Building a System of Exploitation Under the Name of Tax!

News:

Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek said the following in his post on the X platform:

“The number of income tax returns reached 5.5 million, setting a record; 401,000 taxpayers filed a return for the first time. Thanks to our fight against the informal economy and our effective inspections, voluntary compliance is increasing.

While thanking our taxpayers who fulfill their filing obligations on time and in full, we invite those taxpayers who did not declare their 2025 income, or who made incomplete declarations, to submit their returns by benefiting from the provisions of remorse. We will continue our policies with determination for a fair and sustainable tax system.”(12.04.2026 – Agencies)

Comment:

Taxation, which historically evolved from a simple understanding of donation into a legal obligation during the time of the Pharaohs, has today become one of the main instruments of exploitation in capitalist systems. In these inhumane systems, which center the interests of a small and ruthless minority rather than prioritizing people and society, all the efforts of rulers are directed toward emptying the people’s pockets, homes, and labor, much like master thieves.

This shamelessness has reached such a point that every failure in the economic sphere is directly billed to the public. According to the 2026 Central Government Budget data, tax revenues amount to approximately 15 trillion TL, that is, by rough calculation, more than 300 billion dollars. This shows that the share of taxes in budget revenues exceeds 90%.

Today, the fact that millions of people submit income tax returns is being presented as an achievement. In reality, this situation reveals the collapse of the tax system and the capitalist order that imposes taxation on every aspect of life through legal obligations. Especially through indirect taxes such as SCT and VAT, the state becomes a partner even in the table, bread, and even the drinking water of low-income people. The fact that a significant portion of the taxes collected is transferred to interest payments, banks, and financial circles is not justice but oppression.

This picture clearly shows that taxation has turned into a collection mechanism for an interest-based order rather than a means of public service. Inflating debts through interest and making the public pay for them is the direct transformation of taxation into a tool of exploitation.

Taxes imposed on income, meanwhile, often lead to multiple deductions from the same earnings, a deep imbalance in the burden between the poor and the rich, and the ever-expanding fiscal appetite of the state. Under the rhetoric of voluntary compliance, monitoring people’s every move and becoming a partner in their earnings and consumption through heavy penalties is not compliance, but open bullying.

These enormous taxes collected do not go only to interest payments; they are also spent on luxury, waste, extravagance, and personal interests under the name of prestige. Reviving certain segments of society through so-called employment projects has also become part of this order.

According to Islam, revenues collected through unlawful means and then used in unlawful areas mean nothing other than ensuring the continuation of an oppressive order. To make such a system a source of pride is a serious lapse of reason. Seizing people’s labor and property under the name of legal order through fear, pressure, and punishment, and marketing this as justice, is hypocrisy.

While Islam’s rulings on this matter are clear, maintaining this savage order and trying to cover up the resulting problems by once again placing the burden on the people is neither Islamic nor moral. Taking tax even from the dry bread people eat does not mean that this will not be accounted for in the Hereafter.

It is clear that people are being left breathless under this tax burden that has spread into every area of life. The use of collected taxes in unlawful areas, especially for interest, also brings with it a great moral burden. When the fate of societies that established oppressive orders in the past is clear, the failure to take a lesson from it is troubling.

As a result, these practices of the current system show that it has institutionalized oppression in order to preserve its own existence. Establishing a life worthy of human dignity and eliminating this structure based on exploitation is a common issue not only for Muslims but for all humanity. The establishment of the Islamic Order, which will ensure justice, is no longer a choice but a necessity.