Selçuk Bayraktar, chairman and chief technology officer of Baykar, a Turkish defense giant known for its drone production, topped the list of Turkey’s biggest taxpayers in 2023, after holding the same title a year earlier.
As a result of an evaluation of the annual income and corporate tax returns for the 2023 tax period, the Turkish Tax Authority (GIB) announced on Wednesday the list of the 100 taxpayers who declared the highest taxes in Turkey.
Bayraktar topped the list with a tax payment of 1.95 billion TL (57.30 million USD), followed by Baykar General Manager Haluk Bayraktar with 1.68 billion TL.
This means that the managers of the arms giant, which has been at the top of the list for three years now, share the first two places on the list of Turkey’s tax record holders.
Baykar specializes in drone technology and has become one of the pioneers in the transformation of Turkey’s defense industry. To date, the company has signed contracts to sell its famous Bayraktar TB2 drones to at least 30 countries.
The company is also considered the largest arms exporter in 2023, accounting for nearly a third of the industry’s $5.5 billion in revenue, which hit a record high this year.
A leading exporter in the defense and aerospace sector, the company generated 90% of its revenue from export earnings last year. With exports valued at $1.8 billion last year, it also ranked among the top 10 companies across all sectors when it comes to the highest exports.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Rahmi Koç, honorary chairman of one of the country’s largest holding companies, Koç Holding, was ranked third among taxpayers with 480 million TL in taxes in 2023.
While taxpayers ranked fourth, sixth and eighth to tenth on the list did not want to reveal their names, Ipek Kıraç ranked fifth with 323.3 million TL and Mehmet Ömer Koç ranked seventh with 261.77 million TL in taxes paid.
In the list of taxpayers who declared corporate tax, Ziraat Bank ranked first with a tax assessment of TL 22.7 billion, followed by Garanti Bank and Akbank.
