Pointing out that the rate of increase in tax brackets remains below the increase in civil servant salaries, President of Turkey-Public-Union (Türkiye-Kamu-Sen) Önder Kahveci called for regulation on tax brackets and said, “In order to correct this situation and to protect their purchasing power by reducing the deductions made from the incomes of our public employees, the income tax rate should be increased. It should be fixed at 15 percent.”
The bad situation in the economy, which started with the pandemic, continues to affect every citizen. Turkey-Public-Union Chairman Önder Kahveci pointed out that the bad course in the economy has reduced the purchasing power of employees and said, “It is possible to increase the purchasing power of our employees only through wage and tax policies. It is an obvious fact that the tax burden is placed on the shoulders of our employees in our country.”
“TAX EXEMPTION IN THE LEVEL OF THE MINIMUM WAGE HAS NOT BENEFITED TO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES”
At the beginning of the year, the tax regulation on incomes equal to the minimum wage was passed. Reminding that the effect of tax exemption had a limited effect with the abolition of the minimum living allowance, Kahveci said, “As a result of keeping the total income upper limit increase low in the transition to an upper tax bracket at the beginning of the year, employees entered the 20 percent bracket this year, much earlier than usual, and their salaries decreased instead of increasing. So much so that, since the increase in tax brackets was well below the increase in civil servant salaries, the income tax figures deducted from public employees increased disproportionately. As such, the exemption of wages equal to the minimum wage from tax did not help public employees, and despite this practice, our employees paid more taxes than last year.”
“NECESSARY STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO INCREASE THE PURCHASE POWER OF EMPLOYEE”
Pointing out that it is necessary to make arrangements against the loss of rights, Kahveci, especially making a call for the taxes deducted from the incomes of public employees, “In order to reduce the deductions made from the incomes of our public employees and protect their purchasing power, the income tax brackets should be increased in line with the economic realities and the income tax rate for the employees should be fixed at 15 percent. We expect the necessary steps to be taken to ensure justice in taxes, to collect taxes from everyone in proportion to their income, and to increase the purchasing power of our employees,” he added.