Türk-İş Chairman Ergün Atalay, Hak-İş Chairman Mahmut Arslan, DİSK Chairman Arzu Çerkezoğlu held a joint press conference at Türk-İş Headquarters demanding to reduce the tax burden on employees and to ensure justice in taxation. The text prepared jointly by three confederations was read by DİSK President Çerkezoğlu.
The majority of the income tax payers in Turkey charged to the statement emphasized that the form of our revenues, paid employees on both the direct income and levied on earnings both found the heavy burden of the tax on goods and services indirectly specified.
It was recalled that millions of workers and civil servants in the public and private sectors were paid by deduction from the source of income taxes. The following statements were used: "Today, due to the tax policies implemented in our country, there is a heavy tax pressure on the workers. Net wages received by the worker, due to tax cuts in the period compared to the new year is gradually decreasing. The net wage of wage workers is decreasing day by day due to the loss of purchasing power due to inflation on the one hand and the increasing tax rate on the other. This tax scheme is unfair."
"Employees Pay More Taxes Every Year"
In the statement, the following assessment was made for signs that the tax system does not comply with social justice and the constitution's principle of the social state of law:
"This conception incompatible with the constitution is not sustainable. The new legislative proposal, which includes new changes in the tax scheme submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), does not meet the expectations of the workers and does not eliminate the tax injustice. In this proposal, ‘principle of discrimination’ in favor of wage earners is not taken into consideration. The 15-20-25-30-35 percent income tax rate applied to the income tax tariff of employees in 2005 is unfortunately higher than 15-20-27-35 percent since 2006. While the income tax tariff in 2005 was 13.5 times the gross minimum wage, it now accounts for 7 times. Employees are forced to pay more taxes each year. This practice is incompatible with social justice. Despite all the demands, the income tax tariff is not improved in favor of wage earners. Income tax tariff levels and rates should be updated urgently in favor of employees."
WE CAN PARTICIPATE IN MINIMUM FEE
After reading the jointly prepared text, the confederation chairmen answered the questions. Türk-İş President Ergün Atalay, "Will you act jointly on the minimum wage?" He replied:
"We have not had the opportunity to come together for minimum wage for many years. This meeting was nice. There are 17 million employees in our country, as workers' confederations we represent 2 million. Then we'il get the opinions of your friends. It's okay for us. I think it will be more useful."