Work to impose tax on stock transactions postponed, says Şimşek

Work on introducing a tax on stock transactions has been postponed after feedback from all relevant parties, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said.

"We are postponing the draft tax work for the stock exchange for a while for further re-evaluation," Şimşek wrote on the social media platform X.

The package containing tax regulations aimed at increasing efficiency and justice in taxes and reducing informality will be presented to parliament soon, the minister wrote.

Earlier this month, Şimşek said that "a very limited" transaction fee or tax may be levied on stocks and crypto assets.

Şimşek, at the time, ruled out imposing a tax on gains from crypto assets and stocks.

"Our agenda is more about fairness and efficiency in taxation. Within this context, we have a goal of leaving no area untaxed… Therefore, here we are more concerned about crypto assets and the stock market," Şimşek said.

Meanwhile, data from the Central Bank on June 13 showed that foreigners continued to sell equities for the fourth week in a row.

In four weeks, foreigners sold $1.3 billion worth of equities.

In the week ending June 7, they sold $543 million worth of equities, which followed the sales amounting to $529 million in the previous week. Foreign investors sold $28 million and $233 million worth of equities in the previous two weeks.

Foreigners bought $3.5 billion worth of government domestic debt securities (GDDS) over the same period.

Non-residents' holdings of equities and GDDS -outright purchase- stood at $39.5 billion and $10.6 billion, respectively, as of June 7, according to the Central Bank data.