Sports sponsors may receive tax write-offs

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s Beşiktaş football club celebrates winning Ziraat’s Turkey cup in 2011. Hürriyet photo

A recent Finance Ministry decision on Ziraat Bank Turkey Cup sponsorships could lead to corporations writing off their sponsorship spending from taxes, according to daily Habertürk.

According to the ministry’s decision, the corporate tax write-offs would be 100 percent for amateur sports branches and 50 percent for professional branches. This ruling would cover football at first, but would then also become a benchmark for other sports.

According to the ministry’s reasoning, these sponsorship expenditures do not have a direct correlation with financial gains for the sponsoring company and are more geared toward social benefits; they are therefore deemed separate from commercial spending.

That said, sponsorship spending on sports uniforms or vehicles or even virtual advertising that contains emblems, logos or brands would not be privy to corporate tax write-offs, as these are viewed as commercial spending, which would result in a direct financial benefit to the sponsoring company.

The Finance Ministry considers the following types of sponsorship spending eligible for tax write-offs: spending on rent for sports complexes, spending on athletes’ food, travel and lodgings, spending on sports equipment, spending in either barter or cash on sports facilities approved by the Youth and Sport Headquarters, player transfer fees, and performance bonuses for players.