THE COMPARISON OF TURKEY AND EU COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF DIRECT TAXES AND INDIRECT TAXES

Turkey has carried out reforms in many areas in the process of accession to the European Union. However, the desired harmonization in the area of taxation has not been achieved yet and the share of indirect taxes in tax revenues has not been reduced to the desired level. In the study; the structure of indirect-direct taxes in the European Union tax system is examined and compared with the Turkish tax system. The purpose of the study is to compare the policies and tax policies implemented in Turkey and in the European Union countries; to assess the strengths and weaknesses, and to determine the shortcomings in terms of indirect taxes in Turkey. In the study, the European Union and Turkey are compared in terms of income tax, corporation tax, value added tax and excise tax revenues. As a result of the research it is found that, the overall direct tax revenues is higher that the indirect tax revenues in the European Union while the situation is the opposite in Turkey. In the Turkish tax system, transforming direct taxes into a more important source of income is quite important in terms of the fairness and equality principles in taxation