Turkish fortune tellers find their future includes tax audits

Turkey's Treasury and Finance Ministry is using artificial intelligence to track down money earned by psychics and fortune tellers as part of a broader drive to combat the informal economy and boost tax revenue. 

The ministry has turned its attention to the rapid growth of online services such as astrology, spiritualism, star charting, magic, meditation and numerology — many of which operate without clear regulation.

According to state-run Anadolu Agency, AI technologies have been engaged to track digital footprints across multiple platforms, including social media, online payment systems and messaging services such as WhatsApp and Telegram.

The initiative builds on Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek's wider strategy to increase fiscal discipline and shrink the country's shadow economy, a longstanding challenge for the Turkish state. 

Although earlier efforts to rein in government spending yielded limited results, Simsek's operation has increasingly focused on revenue generation through measures such as taxing multinational corporations, imposing a minimum corporate tax, levying new taxes on funds, and targeting cash-intensive small businesses, including barbershops, restaurants and auto traders.

An investigation flagged 1,034 individuals as "high risk" and uncovered 1.8 billion liras ($50 million) in undeclared income between 2021 and 2023, Anadolu reported. In addition, 295 individuals were found to be operating without the requisite taxpayer registration. 

In a statement on X, Simsek said the effort to tax unreported service income is intensifying. He urged individuals to report their incomes until April 2, the final day for tax declarations.