Were BA/BS Forms Abolished? What Communiqué 565 Changed

For years, the BA/BS routine shaped how Turkish businesses checked their figures with each other. Every month, companies keeping books on a balance sheet basis reported purchases (Form Ba) and sales (Form Bs) above a threshold to the tax administration. Because both sides of a transaction reported it, mismatches surfaced, and “BA/BS reconciliation” became a monthly habit between trading partners.

That routine has ended. This post explains exactly what changed, what did not, and what takes its place. For the step-by-step process, see our guide to reconciling current accounts.

What VUK Communiqué No. 565 says

VUK General Communiqué No. 565 was published in the Official Gazette on 25 September 2024 and entered into force on 1 October 2024. The key sentence is in Article 2, paragraph 4: for the September 2024 period and the periods that follow, Form Ba and Form Bs will not be filed.

Article 3 repealed Communiqués No. 362, 381 and 396, again starting with the September 2024 period. The stated reason in Article 2 is the spread of electronic documents, easier access to them and better data sharing between public institutions, which together made a separate monthly notification unnecessary.

Two details are easy to miss:

1. Old periods still follow old rules. Article 3, paragraph 2 says Communiqués 362, 381 and 396 continue to apply to periods before September 2024. If an earlier period needs correcting, the old framework is still the reference.
2. The historical threshold was 5,000 TL. Under Communiqué No. 396, purchases and sales of 5,000 TL or more per counterparty, excluding VAT, had to be reported. That number is history now; it is useful only as a familiar materiality line if you want one.

What did not change

Removing a tax form did not remove the underlying risk. Two companies can still hold different balances for the same relationship, for reasons that have nothing to do with the tax office:

• A payment booked against the wrong invoice or the wrong customer.
• A return or credit note one side recorded and the other did not.
• An invoice issued in one month and recorded by the buyer in the next.
• Foreign currency invoices converted at different rates.
• Simple duplicate entries.

Under BA/BS, some of these were caught as a side effect of the monthly filing. Now nothing catches them unless you look. And the longer a difference sits, the harder it is to explain: people forget, files move, and a 3,000 TL gap from last spring becomes an argument.

A short example (example figures): you show 28,000 TL receivable from a customer on 30 June; they show 26,000 TL payable. The 2,000 TL gap turns out to be an 8,000 TL payment they sent on 30 June that reached your bank on 1 July, and a 6,000 TL credit note they never recorded. BA/BS would never have explained that. A reconciliation with a statement of transactions does.

What replaces it: current account reconciliation

A current account reconciliation (cari hesap mutabakatı) compares the balance you hold for a customer or supplier with the balance they hold for you, on the same date. It is broader than BA/BS ever was: it covers every transaction, not only those above a threshold, and it ends with a balance both sides accept.

There is no form to file for it. It is good practice, and a confirmed balance is strong evidence at year end, in an audit, in a credit application or in a dispute.

Where TTK Article 94 fits

You will often read that “under TTK Article 94, a balance not objected to within one month is accepted”. That is too broad. Article 94 sits in the Commercial Code’s rules on the current-account contract, which start at Article 89. Within such a contract, accounts are closed at the end of each period (the last day of the calendar year if there is no agreement or trade custom), and the party that receives the balance statement is deemed to accept it if they do not object within one month through a notary, registered letter, telegram or a message with a secure electronic signature.

So the rule applies where the relationship is a current-account contract, not to every commercial relationship. Whether yours qualifies is a question for your legal adviser. The practical lesson is the same either way: state the date, the balance and how to object clearly in the letter, and keep the replies.

Keep the records

Reconciliation letters and their answers are supporting documents for your books. VUK Article 253 requires those who keep books to retain their books and documents for five years, starting from the calendar year following the year they relate to. Store the approved letters with the rest of your records.

What to do now

• Stop any internal process that still prepares Form Ba or Bs for current periods.
• Keep old BA/BS files for periods before September 2024 in case of corrections.
• Replace the monthly habit with a reconciliation cadence: quarterly for active accounts, always at year end.

The current account reconciliation guide covers choosing a date, preparing the statement, sending letters, settling disputes and archiving. The reconciliation letter template has the sections a letter needs, and the e-reconciliation module sends letters in bulk from your ledger with automatic reminders.

The short version

BA/BS forms are gone, but the reason they were useful is not. Balances still drift, and the fix is still to compare them with the other side, regularly and in writing. If your ledger is kept with double-entry, reconciliation becomes a matter of sending what the books already know. We cover why in why your back office needs double-entry, and why clean balances also help collections in how to calculate and shorten DSO.