The bag bill proposal submitted by the AKP to the Parliament included provisions 'only' for the minimum wage to be de-taxed.

Under the proposal, workers who are paid above the minimum wage are not exempted from paying income tax for the portion of their wage ‘amounting to  the minimum wage’. If the proposal becomes law, the workers whose wages remain below the net minimum wage (4,253 liras) will receive minimum living allowance (AGI), and the gap between their wages and the minimum wage will be covered. When the new minimum wage was first announced, the Ministry of Work and Social Security announced that the portion of wages amounting to the gross minimum wage (5,004 liras) would be exempt from income tax for those earning above the minimum wage. However, if the proposal bill submitted to parliament becomes law, the wage earners who earn more than the gross minimum wage of 5,004 liras per month will not be covered by the tax exemption at all, and they will pay income tax and stamp duty. The wages of the workers who earn below the minimum wage of 4,253 liras will be brought up to the minimum wage with the minimum living allowance (AGI).  

MINISTER BİLGİN HAD SAID: "ALL WAGE EARNERS WERE EXEMPT"

The Work and Social Security Minister, Vedat Bilgin, had said in a statement on 16 January that "income tax and stamp duty have been removed from the portion of all workers' wages amounting to the minimum wage."

ASSOC. DR. AZİZ ÇELİK: “THIS WILL EXECARBATE WORKERS’ PROBLEMS”

Labour Economist, Associate Professor Aziz Çelik, says, “The speech given by the Work Minister, when the minimum wage was being determined, was to exempt the portion of wages amounting to the minimum wage from the tax, and everyone understood it in this  way. That was what should have happened." Stating that the proposal submitted to the Parliament will lead to very serious problems for the workers, Çelik says: "This proposal needs to be replaced in Parliament, because it wasn’t the agreement reached at the Minimum Wage Determination Commission".

Çelik lists item by item how workers will be negatively impacted in the event that the proposal becomes law:

-Those who are paid above the minimum wage will not be exempt from tax with this proposal and will pay more tax.

-Bosses will force people to work on the minimum wage in order not to bear the costs of tax, insurance premiums, etc.

-If the minimum wage worker works overtime during the month or receives a social payment and is paid more than the minimum wage that month, the tax exemption will not apply to him. Because wages and wage supplements should not exceed the minimum wage. Otherwise, as they will have to pay taxes, their overtime, their social payments will go to tax, and they will still be paid around the minimum wage.

-Bosses can force those earning above the minimum wage to work for the minimum wage and make new agreements.

-It is possible that this proposal will lead to partially undeclared/informal work.  The wages over the minimum wage can be declared as the minimum wage and the remainder of the wage can be given underhandedly, which leads to a kind of unrecorded or partially unrecorded economy.

-Minimum wage jobs will be more prevalent.

DİSK: PROPOSED BILL SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN

DİSK (Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions) Chair, Arzu Çerkezoğlu, made a statement about the bill submitted to Parliament by a group of AKP lawmakers the other day and about wages higher than the minimum wage not being exempt from taxation. Çerkezoğlu demanded that the proposed law must be withdrawn immediately. "The minimum wage and the portion of wages amounting to the minimum wage should be exempt from tax. This was the statement made and promise given to the public", Çerkezoğlu said and continued: “If this proposal becomes law, minimum wage jobs will be prevalent and increasingly everyone will be working on the minimum wage. To avoid the costs of SGK (Social Security System), tax and stamp duty, the employers will resort to employ their employees on the minimum wage. Morevoer, this situation may increase undeclared/informal work." (EVRENSEL DAILY)

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