Frequently Asked Questions for e-Ledger

e-Ledger is a set of legal and technical regulations aiming to ensure the mandatory ledgers are kept in accordance with the announced formats and standards in electronic file format in accordance with the provisions of Tax Procedure Law and Turkish Commercial Code, are saved without printing, are kept with the stability and integrity of its source and integrity, and are used as a proof before the related parties.

Within the scope of the Electronic Ledger Communiqué No. 1, those who wish to create, save, maintain and declare their journals and general ledgers in the form of electronic ledgers shall meet the following conditions.

-Real person taxpayers must obtain qualified electronic certificate produced in accordance with the provisions of the Electronic Signature Law or Electronic Certificate within the General Communiqué of Tax Procedure Law No. 397,

-Legal entities must obtain an Electronic Certificate in accordance with the General Communiqué of Tax Procedures Law No. 397,

-The software to be used by the taxpayers for keeping, recording, approving, storing and submitting electronic ledgers must obtain compliance approval.

With the application guide published on 04/04/2014, paper applications were abolished and electronic application opportunity was introduced for e-Ledger applications.

You can submit an electronic application with your Electronic Certificate to the Revenue Administration at https://uyg.edefter.gov.tr/edefterbasvuru/

No. Taxpayers who transition to one of the applications on a voluntary basis are not required to use other applications.

Journal and general ledger are in the scope of e-Ledger.

It is a file which contains a summary of the ledger file prepared in accordance with the statements published by the Revenue Administration and is signed with the electronic certificate, and then declared to the RA by the taxpayer. The ledger declaration submitted to RA is electronically signed by RA and returned to the taxpayer, thus ledgers approved by the Administration are kept in our records. The fact that RA has signed the declaration file does not mean that it has confirmed the financial data included in the ledger. RA only confirms that we have created the ledger record during the related period. Therefore, in terms of audit, the obligation continues to exist in the context of the accuracy of the financial data and its compliance with the procedures.

A timestamp is a type of certificate that proves the invariability of the data file as of the universal time of signing, that it has been signed in a similar manner to an electronic certificate. It is therefore used to prove when a data file (e-Ledger-related files in this context) was created. Even if we have created and signed the ledger declaration within the legal time period, in case of technical issues during the submission to RA and in cases where the legal notification period may expire, signing the e-Ledger certificate with the timestamp will prove that you have formed the declaration within the legal period. Signing the ledger declaration with a timestamp is sufficient for RA and it is not necessary to sign the ledger files with a timestamp.

No. RA only receives the declaration(s) with electronic certificate of the relevant ledger.

No. After the application has been made on behalf of the company, ledgers can be created by indicating headquarters and branch differences on the compatible e-Ledger application to be used.

Yes. Companies having branches should submit their ledger declarations to RA in the order of headquarters and then branches. On the other hand, the declaration for the upcoming period of the headquarters should not be sent before the declarations of all the branches are sent. Otherwise, the branch declarations of the previous period are not accepted by RA, and if still within the legal period, the previous periods can be completed only by deleting the headquarters declaration of the following period that has been sent.

No. For operations that do not rely on a document, such as opening and closing operations, the document type should not be entered. Document type, number and date information should also not be entered in accounting receipt records for transactions not based on any document.

e-Ledger can only be created through compatible softwares approved by RA. The taxpayer can use the software they developed to create e-Ledger if they receive conformity for it from RA. Otherwise, they shall only use the software included in the compatible softwares list published by RA.

No. If it is still before the legal deadline, the declaration may be deleted from RA and the declaration of the revised ledger may be sent.

Electronic ledgers are created on a monthly basis. The most important point is that the taxpayers are responsible for viewing and submitting their electronic ledgers. You can determine the optimum size which the ledgers can be viewed (not exceeding 200 MB) and create electronic ledgers accordingly.

There is a technical size limit for viewing and verifying the electronic ledgers created. The maximum uncompressed size of the ledger for a month should be 200 MB. Due to this technical size limit, a ledger to be created on a monthly basis may need to be created as multiple XML files. Each of the files that are created this way are called a 'ledger part'.

A Time Stamp is a tool which proves that certain data existed on the specified date. The time-stamped declaration will be used as a proof for the fact that you created the declaration during the legal time period.

In the event that a problem occurs in the e-Ledger system of RA and the declarations you are uploading at the end of the legal period cannot be uploaded to the e-Ledger application of RA, it is possible to upload these declarations by adding the time stamp along with the electronic certificate. It is sufficient for the declarations to have the timestamp. Electronic ledgers do not have to be timestamped.

-If a user registered to the e-Ledger application does a change of kind, a copy of the trade registry gazette regarding the change of kind and an explanatory petition should be submitted to Revenue Administration’s address 'Yeni Ziraat Mah. Etlik Cad. No:16 Dışkapı/ANKARA' by mail within 15 days. As for the provision of the electronic certificate for the new title, an electronic application is submitted to the Public Certification Center at http://mm.kamusm.gov.tr/

-Once the electronic certificate requested for the new tax identification number is received by the taxpayer, an electronic ledger application must be made for the new identification number from the website http://edefter.gov.tr/edefterbasvuru.html

-The electronic ledger start date in the application must be selected earliest as the following month; in other words, the registration date of the change of kind cannot be selected as the e-Ledger start date. In order for the electronic ledger start date of the new kind to be moved to the registration date, an e-mail should be sent to edefter@gelirler.gov.tr to inform that the electronic ledger application has been made and date revisions must be held.

-Afterwards, the electronic ledger start date of the application for the new kind will be updated in e-Ledger system of RA according to the registration date.

-With this new application, the taxpayer will have two e-Ledger accounts, one with the previous tax ID number and one with the new ID number. Therefore the taxpayer must create the ledger and the declaration using the previous title and tax ID number belonging to the fraction of the month before the date of the change. Since the date range of the ledgers created corresponds to the last month of the accounting period related to the former title of the taxpayer, the declarations should be submitted to RA e-Ledger application by the last day of the month in which the Corporate Tax Return (Corporate tax return for the accounting period from the beginning of the accounting period until the date of the change) is submitted (General Communiqué on Electronic Ledger No. 2).

-After this submission is made, edefter@gelirler.gov.tr should be notified.

With the submission of the latest declarations that belong to the last period prior to the change of kind, the e-Ledger user account with the previous tax ID number will be closed by RA and the taxpayer will be able to continue submitting the declarations with the new user account created after the change of kind. -In addition, the new title and tax ID numbered ledgers belonging to the fraction of the month after the date of the change are created and the declarations should be sent to RA e-Ledger Application until the last day of the third month (periods specified in the Electronic Ledger General Communiqué No: 2) following the related month.

For example; in the case of the change of kind on 7 January 2015, the ledger and declaration related to the previous tax identification number and the title should include 01 January - 07 January 2015 date range. Since the ledgers related to the previous tax identification number and the title covering these dates correspond to the last month of the accounting period of the previous title, the ledger declarations should be sent to RA e-Ledger application until the last day of the month which the corporate tax return (Corporate tax return starting from the beginning of the accounting period until the date of the change) is submitted.

After the change of kind, ledger and declaration related to the new tax ID number and title should cover the dates between 07 January - 31 January 2015. The declarations of the ledgers related to the new tax identification number and title covering these dates should be sent to RA e-Ledger application until the last day of the third month following the related month, which is the legal period.

It is possible to change it. Log into the e-Ledger application and click Update Information. You can update the information on the pop-up screen.

Although most of the transactions subject to accounting records are based on a document, there are some transactions that are not based on any documents. For example, opening-closing operations may not be document-based. If the transaction based on the accounting record is not based on a document, the document type field should not be used in the electronic ledger and any information such as document type, document date or document number should not be included during accounting receipt entry.

All documents issued by the self-employed person to collect for all kinds of professional activities count as a self-employment receipt. This receipt should not be confused with the receipt from the document types listed in the Journal Guide included in the e-Ledger package. Since the self-employment receipt is not included in the documents listed in the manual, the document type is registered as 'Other' and the document description is entered as 'Self-employment receipt'. In addition, the number and date of the document should be included.

If payment or collection has been made, the payment method field in the electronic ledger must be used. Only information that indicates the type of payment should be entered in this field. For example; Cash, Bank, Credit Card, Check, Note. Even though the payment method field is free text box, the name of the transaction should not be entered as payment method in this field. For example, while a Wire Transfer or an EFT from a bank is the name of the transaction, the name of the payment method is 'Bank'.

Changing your e-Ledger compatible software is easy. You can change your compatible software by using your electronic certificate in the application section by logging in to www.edefter.gov.tr as if you were applying to the e-Ledger for the first time.

It doesn't matter whether you are using a compatible e-Ledger software from a private integrator or a compatible e-Ledger software that your ERP program offers you; you can transition to a different compatible software at any time by following the instructions above.

You do not need to wait for the beginning of your accounting period to change your compatible software. You can also change your compatible software any time during your financial year.

The e-Ledger application is the electronic version of the ledger kept on paper. There are no differences in terms of accounting between the two ledgers. Therefore, the registration must be made in accordance with the General Communiqués on the Application of the Accounting System. In case of hesitation; you can refer to the ‘e-Ledger Application Guide’ published on www.edefter.gov.tr website.

RA does not provide support via phone for taxpayers using e-Ledger. For this reason, it is necessary to write down the tax identification number, the title, the problem itself and ask about it on the Forums in the website along with any screenshots or submit the issues to edefter@gelirler.gov.tr

The consecutive sequence of journal entry numbers is a legal requirement. When a declaration is uploaded to the e-Ledger application system, RA system checks that the journal entry numbers are consecutive. The last journal entry number of the previous period and the first journal entry number of the new ledger to be uploaded should be consecutive numbers.

The scope of the taxpayers who need to make transition to the e-Ledger application is determined by the communiqués, and the taxpayers who made transition to the e-Archive application within the scope of the Tax Procedure Law, General Communiqués numbered 433 and 464 are not obliged to make transition to the e-Ledger application.

The period for uploading the declarations extend until the end of the first business day. You do not need to apply for this right in any way nor the Administration needs to make an announcement for it.

You can start using it. However, those who start using electronic ledgers during the accounting period or the calendar year are required to certify the closure of their ledgers kept on paper in a month following the date they started.

e-Ledger certificates can be uploaded to RA e-Ledger system even after the deadline. During the accounting period sequence check is performed in e-Ledger. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the declarations for the previous period have been completely uploaded.

There is no need for separate applications. Following the application of the parent company, companies can create separate ledgers and declarations for the headquarters and branch offices through their compatible softwares.

Within the framework of the information explained in the communiqués, such errors should be corrected in the following month(s) by the taxpayer companies using the reverse, new or correction records.

You can find out whether or not your application has been made from the 'e-Ledger Application Status Inquiry' section on the e-Ledger website (www.edefter.gov.tr). You must apply again if you cannot see your application result.