Turkey halts plans for new taxes on stocks and crypto investments

Turkey has decided not to introduce any new taxes on profits from stock trading and cryptocurrency investments this year. 

Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said: 

“We don’t have a stocks tax on our agenda. It was discussed previously and fell from our agenda.” 

This comes after initial plans to tax stock market profits faced backlash earlier this year, as the stock market has been a popular option for many Turkish investors trying to hedge against inflation.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek had already hinted in June that these tax plans were being reconsidered and might be delayed. 

The decision to back off from the proposed taxes is likely to calm down the investors who have been worried about the risks of the market.

Trading activity on the main Turkish stock exchange has taken a hit recently, with daily volume dropping to $2.3 billion in the past month, down from over $4 billion earlier this year. 

Turkey fights infaltion

Turkey is working on an economic strategy to get inflation under control and repair its public finances. 

Inflation is a big issue, currently sitting at 52%, and the government wants to bring this down to single digits in the next three years. 

To achieve this, officials are looking at narrowing tax exemptions rather than introducing new taxes. 

The recent earthquakes and pre-election spending have stretched the budget. According to Yilmaz, there has been a big improvement in the ratio of public spending to national income.

The country is also looking to loosen offshore swap regulations. Right now, these rules limit the amount of lira liquidity abroad to prevent investors from betting against the currency. 

Yilmaz added that these could be lifted when the “conditions arise,” which is something investors are especially concerned about.

As for the lira, which has been under a lot of pressure lately, Yilmaz said: “It is natural in countries fighting inflation for their currencies to strengthen.”

Between July 2023 and June 2024, Turkey processed around $136.8 billion in crypto transactions. 

This makes it the largest crypto market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the seventh-largest in the world.

Turks are also heavily involved in stablecoin trading, accounting for nearly $6 billion in purchases made with the Turkish lira in March 2024 alone.

The government is taking steps to regulate it. Recently, amendments were made to the Capital Markets Law to include cryptos, to set standards for crypto asset service providers (CASPs). 

There’s also draft legislation in the works that would place additional requirements on CASP.

The Central Bank of Turkey has taken a somewhat nuanced approach. While it has banned the use of cryptocurrencies for payments, it allows banks to work with CASPs for fiat-to-crypto transactions. 

Traditional financial institutions are also getting involved. Like Garanti BBVA, which started offering crypto custody services and plans to launch trading services soon.

About 40% to 50% of the population is engaged in crypto activities, mostly retail investors looking for an alternative to the traditional banking system. 

Stablecoins are the top choice, followed by altcoins, with not much of Bitcoin. A recent Chainalysis report shows that Turkey has a high percentage of large transactions. 

Around 93% of the value transferred involves transactions of $10,000 or more. 43.2% of Turkey’s market consists of larger-scale transfers.