Vergi İdaresinin Sosyal Medya Verilerinden Yararlanması: Denetimde Etkinlik ve Mükellef Hakları Arasındaki Çatışma Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

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Arıtı Erdem İ.

39. Uluslararası Maliye Sempozyumu, Antalya, Türkiye, 23 - 26 Ekim 2025, ss.102-112, (Tam Metin Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Antalya
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.102-112
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Tax administrations now rely on data-driven tools and multi-source analysis when deciding whom to audit. Publicly available social media content, although it offers only a partial and often carefully staged picture of taxpayers’ lives, is increasingly drawn into this picture as a layer of open-source intelligence (OSINT). This paper asks to what extent such data can be used in tax risk analysis and audit selection without clashing with taxpayer rights, and what kind of system needs to be designed for that purpose. First, it explains what “social media data” means in the context of tax law and discusses why, given its possible distance from reality and its strong dependence on context, it is not suitable as proof on its own. It then summarises current practice in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Spain, highlighting similarities and differences in terms of legal basis and safeguards. From the perspective of taxpayer rights, the paper identifies main areas of tension around privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, the prohibition of discrimination and a number of procedural guarantees. Building on this analysis, it proposes a set of policy principles: a clear legal framework, narrow and taxrelated data scopes, the use of social media only as a supporting risk indicator, a ban on fully automated adverse decisions, and a basic level of transparency and human oversight. The general aim is to show how social media data can be used to improve audit targeting without upsetting the fragile balance between enforcement and taxpayer rights.