Workshop on Measuring the Size of Informal Economy

Workshop on measuring the size of informal economy was conducted at OECD Ankara Multilateral Tax Center. Academicians who have relevant research on this topic, our presidency and representatives of public institutions attended the event.
The workshop started with the opening speech of Mr. Adnan Ertürk, the Head of Turkish Revenue Administration (TRA). The opening speech was followed with the presentation on the action plan for reducing informal economy and TRA’s previous experiences on combatting informal economy. The presentation was held by Mr. Faruk Gözübüyük who is the Department Head at TRA. In the followed session moderated by Deputy President of TRA Mr. Semih Okumuş, Prof. Dr. Fatih Savaşan from the University of Sakarya did a presentation on measuring the size of informal economy and labour market statistics, and audiences shared their view and opinions about this issue.
In the second session of this workshop moderated by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Burçin Yereli from the University of Hacettepe, presentations were held by Mrs. Tülay Korkmaz, the Head of Department of National Accounts of Turkish Statistics Institute, on the topic of methodologies used for measuring the size of informal economy by sectors and by Mrs. Meral Daşkıran, the Head of Department of Labour and Living Conditions of Turkish Statistics Institute, on measuring the size of informal economy and labour statistics.
In the third session moderated by Mr. Mehmet Aktaş, Deputy President of Turkish Statistics Institute, the presentation with the focus on the concept of tax theory and Turkey at a glance, and ideas on this topic were shared with the involvement of audiences.
The Head of the Group at TRA, Mr. Mehmet Ali Ceylan, led the last session of this workshop, and after the comments of moderators and participants, the workshop ended.
During the whole workshop, standard methods used for measuring the size of informal economy, data used for measuring the size of informal economy by sectors, necessary technical infrastructure and ways in which this knowledge can be used to analyze this data, methods used to measure tax avoidance were evaluated and which method and tools can perfectly fit into the Turkish context was discussed.