Baykar’s Selçuk Bayraktar tops list of Türkiye’s highest taxpayers in 2024

ANKARA

Selçuk Bayraktar, the chairman and chief technology officer (CTO) of Türkiye’s leading drone maker Baykar, retained his position as the nation’s top taxpayer in 2024, a title he has consecutively held for the past four years.

Selçuk Bayraktar paid 2.76 billion Turkish Liras ($84 million) in income tax last year, the country’s Revenue Administration of the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced in a statement on Aug. 20.

Haluk Bayraktar, the general manager of Baykar, ranked second with 2.53 billion liras ($77 million, with Baykar executives managing to top the list for the last four years.

The amount of tax paid by Bayraktars has increased by approximately 18 times since 2021 and this increase was driven by Baykar's export revenues.

Baykar, the leading exporter firm in the defense and aviation sector, generated 90 percent of its 2024 revenue from exports.

It achieved $1.8 billion in exports last year, ranking among the country’s top 10 companies with the highest exports for the second consecutive year.

Meanwhile, many of the other top 10 individual taxpayers chose to remain anonymous.

Among publicly disclosed names, Mustafa Rahmi Koç, honorary chairman of Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding, ranked fourth with 757.8 million liras in taxes.

Erman Ilıcak, honorary chairman of another Turkish conglomerate, Rönesans Holding, occupied the 10th position with 372 million liras.

On the corporate tax side, private lender Garanti Bank ranked first on the list with 25.29 billion liras ($769.8 million).

State-run lender Ziraat Bank ranked second with 20.84 billion liras ($634.4 million), while participation lender Kuveyt Türk ranked third on the list with 12.07 billion liras ($367.4 million).