The effect of ledger declaration system on income tax: a research on self-employed income

Abstract

The ledger declaration system, which was enacted on January 1, 2018, has enabled the electronic records of the ledger records held by self-employed persons, simple procedure taxpayers and taxpayers involved in the operation account to be able to keep their books electronically and store the bookkeeping operations in an electronic environment. It can be said that the ledger declaration system was developed for the purpose of recording and storing taxpayers' tax transactions in electronic environment. In this study, it is aimed to determine the changes in income taxes of taxpayers who have entered the ledger declaration system in Malatya province. Within the scope of the study, 100 taxpayers who entered the ledger declaration system in Malatya were interviewed face-to-face and the data obtained on the basis of the income tax amounts accrued between the years of 2014 – 2018 and the opinions of taxpayers about the system were interpreted. According to the data obtained, no effect of the ledger declaration system was detected on income tax between the years of 2014 - 2018 in Malatya province. It can be said that since the ledger declaration system has been implemented for a year, it has no effect on income tax; however, simple procedure taxpayers, who did not declare their income and expenses in previous years, entered the system completely with the use of the ledger declaration system. Taxpayers subject to the simple procedure as a result of recording the information in the ledger declaration system have entered the business ledger. Some of them were even found to be subject to balance sheet procedure. It can also be said, as a result of negotiations with taxpayers, that the costs of bureaucracy decreased with the introduction of the ledger declaration system.