The earthquake tax was temporarily introduced in 1999 by the Justice and Development Party following a massive earthquake that killed 17,000 people and more than half a million lost their homes. It was called “the earthquake tax”. However, in 2003 the Turkish government decided to make this tax permanent.

In 2020 there were some arguments around the earthquake tax, when after another incident, the head of the Turkish Red Crescent asked citizens to provide additional assistance to the victims. At this point appeared the question where earlier collected founds are. However, this matter was not considered and verified.  

In 2021, the tax increased from 7.5% to 10%. According to official figures, this tax has already brought over 72 billion Lira to the treasury of Turkey. Also, on January 30, 2021, in the Official Newspaper, by the decree of President Erdogan, the tax on the services of mobile operators and the Internet increased. The growth was 33%