The Burden of Deadlines: Turkish Public Accountants Demand Change

The constant impending deadlines are one of the biggest problems Turkish public accountants have to endlessly complain about. It is almost as if they are working from deadline to deadline rather than by working hours because their day doesn’t end in that limited timeframe; it ends when all the tasks are completed, everything is calculated, sent to the customer or government, and paid for. Accountants, like the majority of private sector workers, therefore bring their work home with them, even if it means carrying tens of folders and papers or not making time for themselves or their families, because they are unable to simply request an extension if the work is not completed, as the government sets the deadlines and decides on penalties.

Nurcan Korkmaz, who has been a certified public accountant for the past 23 years, has stated to the Istanbul Chronicle that the deadlines have started to become a problem in the last couple of years because of the increasing workload.

“What has affected us the most during this period is the increased workload, with some examples being the transition to e-invoice and e-ledger, as well as new declarations and reports. These seemingly minimal changes, like transitioning to electronic mediums, were hard processes because new programs had to be bought, and old ones had to be integrated into the new system if they could. Of course, thanks to this change, we carry fewer folders and use less paper, but we nevertheless have to continuously upload the data we have on paper as well as on these systems to the accounting programs. Furthermore, while uploading e-ledgers or declarations to the Revenue Administration (GIB), the system sometimes shuts down or gives errors because of overload. Therefore, these extra ‘small’ tasks hold us back from completing our other main tasks, like inflation accounting. This process requires detailed information that is often hard to obtain, such as the purchase dates of inventory stocks. For older companies, the accountant must go 20 years or so back in the documents to find sufficient data, since, without them, the results calculated will be wrong. If the calculations or the dates change, the whole result gets affected, and the profit or raise amounts become incorrect. If GIB finds that the calculations were inaccurate, a penalty and interest for late payments must be paid in order to file a correction declaration.”

The debate about the workloads of public accountants has always been ongoing. However, the discussion has again gained attention because of the recent corporate tax declaration deadline, which used to be April 30. The majority of accountants anticipated that it would be delayed due to events such as the official holiday or the earthquake in Istanbul, with a magnitude of 6.2, that disrupted their official working hours. However, on the evening of April 28, GIB made an announcement stating that additional time was not needed and gave financial need as a reason. On the evening of April 29, this decision was changed, and the deadline was postponed to May 5 because of the constant requests from accountants. What is important to mention is that requests from accountants were first formally made on April 18, as the deadline was too close to the deadline of the income tax declaration, and accountants knew beforehand that completing the two in the same month would be almost impossible. However, they were only responded to by GIB on April 28.

Mehmet Şimşek, TRT Haber

Following the first announcement on April 28, before touching on the controversial deadlines, the finance minister, Mehmet Şimşek, happily stated on Bloomberg HT that the income tax declaration numbers have almost doubled from 2024 to 2025, and if the rates continue like this in the following years, declaration numbers would more than double. He connected this increasing number of declarations to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, stating while laughing that the ministry “is really working.” The increasing number of declarations and taxpayers means that the government is collecting more and more taxes from citizens, adding money to its treasury, which is why Şimşek is happy about the numbers. Korkmaz commented on the increasing numbers, stating that “the number of taxpayers increased because of the lowered boundaries. Although income tax has existed for a long time, individuals who previously were exempt from showing their rent revenue to the government are now required to do so.” What is ironic about Şimşek’s statement is that by touching on the increasing number of declarations, he has indirectly confirmed that the workload on public accountants has almost doubled.

The second part of his announcement was the real reason behind the backlash of public accountants and the following press release from the Istanbul Chamber of Certified Public Accountants (ISMMMO). Şimşek continued his words, stressing that the deadlines were decided upon and announced one year ago. He emphasized that “We are in a digital age. All data are on an electronic medium. Therefore, accounting is no longer done by hand.”  He later stated that they had talked with GIB in the morning and decided that extra time was not needed. After the interviewer mentioned the major backlash from accountants, however, Şimşek stated that they can “maybe extend the deadline by 1 to 2 days, but these are simple topics.” His emphasis on the digital age and the word choice “simple topics” were the main causes of backlash, as Şimşek seemed to overlook the main issue of accountants, which is the increased workload.

Photo from the ISMMMO, Instagram

After the announcement, ISMMMO posted on their Instagram page to ask that the corporate tax declaration deadline be extended for a reasonable amount of time, that laws be changed to automatically include official holidays in the declaration periods, and that professionals be guaranteed to provide services in a humane manner. These requests were coupled with a photo of accountants holding banners in front of the ISMMMO building, with some of them reading “We don’t want to die at the desk” and “Our family longs for us and we long for our family.”

However, this wasn’t the only response, as accountants started to share memes on social media platforms about the statements of Şimşek, with one of them featuring a button labelled “prepare corporate tax,” alluding to the benefits of the digital age that Şimşek emphasized and the tasks he saw as simple.

Following the backlash and many requests, the deadline was ultimately postponed to May 5. However, the fundamental issue facing public accountants has not yet been addressed, and if this trend persists, it is anticipated that fewer and fewer young people will pursue careers in accounting, while those who are sick of the intense work will start to quit one by one.

Edited by: Oya Yamaç, Yağmur Ece Nisanoğlu