34.Internatonal Public Finance Conference / Turkey April 24-27, 2019, Antalya – Turkey April 24-27, 2019, Antalya - TURKEY 71 DOI: 10.26650/PB/SS10.2019.001.011 MOTOR VEHICLES TAX: SOME PROBLEMS AND EVALUATIONS Zinnur TUNÇ 1 Abstract Motor Vehicle Tax, referred to as a wealth tax in the Turkish tax system, is determined in line with various vehicle types and features according to Law No. 197. With the regulaton that came into efect in 2018, vehicle value is now also taken into consideraton in tax base determinaton in additon to various aspects such as model year, type, engine capacity and weight. Therefore, the ad valorem tarif based on vehicle value has come into practce together with the specifc tarif applied before, and a compound tarif structure has been adopted. However, the fact that no obligaton regarding CO 2 emission has been included in the new regulaton is being critcized with regards to environmental protecton in accordance with Artcle 56 of our Consttuton. Considering the total emission by 22,865,921 registered vehicles according to the latest data by the Turkish Statstcal Insttute, it is clear that the new regulaton contains defciencies with respect to consttutonal obligatons. The motor vehicle tax, primarily intended to prioritze environmental protecton in the European Union, stll prioritzes fscal purposes in Turkey. Due to all these developments, the issues arising from the new tarif have been discussed and various solutons have been suggested in compliance with the purpose of the study. In additon, the points that are in confict with taxpayer interests in tarif no. I/A stll in efect as part of the new regulaton have been discussed, and assessment have been made with regards to taxaton principles. Also, practces in the EU and in Turkey have been compared, and similarites between practces in member states have been pointed out to serve as a model. Keywords: Motor Vehicle Tax, Vehicle Value, Environmental Tax, CO 2 Emissions JEL Code: K34, H20, H23 1. Introducton Motor vehicle tax is one of the wealth taxes in terms of the Turkish taxaton system, and has a larger share in tax revenue compared to the inheritance and transfer tax and the real estate tax. From this point of view, motor vehicle tax is one of the instruments that can be used not only for fnancial purposes, but also for various other purposes. Therefore, it brings several expectatons within the context of both literature and legislaton. It is subjected to various amendments in order to adapt to new technological developments and internatonal regulatons. Regulatons brought with the Law No. 7061 are the most recent example to this. Conversion of the tarif structure to a mixed tarif for cars and similar vehicles has caused several new situatons to arise. In this context, the study will elaborate various problems brought by the new regulatons in the Motor Vehicle Tax Law No. 197, and explain the defciencies of the legislaton based on examples. In additon to this, connecton of the environmental protecton duty within the scope of Artcle 56 of the Consttuton with the motor vehicle tax will be discussed, and suggestons will be made for preventng the negatve externality caused by the vehicles. In this context, 1 Res. Asst., Istanbul University, zinnurtunc@gmail.com