ANKARA: Social media firms operating in Turkey should open offices there and pay taxes, authorities said yesterday, amid a row with Twitter which the Turkish prime minister has branded “tax evaders”.
Without mentioning Twitter by name, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said social media platforms were dodging taxes if they operated without opening a physical office.
“When you take a look at double taxation agreements, a foreign taxpayer must have an office in order to pay tax,” Simsek said.
“Social media companies must definitely open a representative office here,” he added. “If they have good intentions, they open a representative office. If they harbour bad intentions, then we will sit down and mull alternatives,” stressed the minister.
The comments came as Twitter executives, led by Colin Crowell, the San Francisco-based company’s head of global public policy, held a second round of closed-door talks in Ankara at the presidency.
Twitter bosses held a first meeting with Turkey’s telecommunications authority on Monday, which officials hailed as “positive”.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government blocked Twitter in March after the micro-blogging side was flooded with anonymously posted audio recordings allegedly portraying the premier and his inner circle in corruption. Ankara had to lift the ban after the nation’s top court ruled that it breached the right to free speech.
Another popular social media site, YouTube, has been blocked in Turkey since March 27 despite two separate court orders to lift it.
AFP
