The Buzz in Turkey: Interview with Ersin Nazali of Nazali Tax & Legal

The Buzz in Turkey: Interview with Ersin Nazali of Nazali Tax & Legal

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“The Turkish Government acted well and used the experience of other countries to fight the battle with COVID-19,” says Ersin Nazali, Managing Partner of Nazali Tax & Legal in Istanbul. “The situation was well prepared-for, which ultimately led to a lower number of infected people. Soon, we expect to get back to normal life.”

Indeed, Nazali reports that most industries are already getting back on track, and things are slowly but steadily getting back to normal. “The automotive sector was the first to re-open,” he says, “and the beginning of June is the expected date for everything else to start. I think the time is right to kick things off again, because people are soon going to need to start earning capital again.”

Among the measures enacted in order to help the situation, Nazali points in particular to the freezing of the judicial process, the option of delaying paying taxes, and financial support to certain businesses in order to stimulate work and ease the normalization process. “Multiple monetary benefits as well as tax returns and loans granted to the county’s SME’s are a good way to fight the inevitable crisis,” he says. “I can say that at the end of the day, the Government did as much as they could.”

This isn’t the only crisis Turkey had to overcome in recent years, of course. Still, Nazali describes it as “different from the others we had,” and he says that “therefore we needed a different sort of response.” According to him, “some employers were badly affected of course, which is an expected situation, but it seems like those businesses will be overtaken by the Government.” In addition, he says, “investors were less present – somewhere around half the usual number. Even though companies tried their hardest to stay afloat, they had to cut some of their activities, and as a result, they asked for less consultancy. Therefore, some law firms in Turkey had to close their offices, start home-working programs, and even lay off some employees.”

Ultimately, Nazali reports that he remains confident and optimistic about the future state of affairs in Turkey, insisting that “if the conditions don’t get worse suddenly, the economy will eventually get better.” He smiles. “As I mentioned before, crises in Turkey have happened recently, and those kinds of shocks are relatively normal.” He also believes that “the crisis is also a good opportunity,” noting that “the way it affected the supply chains of many companies makes them rethink their business models, and change the way they operate. For example, people were able to realize that China is not only a great option for supply, so I expect more of it to come from Europe or other places in the future.” As a result, he says, “this might, in the long-term, result in a better situation than ever before.”