KRİPTO PARA YENİ BİR VERGİ SIĞINAĞI MI? BİLİŞİM TEKNOLOJİLERİNDEKİ GELİŞMELER TEMELİNDE BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Vergi sığınakları konusu maliye literatürü içerisinde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Mükelleflerin vergi yükümlülüklerini asgaridüzeye indirmek amacıyla kullanabildikleri vergi sığınakları, Bitcoin benzeri kripto paraların ortaya çıkmasının ardından yenibir boyut kazanmışlardır. Zira vergi sığınaklarının açıklanmasındaki klasik yöntem, vergi mükelleflerinin özellikle kıyı ötesifinansal işlemler aracılığı ile vergiden kaçınma fiilini gerçekleştirmeye çalıştıkları yönündeydi. Ancak Bitcoin ve benzeri kriptoparaların anonim olma ve takibinin güçlüğü gibi faktörler bakımından elverişli bir vergi sığınağı olma potansiyeli taşımaları,son zamanlardaki tartışmaların ana ekseninin kıyı ötesi finansal işlemlerden bu sanal paralara doğru kayması sonucunudoğurmuştur. Bu çalışmanın amacı kripto paraların bir vergi sığınağı alternatifi oluşturup, oluşturamayacakları yönündekitartışmalara açıklık getirmektir. Çalışmadan elde edilen temel sonuç; gerekli regülasyonlar yapılmadığı taktirde, gizlilikderecesi yüksek olanları başta olmak üzere, kripto paraların vergi kaçakçılığı ve diğer ekonomik ve mali suçlar için elverişli biralan oluşturma riski taşıdıkları yönündedir.

IS CRYPTO CURRENCY A NEW TAX SHELTER? AN EVALUATION BASED ON DEVELOPMENTS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

Tax shelters have an important place in the finance literature. The tax shelters, which taxpayers can use to minimize their tax liabilities, have gained a new dimension after the emergence of Bitcoin-like crypto currencies. This is because the classical method of explaining tax shelters had been that taxpayers are trying to realize tax evasion by means of especially offshore financial transactions. However, the fact that Bitcoin and similar crypto currencies have the potential to be a convenient tax shelter in terms of factors such as anonymity and the difficulty of following has resulted in the shift of the main axis of the recent debate from this offshore financial transaction to this virtual currencies. The purpose of this study is to clarify the arguments that whether crypto currencies can create a tax shelter alternative. The main result obtained from the work is that if the necessary regulations are not going to be made, crypto currencies, especially those with a higher level of confidentiality, have risk of creating a favorable area for tax evasion and other economic and financial crimes.

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