Abstract:

Non-retroactivity of the tax laws is, as the sub-principle of the principles of the state of law and of legal security, the principle which constitutional adjudication creates and which paves the way for people to be able to make plans and commitments, by ensuring legal security, according to the available regulations. The Turkish Constitutional Court, following the practice of Continental Europe, reviews retroaction of the tax laws within the framework of the constitutional principles.While finding insubstantial retroactivities constitutional throughout this review, the Constitutional Court has also found substantial (real) retroactivities constitutional until recent years. It is seen that the Court, putting the general interest ahead, finds the tax laws being applied retrospectively particularly after the economic crises and natural disasters constitutional; yet, sometimes going into details of the tax mechanism, it builds its ground on a different basis. Different grounds of approval of the Court have constituted the subject matter of criticism. It is seen that the Court, comparing the general interest and personal rights, has annulled the regulation concerning tax liability being applied retrospectively by the law numbered 5766 and that it has changed its case-law in the way that it shall protect the rights of taxpayers

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