) in tax.
Around 647,186 taxpayers had submitted their yearly tax returns by the end of April 2015, the Revenue Administration said in a statement.
A total of 38.3 billion liras ($14.4 billion) of corporate tax was accrued by the administration, out of the declared 198.06 billion liras ($74.5 billion) of taxable incomes.
Tara tops taxpayer tally
The Revenue Administration report also looked at individual taxpayers.
Turkish construction conglomerate Enka Holding Honorary President Sarik Tara was the biggest taxpayer in Turkey, the report showed.
Billionaire businessman Tara paid about 37.6 million liras ($14.2 million) in income tax and has become Turkey’s top taxpayer.
Koc Holding Chairman Mustafa Koc came second in the list with 29.8 million liras ($11.2 million).
Semahat Sevim Arsel, sister of Koc Holding Honorary President Rahmi Koc, ranked third in the list paying 26 million liras ($9.8 million) in tax.
Koc Holding is Turkey's largest company in terms of revenue.
