Tax on rental income, property tax, DASK and building dues.

01

How rental income is taxed

Rental income is defined as income from immovable property in the Income Tax Law No. 193 (GVK Art. 70) and is taxed on a cash basis: rent collected in a calendar year for that year or for earlier years is that year’s receipts, and rent that is not collected is not declared. Rent collected in advance for future years, however, counts as the receipts of the years it relates to (Art. 72). Income of a calendar year is declared in March of the following year; the statutory deadline in Art. 92 is 25 March, and the Revenue Administration regularly extends it to the last day of March. The tax is paid in two equal instalments in March and July (Art. 117).

The return can be filed online through the Revenue Administration’s Pre-filled Return System, which pre-populates rent data from bank and land-registry records.

02

Residential rent exemption (2026: 58,000 TL)

A set amount of the rent earned in a calendar year from buildings let as dwellings is exempt from income tax (GVK Art. 21). The amount is revalued every year: 47,000 TL for 2025 income and 58,000 TL for 2026 income (Income Tax General Communiqué No. 332, Official Gazette 31 December 2025, No. 33124, 5th repeating issue). If residential rent does not exceed the amount, no return is filed.

Not eligible: those who fail to declare or under-declare the income; those obliged to file an annual return for commercial, agricultural or professional income; and those whose gross wages, investment income, immovable-property income and other earnings together exceed the figure for wage income in the third bracket of the tariff in GVK Art. 103 — 1,500,000 TL for 2026 income and 1,200,000 TL for 2025 (Art. 21/2). The exemption applies to residential rent only; there is no exemption for workplace rent.

03

Lump-sum or actual expenses

Expenses are deducted by one of two methods (GVK Art. 74). Under the lump-sum method, 15 percent of the revenue remaining after the exemption is deducted without documentation. Under the actual method, the items listed in the law and documented are deducted: building dues and management costs, insurance premiums, interest on a loan taken for the property, property tax, maintenance and repairs, depreciation, 5 percent of the acquisition cost for five years from acquisition of the let dwelling, and rent the landlord pays for their own home.

A taxpayer who chooses the lump-sum method cannot switch to actual expenses for two years (Art. 74/3). Those letting rights rather than property cannot use the lump-sum method at all (Art. 74, final paragraph). Under the actual method, the part of expenses attributable to the exempt portion is not deductible; the calculation is proportional.

04

Rent must be paid through a bank

Since 17 October 2024 every collection and payment relating to residential and workplace rent must be made through a bank or PTT and proven with their documents; the earlier 500 TL threshold was abolished (Income Tax General Communiqué No. 328; Tax Procedure Law, repeated Art. 257). Short-term lets are included. Cash collection can trigger a special irregularity fine for both landlord and tenant.

05

Withholding: what matters is who the tenant is

If the tenant is an individual not acting for a business, there is no withholding; the whole tax is paid through the annual return. If the tenant is one of the payers listed in Art. 94 of the Income Tax Law — trading companies, corporations, associations and foundations and their commercial enterprises, cooperatives, and traders and professionals who must declare their actual income — the tenant withholds 20 per cent income tax from the gross rent and pays it to the tax office (GVK Art. 94/5-a; the rate is set by Council of Ministers Decision 2009/14592).

What triggers the duty is the payer’s status, not how the flat is used: the law does not require the property to be used as a workplace. A flat a company rents to house an employee is caught as well. Withholding also applies to rent paid in advance for future months or years. The only exception on the tenant’s side is a tenant taxed under the simplified regime. Where a property is used partly as a workplace, the whole rent is subject to withholding. The amount withheld is credited against the tax computed on the owner’s annual return.

06

Filing as a non-resident (living abroad)

Non-residents of Turkey declare only income earned in Turkey (GVK Art. 6). A non-resident files no annual return for rental income that has been taxed in full by withholding in Turkey (Art. 86/2). Where there is no withholding — that is, where the tenant is a private individual — the residential exemption (58,000 TL for 2026) applies and anything above it must be declared in the March annual return, whatever the amount. The return may be filed through an attorney-in-fact or an authorised professional; the instalments fall in March and July.

If a double taxation treaty exists between Turkey and the country of residence, tax paid in Turkey is generally credited in the other country; the relevant treaty article (income from immovable property, usually Art. 6) and that country’s rules decide.

07

Property tax

Building tax is paid by the owner, not the tenant (Property Tax Law No. 1319, Art. 3). It is paid to the municipality where the property lies in two equal instalments: the first in March, April and May (deadline 31 May), the second in November (Art. 30). The rate for dwellings is 0.1 per cent, applied at double within metropolitan municipality boundaries, so 0.2 per cent (Art. 8). A purchase, a sale or a change to the building that alters its taxable value must be notified to the municipality within the budget year in which it occurred; if it occurs in the last three months of the budget year, within three months of the event (Art. 23). For an owner abroad this is the easiest obligation to miss.

08

DASK and home insurance

Compulsory earthquake insurance (DASK) is required by the Disaster Insurance Law No. 6305 for residential buildings on privately owned, registered land, for independent units under condominium ownership, and for office and shop units inside such buildings. The duty to insure lies with the owner or usufructuary, not the tenant, and the policy runs for a year and is renewed annually (Art. 10(3)). No land-registry transaction may be completed unless it is documented that the insurance is in place and valid on the date of the transaction (Art. 11(2)). Cover is also checked by the utility when water and electricity accounts are opened (Art. 11(3)); the law does not mention natural gas. Premium and cover are set by the Natural Disaster Insurance Institution, and the cover is for the building itself, not the contents.

Home insurance is optional; it covers risks outside DASK such as fire, flooding, theft and damage to neighbours. The tenant’s belongings need the tenant’s own policy.

09

Building dues and condominium law

The obligation to contribute to common expenses lies with the unit owner (Condominium Law No. 634, Art. 20). The law splits the shares by two different measures: owners contribute equally to the cost of the concierge, boiler operator, gardener and watchman, and in proportion to their land share to insurance premiums and the maintenance, protection, strengthening and repair of the common parts (Art. 20(1)); late payment carries default compensation of 5 per cent a month (Art. 20(2)). The tenant is jointly and severally liable with the owner, but only up to the rent the tenant owes, and what the tenant pays is set off against the rent (Art. 22/1). Ordinary dues under the operating budget (concierge, cleaning, heating and similar usage costs) may be placed on the tenant; substantial repairs and capital works such as the roof, lift replacement or insulation belong to the owner and cannot be shifted to the tenant by contract, because the tenant cannot be made to pay anything beyond rent and ancillary costs (TBK Art. 346).

Utilities (heating, lighting, water, gas) are borne by the tenant unless the contract says otherwise (TBK Art. 341). Opening the subscriptions in the tenant’s name prevents bills accumulating in the owner’s name.