We would like to share information with you on some issues that have recently attracted our attention in practice, together with the e-invoice issued for commercial affairs.
In line with the decisions of the settled Court of Cassation; In the content of the e-invoice issued by the institutions, it is not considered sufficient to specify that a maturity difference will be applied in case the debt is not paid on time. At this point, in order for the interest to be requested, there must be a clause in the contract between the parties regarding the maturity difference or the application of the interest rate must have become an established practice in commercial practice between the parties. Otherwise, on behalf of the party who does not pay the debt subject to the e-invoice, either the interest rate other than the maturity difference determined in the contract between the parties will be applied, or if such an interest rate is not determined in the contract, it is important to remind that interest will be charged over the legal interest rate of 9 percent per year.
On the other hand, in line with the decisions given by the Court of Cassation, specifying a period for the maturity of the debt in the content of the e-invoice is not sufficient to put the debtor in default at the end of the relevant maturity period. At this point, in order for the debtor to be in default, it must be clearly stated in the e-invoice that the debtor will default at the end of the maturity period specified in the e-invoice. If there is no statement on the e-invoice stating that the debtor will be in default at the end of the maturity period, as per Article 1530 of the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, a spontaneous default will occur at the end of the thirty-day period following the receipt of the invoice or the equivalent payment request by the debtor. Again, it should be noted at this point that; In case of default, either the default interest rate determined in the contract between the parties will be applied or, if such an interest rate is not determined in the contract, the interest value determined separately for each year by the CBRT and determined over the rates higher than the legal interest will be applied. The default interest rate determined by the CBRT for 2022 is 15.75 percent annually.
Finally, we would like to touch on the issue of the notification date of the e-invoice to the other party. We emphasize that after the e-invoice is issued, it will be deemed to have been notified to the debtor party only at the end of the 5th day following the issue date of the invoice.
