Author Topic: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners  (Read 5079 times)

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Offline nichola

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Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« on: February 15, 2017, 07:37:10 AM »
As some of you may know Dogan and I bought our own home just over two years ago.

Well, this year the tax office tracked us down and told us we owed a form of stamp duty tax. This is different to the tax you are required to pay when purchasing a house. This was an additional tax that the tax office decided that I (being a foreigner) not Dogan should pay. According to them our purchase was trade.

They calculated that I should pay almost 4000tl. By the time they tracked me down this amount had risen to just short of 10,000tl with interest and then the original amount applied to the second year.

Now people buy and sell houses all the time. But this stamp duty tax is/was just being applied to foreigners. Not only is it discriminatory but it is illegal. Not everyone has been charged with this tax but a number of foreigners that Şule Beder had represented were affected.

Anyway, Şule being Şule was having none of it. She took a supreme court ruling from a case in Kayseri to the tax office that had previously ruled in 2003 that this was illegal but the tax office weren't prepared to accept that they were in the wrong. So I gave her power of attorney to deal with this test case and she took the tax office to court. This mornıng she rang to say the tax court in Muğla had ruled in our favour and there was nothing to pay.

I know that Şule had other affected clients and she hasn't been able to contact them all. So if anyone else has purchased a house and they get an unexpected tax bill whatever you do, do not pay it and seek legal advice from Şule who will probably now with just a phone call to the tax office in Fethiye get it sorted for you.



Offline Lotty

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2017, 08:12:34 AM »
A fantastic result! Sule is certainly brilliant for challenging so fiercely, you must be relieved!  ;D ;D 8)

Offline Toky

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2017, 10:59:45 AM »
That's a great result for you Nicola. BEt you are feeling very relieved now. Delighted for you. Xxxx

Offline BernieTeyze

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2017, 13:28:27 PM »
Great news, im glad Sule sorted it for you.

Offline kayakebab

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2017, 14:25:50 PM »
Fabulous result. She really is brilliant
 

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Offline scot

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2017, 15:20:53 PM »
Great result Nicola.

Offline faymoore

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2017, 16:36:03 PM »
Fantastic news Nichola. Glad you were able to get it sorted.

Thank you for sharing this info which, I am sure will be very helpful to others.

Dave   :).

Offline nichola

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2017, 16:42:57 PM »
Yes a great result. To be honest I wasn't really worried as I was totally confident that Şule would sort it out.

Dogan was absolutely furious. He went to the tax office before we went to see Şule and spoke to an official there. The guy tried to imply he was stupid for not knowing Turkish tax law! "Aren't you Turkish" he said to Dogan" Dogan said "No I am from America" in a tone loaded with sarcasm which was completely lost on the guy who went oh okay then and started to explain it to him hahaha   :)

Şule actually knew about this before we did and she had already tried to tell them they were talking nonsense so she was very happy "to teach them a lesson" in court.

Hopefully after our test case they won't try it on anyone else   :)

Offline Lynne09

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2017, 06:00:32 AM »
Thanks for sharing this information Nicola glad you won your case and I am sure it will a great help to many of us who own properties in Fethiye!!!

Offline stoop

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Re: Illegal Stamp Duty Tax on House Purchases - Foreigners
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2017, 09:43:47 AM »
Great news! Well done!




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