International Tax Planning in Turkey

Turkey's new asset declaration and repatriation law (“varlık barışı”), enacted on June 4, 2026, lets both individuals and companies declare previously undisclosed cash, gold, foreign currency, securities, and other capital market instruments — held anywhere in the world, or undisclosed inside Turkey — and bring them into the formal economy at a sharply discounted rate. There is no minimum asset value; the obligation applies regardless of amount.

No. It applies to real persons and legal entities regardless of their Turkish tax status — foreign nationals, Turkish citizens living abroad, and foreign companies with Turkish exposure are all in scope, whether the assets sit inside or outside Turkey. This is not a residents-only regime.

The default rate is 5% of the declared value, collected upfront. Commit the declared assets to eligible Turkish investment vehicles — including Turkish government bonds or venture capital investment funds — for a defined period, and the rate drops sharply:

Declaring before the end of 2026 locks in the lower column. Every tier carries a 0.5 percentage point surcharge on declarations made from January 1, 2027 onward — the earlier column is not available retroactively.

July 31, 2027. After that date, both the declaration window and the tax protection that comes with it close. Once you declare, foreign assets must be transferred into a Turkish bank or brokerage account within two months of declaration — declaring is not the end of the process, the transfer has to actually happen.

Declared assets are shielded from Turkish tax investigation and assessment on the declared amount. If a later audit uncovers an undeclared gap and your declaration covers it, no additional tax is assessed. Pledge documents connected to the scheme are exempt from stamp duty. Most importantly, cash declared under the scheme can be deposited freely into a Turkish bank account — something the bank would otherwise not let you do without proof of source of funds.

Yes, under the new Article 20/D of the Income Tax Law. Individuals who relocate to Turkey from January 1, 2026 onward pay zero Turkish income tax on foreign-sourced income — for 20 years — provided they were not a Turkish tax resident and had no registered domicile in Turkey during the three calendar years immediately before relocating. No annual tax return is required for the exempt foreign income.

Individuals who qualify for the foreign income exemption also get a flat 1% inheritance tax rate during their exemption period, instead of Turkey's standard rates — which run up to 10% or 30% depending on the relationship between the parties and the value involved. For a high-net-worth individual planning succession, this is frequently a larger absolute saving than the income tax exemption itself.

Potentially, yes, under the new “qualified service center” (nitelikli hizmet merkezi) regime. To qualify, the company must serve an affiliated corporate group active in at least 3 different countries, derive at least 80% of its annual revenue from foreign related parties, and be structured as a capital company — joint-stock or limited liability.

For 20 fiscal years from the date the center becomes operational, 95% of its foreign-sourced income from these activities is deductible from the corporate tax base — an effective corporate tax rate of 1.25% (5% of the standard 25% rate). Locate the center inside the Istanbul Finance Center or a designated Industrial Zone and the deduction rises to 100%: a 0% effective rate.

Income tax is exempt on wages up to 3 times the gross minimum wage. For employees at centers inside the IFC or designated Industrial Zones, that rises to 5 times the gross minimum wage — a meaningful factor in the cost of relocating or hiring a regional team into Turkey.

Yes. Companies engaged in transit trade — buying goods abroad and selling them abroad, with the goods never entering Turkish customs territory — get a 95% deduction on those profits from corporate tax, rising to 100% for companies operating inside the IFC or eligible Industrial Zones. To qualify, proceeds must be transferred to Turkey by the corporate tax return deadline, and both the buyer and the seller must be non-Turkish parties.

Turkey has one of the more extensive treaty networks among emerging-market economies — public sources currently put the figure at roughly 85 to 90 agreements, covering most of the EU, the UK, the US, the Gulf states, and the major Asian economies. It matters directly: a treaty is what determines whether your home country credits or exempts the Turkish-source income you're now paying reduced or zero tax on, and whether dual residency gets resolved cleanly or not at all.

Through a fixed sequence: permanent home available to you, then center of vital interests (personal and economic ties), then habitual abode, then nationality, and finally direct agreement between the two tax authorities if none of those settle it. This sequence is what makes a treaty worth having over relying on domestic law alone.

Turkey participates in the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), and what it reports is narrower than most people assume: the existence of a reportable account, your identifying information, the year-end balance, and bank interest paid. It does not automatically report the source of the funds, rental income, business income, property ownership, or capital gains as distinct categories. Full detail, including the current list of exchange partners, is covered in our dedicated CRS article.