Collecting Entertainment Tax in Adana: Municipal Fiscal Control and Cinema Exhibitors’ Grey-Economy Tactics (1973–1977)

This article examines, under the Municipal Revenues Law No. 5237 (1948) and the Municipal Law No. 1580 (1930), how a municipally administered regime, in which municipalities set entertainment-tax rates and ticket prices and collected the tax themselves. Fiscal oversight was likewise exercised by them, shaped cinema exhibition and generated tensions between local authorities and cinema exhibitors. Focusing on Adana under Mayor Ege Bağatur (1973–1977), the study traces how devolved taxation, price-setting and inspection recalibrated under macroeconomic strain. Methodologically, the study combines qualitative analysis of newspaper archives (notably Yeni Adana), municipal bureaucrats’ memoirs, ephemera (cinema tickets) and legislative scans; materials were coded and thematically synthesised. Findings show that a revenue-dependent municipality intensified inspections and sought to increase entertainment-tax yields. At the same time, exhibitors responded with ticketless entry, counterfeit tickets, overselling capacity, and black-market pricing, revealing the fragile boundary between informal negotiation and open conflict and exposing the forms of informality that emerged in the cultural field under fiscal pressure.