International Political, Economic and Social Research Congress was held by TRA and Sakarya University in August 2016, İstanbul in the scope of “Technical Assistance for Fight Against Informal Economy and Improvement of Administrative Capacity of the Turkish Revenue Administration Project" with the participation of selected staff from public institutions, NGOs and native/foreigner academicians.
During the opening session, ICPESS Organization Committee Chair Associate Prof. Şakir GÜMÜŞ, Sakarya University Director of Social Sciences Institute Prof. Dr. Fatih SAVAŞAN and PwC UK representative Özge İSKİT gave their speeches.
The commissioner of TRA Adnan ERTÜRK made his speech by referring general agenda of Turkey, action plans with regards to fight against informal economy and increasing voluntary tax compliance and progress made so far.
Friedrich SCHNEIDER and Dr.James ALM made their presentations about "The Size and Development of the Shadow Economy in 35 Highly-developed Countries: What do we (not) Know?" and "W(h)ither the Tax Gap"
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In the first session, which was held under the moderation of Ibrahim KAHVECİ, the Turkish Revenue Administration Head of Department Mr. Faruk GÖZÜBÜYÜK, made a presentation summarizing the progress achieved in the fight against informal economy and the point reached. Professor Friedrich SCHNEIDER, Professor James ALM and Pwc UK representative Diane HAY answered the questions of the participants.
Turkish Revenue Administration Deputy Commissioner Semi OKUMUŞ moderated the second session of the conference. In the second sessions below topics were presented:
Professor Muhsin KAR, "Does the Size of Shadow Economy Matter for Financial Development"
Professor Güneri AKALIN, "The Relationship of the Shadow Economy and the Deficit of Savings at the Phase of the Economic Development in Turkey"
Professor Gülay Akgül YILMAZ, “Informal Economy and Income Taxation Issues in Turkey”
Professor Ahmet Burcin YERELİ, ''Socio-Economic Characteristics of Informal Employment in Turkey'
Professor Fatih SAVAŞAN, “Informal Economy and Dynamics in Turkey”
On the second day of the conference, a workshop was held with the participation of domestic and foreign academicians, experts and representatives of the Turkish Revenue Administration on size of the informal economy, the measurement of the tax compliance cost and the questionnaires to be carried out at the country level.