Turkish Tax Law: The Statutes, the Rates and Who Administers Them

Turkish tax law is not a single code. It is a procedural statute — Tax Procedure Law No. 213 (Vergi Usul Kanunu), adopted on 4 January 1961 — sitting underneath a set of separate substantive statutes, one for each tax: income tax under Law No. 193, corporate tax under Law No. 5520, VAT under Law No. 3065, special consumption tax under Law No. 4760, stamp tax under Law No. 488, plus the laws on charges, motor vehicles, property, inheritance and banking and insurance transactions. Law No. 213 supplies everything the individual tax laws leave out — assessment, notification, books and records, audit, time limits, penalties and the route to the tax court. Almost the whole of it is administered by one body, the Revenue Administration (Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı, GİB), constituted under Presidential Decree No. 4, Articles 134 onwards, as an agency attached to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. The main exception sits at the border: article 2 of Law No. 213 places taxes and duties collected by the customs administrations outside its scope, leaving them to Customs Law No. 4458.

That is the map. What this guide does not do is set out a foreign investor’s own liability — full or limited taxpayer status, withholding on repatriated profit, the domestic minimum corporate tax, the treaty position. That is a separate subject, and it is covered in detail in our guide to how foreign companies are taxed in Türkiye.

What is actually inside “Turkish tax law”?

Start with scope, because it decides which rules apply. Article 1 of Law No. 213 provides that the Law applies to taxes, duties and charges included in the general budget, and to those belonging to special provincial administrations and municipalities. So a municipal property tax and a State corporate tax sit under the same procedural roof, even though they are collected by different administrations.

Article 2, as amended by Law No. 5728, is the carve-out. Taxes and duties collected by the customs administrations are outside Law No. 213 and are governed by Customs Law No. 4458 instead. This is not a technicality. It means that the assessment mechanics, the time limits, the penalty regime and the objection route for an import file are not the ones described in this article — they are the customs ones, which we set out separately in our guide to customs duty in Türkiye. Import VAT, by contrast, is a VAT Law matter that happens to be collected at the border, which is precisely why import files so often produce two parallel disputes.

Everything else divides fairly cleanly into three groups: taxes on income (income tax and corporate tax), taxes on transactions and consumption (VAT, ÖTV, stamp tax, the banking and insurance transactions tax, charges), and taxes on wealth and its transfer (motor vehicles, property, inheritance and transfer tax).

The main taxes and the law behind each

Tax	Governing law	Who pays	Headline rate and period
Income tax (gelir vergisi)	Law No. 193, 1961	Natural persons, on the seven categories of income in art. 2	Progressive tariff, 15% to 40%, on income earned in the 2026 calendar year
Corporate tax (kurumlar vergisi)	Law No. 5520, 2006	Capital companies, cooperatives, economic public enterprises, economic enterprises of associations and foundations, joint ventures	25%; 30% for the financial-sector, BOT and PPP entities listed in art. 32 (2026 period)
Value added tax (KDV)	Law No. 3065, 1984	Persons supplying goods and services in Türkiye in the course of business, and importers	20% standard since 10 July 2023; 10% for Annex (II) items, 1% for Annex (I) items
Special consumption tax (ÖTV)	Law No. 4760, 2002	Manufacturers and importers of the listed goods; first acquirers of registrable vehicles	List-based (Lists I–IV) and levied once only — rates and fixed amounts vary by tariff heading
Stamp tax (damga vergisi)	Law No. 488, 1964	Parties to the papers in Table (1), including documents in electronic form bearing an electronic signature	Proportional or fixed; from 1 January 2026, 9.48 per thousand on contracts stating a sum and 1.89 per thousand on leases
Banking and insurance transactions tax (BSMV)	Expenditure Taxes Law No. 6802, 1956	Banks and insurance companies, on all sums collected in their own favour	Statutory rate 15% (2 per thousand on FX transactions); the operative rate per transaction type is fixed by Decree 98/11591
Motor vehicles tax (MTV)	Law No. 197, 1963	Registered owners of motor vehicles	Tariff-based fixed amounts — the current-period tariff must be consulted
Property tax (emlak vergisi)	Law No. 1319, 1970	Owners of buildings, land and plots	Set under Law No. 1319 — the current-period figures must be consulted
Inheritance and transfer tax	Law No. 7338, 1959	Persons acquiring property by inheritance or by gratuitous transfer	Bracket-based — the current-period brackets must be consulted
Charges (harçlar)	Law No. 492, 1964	Users of the listed public services — judicial, notary, tax-judiciary, land registry and cadastre, consular and others	Fixed or proportional by tariff — the current-period tariff must be consulted
Customs duties	Customs Law No. 4458	Importers	Outside Law No. 213 by its art. 2; tariff-based

Where the table gives no figure, that is deliberate. Those amounts are tariffs that change, most of them revalued with effect from each 1 January and published in the Official Gazette in a general communiqué for the year. The current-period figure has to be taken from that communiqué, not from a secondary source — which is also why a bare number quoted on a website with no date attached is worth very little.

Who administers the system?

The Revenue Administration (Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı) is constituted under the Twelfth Chapter of Presidential Decree No. 4, Articles 134 onwards, as a body attached to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. Article 134 states its purpose in unusually concrete terms: to work on determining State revenue policy and revenue estimates and to apply revenue policy with fairness and impartiality; to collect taxes and other revenues at minimum cost; to secure taxpayers’ voluntary compliance; to provide service while observing taxpayer rights; and to detect and prevent tax loss, tax evasion and unregistered economic activity, carrying out risk analysis for that purpose.

Article 136 gives it a central and a provincial organisation — which is why a taxpayer deals with a local tax office (vergi dairesi) while policy and legislation are made centrally. Article 137 lists the duties, and three of them matter in practice: preparing legislation on State revenues, collecting State receivables, and conducting litigation before the administrative courts. The administration that assesses the tax is also the administration that defends the assessment in court.

One historical point is worth correcting because it is repeated widely. Law No. 5345 of 5 May 2005 originally created and organised the Revenue Administration, but Decree-Law No. 703 changed its title and repealed its organisational articles, with effect from 9 July 2018. Citing Law No. 5345 as the law that governs the Administration’s organisation and powers is therefore wrong today. What the Law still carries was put back into it afterwards and is procedural — notably article 27, re-enacted by Law No. 7491 of 27 December 2023, which lets the Revenue Administration re-set the last day of a filing or payment period by up to fifteen days where its own information systems cannot provide service. The wider power behind the routine extension circulars is a different provision: repeating art. 28 of Law No. 213, under which the Revenue Administration may move the last day of a filing or payment period by up to one month from the statutory date.

The two taxes on income

Income Tax Law No. 193 taxes natural persons. Article 1 defines income as the net amount of the gains and revenues a natural person obtains in one calendar year, and article 2 lists the seven categories that make it up: commercial gains, agricultural gains, wages and salaries, self-employment income, income from immovable property, movable capital income, and other gains and revenues. The category matters as much as the amount, because deduction rules, withholding and filing obligations all attach to the category rather than to the person.

For income earned in the 1 January – 31 December 2026 calendar year, the tariff set by Income Tax General Communiqué Series No. 332 is:

Band (income earned in 2026)	Rate
Up to 190,000 TL	15%
190,000 – 400,000 TL	20%
400,000 – 1,000,000 TL (wage income: 400,000 – 1,500,000 TL)	27%
1,000,000 – 5,300,000 TL (wage income: 1,500,000 – 5,300,000 TL)	35%
Over 5,300,000 TL	40%

Wage income runs on a wider third and fourth band, which is why the same gross figure produces a different tax depending on how it is earned. The annual income tax return is filed from the beginning of March until the evening of the 25th day of March under article 92.

Corporate Tax Law No. 5520 taxes entities. Article 1 lists them: capital companies, cooperatives, economic public enterprises, economic enterprises belonging to associations and foundations, and joint ventures (iş ortaklıkları). Article 3 draws the liability line — an entity whose legal centre or business centre is in Türkiye is taxed on worldwide income; an entity with neither in Türkiye is taxed only on Türkiye-sourced income.

The rate under article 32(1) is 25%, confirmed in the Revenue Administration’s guide Kurumlar Vergisinde Oran Uygulamaları (Publication No. 605, March 2026). Around it sit four adjustments:

• 30% for the listed entities — banks; leasing, factoring, financing and savings-financing companies under Law No. 6361; electronic payment and e-money institutions; authorised foreign-exchange bureaux; asset management companies; capital markets institutions; insurance, reinsurance and pension companies; and, for income of 2025 and subsequent periods, companies acting as contracting party in build-operate-transfer projects under Law No. 3996 and public-private partnership projects under Law No. 6428.
• A 2-point reduction for five accounting periods for companies whose shares are offered to the public for the first time on the Borsa İstanbul Equity Market at a rate of at least 20% (art. 32(6)) — the financial-sector entities above are excluded. It applies from income earned on or after 1 January 2021.
• A 5-point reduction on income derived exclusively from exports (art. 32(7)), extended to manufacturers and suppliers exporting through foreign-trade capital companies or sectoral foreign-trade companies under an intermediated-export contract. It was 1 point for the 2022 accounting period and became 5 points for returns due from 1 October 2023, applying to income of 2023 and later periods.
• A 10% domestic minimum corporate tax (art. 32/C, added by Law No. 7524): the corporate tax computed under arts. 32 and 32/A cannot be less than 10% of corporate income before deductions and exemptions — commercial balance-sheet profit plus legally non-deductible expenses. It applies from income of the 2025 period, is computed at advance-tax periods too, and does not reach newly established companies for three accounting periods.

A change that has not taken effect yet. Law No. 7582, published in the Official Gazette of 4 June 2026, No. 33270, replaced art. 32(8) of Law No. 5520 so that corporate tax is applied at 12.5% on income derived exclusively from production activity by companies holding an industry registry certificate and actually engaged in production, and on income from agricultural production activity, with no further export reduction on the same income. By art. 14(c) of that Law it applies to income earned in 2027 and subsequent taxation periods. For the 2026 period the position described by the Revenue Administration in its March 2026 guide — a 1-point reduction on such production income — is the one that governs.

The corporate tax return is filed from the first day to the evening of the 25th day of the fourth month following the month in which the accounting period closed, so 1–25 April for a calendar-year taxpayer.

Withholding does much of the collection work in both statutes. Arts. 15 and 30 of Law No. 5520 set a statutory rate of 15% — art. 15 for the listed payments to resident entities, art. 30 for payments to non-resident entities, including profit distributions to non-resident companies and the amount a Turkish branch transfers to its head office. The rate that actually applies to a particular payment is the one in Council of Ministers Decrees 2009/14594 (for art. 15) and 2009/14593 (for art. 30), both of 12 January 2009 and both amended since, and it varies by payment type; the Revenue Administration identifies those two decrees as the governing instruments in its March 2026 guide. On profit distributions the rate is 15% only because Presidential Decree No. 9286, published in the Official Gazette of 22 December 2024, No. 32760, took it back up from the 10% that had applied until then. Separately, art. 30(7) imposes a 30% withholding on payments to entities resident or operating in countries announced by the President.

The transaction taxes: VAT, ÖTV, stamp tax and BSMV

VAT Law No. 3065 catches, by art. 1, supplies of goods and services made in Türkiye in the course of commercial, industrial, agricultural and professional activity, all imports of goods and services, and supplies arising from the further activities the article lists. Article 28 sets a statutory rate of 10% and gives the President power to raise it up to fourfold or cut it to 1% and to differentiate between goods and services. The operative rates come from Council of Ministers Decree 2007/13033, which builds three bands: a general rate, a reduced rate for Annex List (II), and 1% for Annex List (I). Presidential Decree No. 7346, published in the Official Gazette of 7 July 2023, No. 32241, replaced 18% with 20% and 8% with 10%, in force from 10 July 2023 and unchanged since. In a financial leasing transaction, the VAT rate of the underlying good applies. Returns are due by the evening of the 24th day of the following month, and by the evening of the 21st for persons responsible for VAT withholding.

Special consumption tax (ÖTV), Law No. 4760 is structurally different and is frequently misdescribed. It has no single rate. It works through four annexed lists and is levied once only: List (I) on delivery by importers or manufacturers including refineries; List (II) on the first acquisition of registrable vehicles; non-registrable List (II) items together with Lists (III) and (IV) on import, manufacture or construction; and on the sale by auction of List (I), (III), (IV) goods and non-registrable List (II) goods before ÖTV has been applied. Rates and fixed amounts vary by tariff heading, so the only correct answer to “what is the ÖTV rate” is the heading-specific one.

Stamp Tax Law No. 488 taxes papers, not transactions — and by art. 1 that expressly includes documents created in magnetic media and electronic data form using an electronic signature. Article 10 makes the tax either proportional, on the specific sum stated in the paper, or a fixed amount. For the amounts applicable from 1 January 2026, Table (1) was set by General Communiqué on Stamp Tax Series No. 71, published in the Official Gazette of 31 December 2025, No. 33124 (5th repeating): contracts, undertakings and assignments containing a specific sum, together with guarantee, security and pledge instruments, arbitration agreements and settlement deeds, are taxed at 9.48 per thousand; lease contracts and rescission deeds at 1.89 per thousand. Article 14 caps the tax computed on each paper at a statutory ceiling, and provides that the previous year’s ceiling is increased at the start of each calendar year by the announced revaluation rate — so the ceiling is a moving figure that must be read from the current-period communiqué rather than from the consolidated text of the Law.

Banking and insurance transactions sit outside VAT. They fall under the banking and insurance transactions tax (BSMV) in Expenditure Taxes Law No. 6802, whose art. 28 subjects all sums that banks and insurance companies collect in their own favour, under whatever name, to the tax. Article 33 sets a statutory rate of 15%, with 2 per thousand on foreign-exchange transactions, and allows the President to reduce it to 1% — and to zero for FX transactions — separately or jointly by category of transaction. The rates that actually apply to a given transaction type were fixed by Council of Ministers Decree 98/11591 of 28 August 1998, amended more than once since, which is why the statutory headline and the operative figure are not the same number.

Finally, Charges Law No. 492 covers the fees attached to public services rather than to income or consumption: art. 1 lists judicial charges, notary charges, tax-judiciary charges, land registry and cadastre charges and consular charges among others. These are the amounts that turn up in a litigation budget or a property closing, and they are tariffed annually. Where an investor is operating inside a free zone or another incentive regime, the interaction between these general taxes and the regime’s exemptions is a separate exercise — see our guide to Türkiye’s free zones.

The procedural layer: assessment, filing and audit

This is what Law No. 213 is for, and it is the part that decides most disputes.

Assessment and filing. The taxation period for corporate tax is the accounting period, normally the calendar year; for income tax it is the calendar year itself. The annual income tax return is filed 1–25 March; the corporate tax return 1–25 April for a calendar-year taxpayer; the VAT return by the 24th of the following month. Each of these is a statutory date, and each can be moved — by up to one month — by a Revenue Administration circular issued under repeating art. 28 of Law No. 213.

Advance tax (geçici vergi) runs quarterly alongside the annual return, on a cumulative basis, creditable against the annual liability. Under repeating art. 120 of Law No. 193 it is declared by the evening of the 14th day and paid by the evening of the 17th day of the second month following each three-month period. Corporate taxpayers apply the corporate tax rate of the current period; income taxpayers with commercial or self-employment income apply the rate of the first bracket of the art. 103 tariff. Article 32(3) of Law No. 5520 lets the President reduce the advance-tax rate by up to 5 points or restore it.

The fourth quarter is back. Law No. 7566 of 4 December 2025, published in the Official Gazette of 19 December 2025, No. 33112, removed the words “determined for the first nine months” from repeating art. 120 of Law No. 193, applying to returns for income and gains of taxation periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025. Advance tax is therefore due for four periods again. Any compliance calendar, internal manual or article still built on three quarters is out of date.

Penalties. Article 344 imposes a tax-loss penalty equal to one times the tax lost. Where the loss is caused by the acts listed in art. 359 the penalty is three times (one times for participants), and where a return is filed late but before a tax inspection has begun or the matter has been referred to an assessment commission, the penalty is 50%. Article 359 is the criminal provision, and it runs on separate bands. Paragraph (a) carries imprisonment of eighteen months to five years for accounting fraud in the books and records, and for concealing or falsifying books, records and documents or issuing or using documents that are misleading as to content — a document that reflects a real transaction inaccurately as to nature or amount. Paragraph (b) carries three to eight years for destroying books, records and documents, for substituting pages, and for issuing or using wholly or partly false documents — a document drawn up for a transaction that never happened. The gap between an ordinary tax-loss penalty and an art. 359 file is therefore not a matter of degree: it changes the forum and the consequence.

Settlement or the tax court: where a dispute goes

There are two exits from an assessment, and the choice is time-limited.

The administrative one is post-assessment settlement (uzlaşma) under additional article 1 (ek madde 1) of Law No. 213. It covers tax-loss penalties relating to additional, ex officio and administratively assessed taxes, and irregularity and special irregularity penalties above a statutory threshold — set at amounts above 40,000 TL with effect from 1 January 2026 by Tax Procedure Law General Communiqué Sequence No. 588, published in the Official Gazette of 31 December 2025, No. 33124 (5th repeating). Penalties imposed in connection with the acts listed in art. 359 are excluded from settlement.

The judicial one is art. 377: taxpayers, and persons on whom a tax penalty has been imposed, may bring an action before the tax court (vergi mahkemesi) against the taxes assessed and the penalties imposed. What preserves that route is unglamorous — books and records kept as Law No. 213 requires, returns filed on time, notices diarised on the day they arrive. A file that is documented is a file that can be defended; the reverse is also true, which is why the tax position of a Turkish company should be built into it at the point of incorporation rather than reconstructed afterwards.

The treaty layer

Above the domestic statutes sits a bilateral layer. Türkiye is party to double taxation treaties concluded with other States, and the Revenue Administration publishes the list of those it has concluded. A treaty does not itself impose tax: it allocates taxing rights between two States, and can therefore limit what the domestic statute would otherwise take — most visibly on withholding, and on whether a foreign enterprise is taxable in Türkiye at all.

Two consequences follow. First, the terms differ from convention to convention, so the individual treaty has to be read rather than assumed from a general table. Second, relief is not usually automatic; it depends on the conditions the specific convention sets and on documenting them. Where a non-resident company, a branch or a cross-border payment is involved, the domestic rate in this guide is the starting point and not the answer — the mechanics are set out in our guide to how foreign companies are taxed in Türkiye.

Turkish tax law rewards being read in the right order: identify the tax, find its statute, check the period the figure belongs to, and then read Law No. 213 for everything the statute does not say. Our tax practice works with companies on that structural question — which tax applies, when it is declared, and what happens when the administration takes a different view.