Baykar Leads Record $5 Billion Tax Payments: Mapping Turkey’s 2025 Revenue Landscape

The economic impact of the global ascent in the defense industry has crystallized in the 2025 tax period data, with Baykar's massive revenue from national drone exports propelling its executives to the top spot for the fifth consecutive time. According to data from the Revenue Administration, Selçuk Bayraktar and Haluk Bayraktar solidified their dominance on Turkey's tax chart by paying a total of 5.493 billion TRY in income tax, highlighting the determining role of the export-oriented growth model behind this achievement.

Tax Bill for Defense Exports: An 18-Fold Surge

Baykar Board Chairman Selçuk Bayraktar declared 2.99 billion TRY and General Manager Haluk Bayraktar declared 2.50 billion TRY in income tax, claiming the top two spots on the list. The company's approximately 18-fold increase in tax payments over the last five years reveals the strength of the correlation between financial sustainability and foreign trade performance.

■The company increased the amount of tax paid by 18 times since 2021.

■In 2025, it raised its export volume to $2.2 billion, deriving 90% of its revenue from overseas sales.

■Since its founding, it has employed over 8,500 people using equity without using bank loans.

■Supply contracts were signed with a total of 39 countries for Bayraktar TB2 and AKINCI TİHA.

Top Earners and the Banking Sector

Mustafa Rahmi Koç, Honorary Chairman of Koç Holding, took the third spot on the list with 830.7 million TRY in income tax, followed by Mehmet Sinan Tara with 676.2 million TRY. In the corporate tax category, the weight of the financial sector is notable; Ziraat Bankası ranked first with a 70.39 billion TRY tax accrual, while Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası ranked third with 22.90 billion TRY.

■Mehmet Sinan Tara ranks fourth, Erman Ilıcak seventh with 557.6 million TRY, Mehmet Cengiz ninth with 448.6 million TRY, and Ceyda Lale Tara tenth with 430.3 million TRY.

■Among the top 100 taxpayers, 78 individuals are from Istanbul, followed by Ankara with 10 and İzmir with 3.

■A total of 5.58 million taxpayers declared a tax base of 2.39 trillion TRY, resulting in an income tax accrual of 710.56 billion TRY.

National Revenue and Regional Concentration

Nationally, the average income tax base was announced as 428,651 TRY, while the average accrued tax amount was realized at 127,187 TRY. The distribution of provinces with the highest tax collection from income taxpayers once again confirms the geographical density of economic activity. Istanbul's dominance in the list supports its position as a financial and trade center with data, while representation from Anatolia's industrial cities remained limited.

From a data science perspective, the exponential increase (18 times) in tax payments by Baykar executives is strong evidence of the multiplier effect high-tech and export-oriented models create on the tax base compared to traditional holding structures. The 90% success rate of export revenues in turnover optimizes the cash flow entering the budget directly through corporate tax withholding and profit distributions. In particular, the placement of Ziraat Bankası and Vakıfbank in the upper ranks of corporate tax indicates that the profitability structure of the public banking sector continues to maintain its weight in macroeconomic balances.