Turkey: new residents pay no tax on foreign income for 20 years

In brief

• Law No. 7582 was passed by the Turkish parliament on 21 May 2026 and published in the Official Gazette on 4 June 2026. It added a separate article on income obtained abroad to the Income Tax Law.
• The exemption lasts twenty years and covers only people who became Turkish tax residents on or after 1 January 2026.
• There is one condition, and it is strict: in the three calendar years before the move, the person had neither a residence nor any tax liability in Turkey. Turkish rental income, dividends and gains on property sales do not prevent this; a Turkish salary or business does.
• Income obtained outside Turkey is exempt. Income from Turkish sources is taxed as usual.
• To use the exemption you need a certificate from the tax office. The application is due by the end of the year in which you became resident, or by the end of February of the following year if you moved in November or December.
• The same law cut the inheritance tax rate to 1% for inheritances received during the exemption period.

What matters now

The law itself came out in the summer, and we have already covered it in our articles on Turkish tax residency and on taxes for Turkish residence permit holders. What matters now is not the content of the exemption but the calendar. General Communique No. 333, published in the Official Gazette on 4 July 2026, turned the statutory rule into a procedure with an application, a form and a deadline. The deadline is the same for everyone: the end of the calendar year in which the person became a tax resident.

For the first wave of new residents this means something simple. If you moved to Turkey in 2026 and have lived here for more than six continuous months, you have two months left to apply. The communique explicitly discusses the case of a person who applied two years after the move: no certificate is issued. The text offers no way to restore a missed deadline.

The second thing to know is that the exemption is not linked to the type of residence permit, the size of an investment or citizenship. The law does not require buying property, investing money or passing exams. Only two things decide: whether you became a tax resident, and whether you had a tax connection with Turkey in the three years before. That is why very different people ask about it: families who moved on a residence permit through property, owners of businesses abroad, retirees with savings abroad.

What this means for you. If you became a Turkish resident in 2026, check the conditions and apply for the certificate by 31 December. Without the certificate the exemption is not used, and a later application will not be accepted.

Who counts as a new resident

The Turkish Income Tax Law treats a person as resident in two cases. First, their domicile is in Turkey under the rules of the civil code. Second, they live in Turkey continuously for more than six months in a calendar year, and temporary trips abroad do not interrupt that period. The law also lists foreigners who do not become residents even after a long stay, for example specialists who come for a specific temporary assignment.

A resident pays tax on worldwide income, a non-resident only on Turkish income. The new article makes an exception to this rule: a resident who arrives "with a clean history" pays no Turkish tax on foreign income for twenty years. That is why the exemption appeals to people whose main capital and income remain outside Turkey. We have explained the differences between a residence permit, citizenship and tax status in our article on taxes for Turkish citizens.

The key condition concerns the three calendar years before the year of the move. The communique counts them literally. A person who became resident in July 2026 must have had no residence and no tax liability in Turkey in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Another example from the communique: a person left Turkey in November 2024 and came back in 2027. They do not qualify, because 2024 falls within the period being checked, and in that year they were still resident.

Tax liability in Turkey is also assessed strictly, with one important caveat. If before the move a person paid Turkish tax on rent from a Turkish flat, on dividends or interest from Turkish securities, or on gains from selling property, this does not prevent the exemption. The law expressly carves these types of income out of the restriction. A Turkish salary taxed at source, or commercial activity in Turkey during the years checked, does remove eligibility. The communique illustrates both cases with separate examples.

Citizenship plays no role here. The communique makes no exception either for foreigners or for Turkish citizens: domicile and tax history decide. A holder of a Turkish passport who has lived and paid taxes in another country for many years can formally qualify if they meet the three-year condition. Obtaining Turkish citizenship by investment does not by itself make a person a tax resident and does not trigger the exemption.

What this means for you. Check the three previous calendar years: where you lived, whether you received a Turkish salary, whether you ran a business in Turkey. A Turkish flat you rented out and Turkish securities do not stand in the way.

Which income is exempt

The law exempts income obtained outside Turkey without a closed list. The communique explains the rule through examples. Rent from property abroad is exempt: in one example it is a flat in Monaco. Dividends from a foreign company, for example a Spanish one, are also exempt. At the same time, rent from a flat in Turkey and dividends from a Turkish company are taxed, even if the same person uses the exemption for foreign income.

The most telling example concerns a consultant. He works in Turkey and advises foreign clients on Turkish investments. The clients are abroad and the money comes from abroad, but the work is done in Turkey, so the income is Turkish and the exemption does not apply. For remote workers the conclusion is direct: a salary or fee for work you perform while in Turkey does not become foreign income just because the employer or client is abroad. How different countries treat such income is covered in our article on tax residency for remote workers.

The exemption has a flip side. Costs related to exempt income do not reduce tax on other income. Tax paid abroad on exempt income is not credited in Turkey. For most people this changes nothing, since there is no Turkish tax on that income anyway. But if the source country withholds tax, the Turkish exemption will not give it back: that is governed by double tax treaties and the rules of the source country itself.

No annual return is filed for exempt income. If a resident has other income, for example rent from a Turkish flat, the return for it is filed as usual, and the exempt foreign income is not included. This noticeably simplifies life for people whose income comes from several countries.

What this means for you. The exemption works for passive foreign income: rent abroad, dividends from foreign companies. Income from work performed in Turkey stays Turkish, wherever the client is.

How to get the certificate and by when

General Communique No. 333 introduces an exemption certificate. The application is filed on the form annexed to the communique with the tax office to which the taxpayer belongs. The office checks the conditions and issues the certificate. It is the certificate that confirms the right not to pay Turkish tax on foreign income and not to include it in a return.

The deadline is the end of the calendar year in which the person became resident. If residence began in the last two months of the year, the deadline moves to the end of the second month of the following year. In practice, for new residents of 2026: those who moved between January and October must apply by 31 December 2026; those who moved in November or December, by the end of February 2027.

Before applying, gather documents that prove both parts of the condition. The first part is the date from which you became a Turkish resident: residence permit, lease or title deed, address registration, entry stamps. The second part is the absence of a Turkish residence and tax liability in the three previous years: a tax residency certificate from another country, tax returns filed there, evidence that you had no salary or business in Turkey.

A separate practical question is the Turkish tax number and bank account. You need them to apply and for everyday life in the country, but they do not by themselves create a tax liability. How to open an account is explained in our article on a bank account in Turkey.

What this means for you. Gather proof of your move date and of your tax history for the three years before it, apply to the tax office and keep the certificate issued. For people who moved between January and October 2026 the deadline is 31 December.

What happens if the conditions are not met

The law sets a simple rule: if it later turns out that the conditions were not met, the tax not assessed is treated as underpaid. The communique spells out the consequences. The certificate is cancelled and the tax is collected together with a penalty for underpayment and late payment interest. A twenty-year exemption gives the tax office plenty of time to come back to the check.

Typical risks are already visible from the communique examples. The first is a forgotten Turkish salary in the years checked, for example a short contract with a Turkish company. The second is a business in Turkey opened before the move. The third is a wrong residence date, when a person considers themselves a new 2026 resident but in fact already lived in Turkey for more than six months in 2025. The fourth is income the person considers foreign although the work was done in Turkey.

Also keep in mind the country you moved from. The Turkish exemption does not override its rules on giving up residence. If you remain a tax resident of your former country, your foreign income may be taxed there. We handle coordination between countries as part of our tax coordination service.

What this means for you. The certificate does not protect you if the original conditions were not met. Check your tax history before applying, not after the first audit.

Inheritance: a 1% rate

The same Law No. 7582 amended the inheritance and gift tax law. For people who use the foreign income exemption, property received by inheritance during the exemption period is taxed at 1%. The rule took effect on the day the law was published, 4 June 2026.

The wording of the law refers specifically to inheritance. The text contains no separate reduced rate for lifetime gifts, so you cannot plan to transfer assets as a gift on the assumption of 1%. The difference between the two taxes is explained in our glossary entries on inheritance tax and gift tax. If a family holds significant assets in several countries, it is easier to build a succession plan at once, together with the move. This is the focus of our family and succession planning service.

What this means for you. The 1% rate applies to inheritances received by a person who uses the exemption, and only during its term. Gifts are not reduced under this rule.

What twenty years means

The law speaks of twenty years, which makes this one of the longest exemptions of its kind. The communique does not separately specify the date from which the period runs, so it is worth documenting the start of your residence from day one. You will need it both for the application and for future checks.

If a person stops being a Turkish resident, the question of the exemption falls away by itself: under the general rule a non-resident pays no Turkish tax on foreign income at all. The communique makes this point with a separate example. Returning later will again raise the question of three years without a tax connection, and the years spent in Turkey will fall within that period.

The exemption does not change taxes inside the country. Rent from a Turkish flat, the sale of Turkish property, work and business in Turkey are taxed as usual. If you buy a home to live in or for citizenship, take these rules into account when calculating returns. We covered the market in our news on home sales to foreigners in September 2026 and on the new valuation rules for citizenship.

How it compares with other countries

Several European countries have regimes for new residents, but they work differently. In Italy a new resident pays a fixed annual amount instead of tax on foreign income; see our article on the Italian flat tax. In Greece a similar regime requires a fixed payment and an investment; we covered it in our article on the Greek non-dom regime. Portugal has revised its earlier regime, as explained in our article on the Portuguese tax regime.

The Turkish model is simpler: there is no fixed payment and no mandatory investment, but the condition of three years without a tax connection with Turkey is strict, and the application must be filed in the very first year. In effect it comes close to territorial taxation for a specific group of people, although formally Turkey taxes residents on worldwide income. The term non-dom does not apply to Turkey directly, but the logic is similar. To compare Turkey with its nearest neighbour, see our article Turkey or Greece.

We compared all the new resident regimes - Italy, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and the UAE - in one table in our analysis of new resident tax regimes in 2026.

What this means for you. If you are choosing a country to move to with capital abroad, Turkey offers the longest term without a fixed payment. The price is a strict condition about the past and a hard application deadline.

What to do now

General information about life and programmes in the country is on our Turkey page. If you are only planning a move, start with a Turkish residence permit and our article on permanent residence in Turkey. You can discuss your situation at an online consultation.

How this article was prepared

Sources: Law of the Republic of Turkey No. 7582 amending certain laws, dated 21 May 2026, Official Gazette No. 33270 of 4 June 2026 (resmigazete.gov.tr); Income Tax Law No. 193 as currently in force, with the article on the exemption for income obtained abroad and Article 4 on residence, legislation portal mevzuat.gov.tr; General Communique on Income Tax No. 333 of the Revenue Administration under the Ministry of Treasury and Finance of Turkey (gib.gov.tr), Official Gazette No. 33300 of 4 July 2026. All deadlines and examples follow the text of the communique. This article does not replace advice on your own situation.