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Türkiye has unveiled its annual list of the country's top taxpayers, with Selcuk Bayraktar, chairman of unmanned aerial vehicle producer Baykar, ranking first after paying a record $84 million in income tax driven by the company's soaring export revenues.
Under the Revenue Administration's top 100 taxpayers list for 2024, Haluk Bayraktar, Baykar's CEO, ranked second with $77 million in income tax payments. Baykar executives have topped the list for the last four years.
In 2024, Selcuk Bayraktar paid ₺2.76 billion in income tax, while Haluk Bayraktar paid ₺2.53 billion. The amount of tax paid by the Bayraktars has risen approximately 18-fold since 2021, driven by Baykar's export revenues.
Baykar, the leading exporter in Türkiye's defense and aviation sector, generated 90% of its 2024 revenue from exports. The company recorded $1.8 billion in exports last year, ranking among the country's top 10 companies with the highest exports for the second consecutive year.
The taxpayer in third place did not wish to have their name disclosed, while Mustafa Rahmi Koc, honorary chairman of Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, ranked fourth with ₺757.75 million ($23 million) in tax payments.
The taxpayers in the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th positions did not wish to disclose their names. Erman Ilicak, honorary chairman of Turkish conglomerate Renaissance Holding, ranked 10th with ₺372.7 million ($11.3 million).
On the top 100 list, a total of 79 names did not want their identities disclosed.
The top 100 taxpayers declared an average taxable income of ₺274,288 ($8,349), with average income tax assessed at ₺81,526 ($2,481).
Across Türkiye, 5.13 million taxpayers filed annual income tax returns during the same period, reporting total taxable income of ₺1.4 trillion ($42.6 billion). Based on this amount, ₺418.46 billion ($12.73 billion) in income tax was assessed.
In the 2024 tax period, 32 of the top 100 corporate taxpayers did not want their names disclosed, while banks dominated the list's top ranks.
Some 1.17 million taxpayers filed corporate tax returns nationwide, reporting taxable income of ₺4.34 trillion ($132.11 billion). Corporate tax of ₺990.5 billion ($30.15 billion) was assessed on this amount.
Corporate taxpayers declared average taxable income of ₺3.7 million ($112,600), with average corporate tax assessed at ₺845,557 ($25,740).
Private lender Garanti Bank ranked first on the corporate tax list with ₺25.29 billion ($769.8 million) in payments.
State-run lender Ziraat Bank ranked second with ₺20.84 billion ($634.4 million), while participation lender Kuveyt Turk ranked third with ₺12.07 billion ($367.4 million).
The calculations are based on an average USD/TRY exchange rate of 32.85 during 2024.
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