On 23 March 2018, Turkey published a General Communiqué in the Official Gazette that clarifies rules for the deferral of payment of tax debts and other public receivables with beneficial treatment. The Communiqué provides that such deferral may be applied for subject to the following conditions:

• The person is an active income or corporate taxpayer on commercial, agricultural, or professional activities for at least three years;
• Tax returns submitted for the previous three years were submitted by the applicable deadlines;
• The person, or its legal representative, has not been sentenced for tax evasion in the previous five years;
• The person is the principal debtor; and
• The person does not have debts exceeding one year at the time of application.

In general, late payment by corporate taxpayers incurs a penalty of 1.4% per month until paid, while taxpayers granted a general deferral incur an annual interest penalty of 12% of the deferred amount. If a taxpayer meets the above conditions and is approved, beneficial treatment is provided based an analysis of the taxpayer's situation in terms of cash, liquidity, and leverage with a grade provided on a scale of 2 to 10. Depending on the grade given and the number of installments, the interest penalty applied is adjusted within a range of 5% to 75% of the general rate. For example, a taxpayer determined to have a situation grade of 5 and makes 12 equal monthly installments will have the interest calculated at 50% of the general rate, i.e. 6% instead of 12%.