The Draft Law on Amendments to Certain Laws was submitted to the Speaker's Office of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye on 2 March 2026.
The Draft Law on Amendments to Certain Laws was submitted to the Speaker’s Office of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye on 2 March 2026.
In summary, the Draft Law:
- introduces a transaction tax and income tax withholding on crypto assets,
- provides that advertising and promotion expenses for games of chance and betting of any kind will not be accepted as an expense in determining commercial income,
- removes the corporate income tax exemption for hospitals and similar healthcare institutions within foundation universities,
- introduces a VAT exemption for the leasing of residential property included in commercial enterprises,
- converts into partial exemptions, by removing the right of deduction and refund, the full exemptions applied to supplies and services to the Turkish Red Crescent Society, residential deliveries to foreign nationals, healthcare services provided to foreign nationals, deliveries of printed books and periodicals, and the construction of facilities donated to general and special budget public administrations, special provincial administrations, municipalities and villages,
- brings certain precious stones within the scope of special consumption tax,
- provides for the power to increase the state’s share in the unemployment insurance premium,
- provides for the exemption from earnings subject to social security premiums of daily meal allowances of up to TRY 300 provided by employers outside the workplace.
1) Taxation of Crypto Assets
1.1) Crypto asset transaction tax (Expenditure Taxes Law No. 6802)
Article 1 of the Draft Law introduces a “crypto asset transaction tax” into Law No. 6802, making crypto asset sale and transfer transactions carried out or intermediated by crypto asset service providers subject to tax.
The taxpayers are the crypto asset service providers.
The tax rate is set at three per ten thousand of the crypto asset sale amount or of the fair value at the time of transfer; no deduction may be made under the name of expense or tax.
The taxation period is each one-month period of the calendar year (the tax is to be declared by the evening of the 15th day of the following month and paid within the same period).
The President is empowered to reduce the rate to zero or increase it up to fivefold; the Ministry of Treasury and Finance is empowered to determine the procedures and principles.
1.2) Bringing crypto assets within the scope of the Income Tax Law (wording changes in Articles 70 and repeated 80)
Under the Draft Law:
- Article 3 adds the terms “asset” and “crypto assets” to Article 70 of the Income Tax Law, entitled “Definition of Income from Immovable Property”, and
- Article 4 adds the terms “asset/assets” to repeated Article 80 of the Income Tax Law, entitled “Capital Gains”,
thereby bringing crypto assets within the scope of those income provisions.
1.3) Withholding on income derived from crypto assets (new repeated article added to the Income Tax Law)
Article 5 of the Draft Law adds repeated Article 94, entitled “Taxation of crypto assets”, to the Income Tax Law, providing for withholding at a rate of 10% by platforms, on a quarterly basis, on the income and revenues derived from crypto asset transactions on platforms subject to Capital Markets Law No. 6362.
Rules are set out on determining the acquisition cost of the same type of crypto asset using the FIFO method, taking commissions and the transaction tax into account in the tax base, treating transactions within the same period as a single transaction, and offsetting losses against the tax base of the following period (without exceeding the calendar year).
For income subject to withholding, no return is to be filed for certain categories of taxpayer and such income is not to be included in other income declarations; where the income falls within commercial income, the offsetting of taxes paid by way of withholding is regulated.
Income derived from crypto asset transactions carried out outside platforms subject to the Capital Markets Board is to be declared in the annual income tax return, and losses may be offset only against income derived from those assets.
The President is empowered to set the rate; the Ministry of Treasury and Finance is empowered to determine the procedures and principles and to regulate liability.
1.4) VAT exemption on crypto asset supplies (Article 17/4 of the VAT Law)
Article 7 of the Draft Law amends subparagraph 17/4-(g) of the VAT Law to exempt from VAT the supply of crypto assets falling within the scope of the crypto asset transaction tax.
The provisions on crypto assets are to enter into force at the beginning of the second month following publication of the law.
2) Advertising and Promotion Expenses for Games of Chance and Betting Not Deductible in Determining Commercial Income
Under subparagraph 12 added by Article 2 of the Draft Law to Article 41 of the Income Tax Law, entitled “Payments Not Accepted as Expenses”, advertising and promotion expenses for games of chance and betting of any kind will not be accepted as an expense in determining commercial income.
Similarly, under the subparagraph added by Article 15 of the Draft Law to Article 11 of the Corporate Income Tax Law, entitled “Non-deductible expenses”, advertising and promotion expenses for games of chance and betting of any kind will not be accepted as an expense in determining corporate income.
The provision is to enter into force on the date of publication.
3) Removal of the Corporate Income Tax Exemption for Hospitals and Similar Healthcare Institutions Within Foundation Universities
At present, under Article 56 and additional Article 7 of Higher Education Law No. 2547, foundation universities benefit from the financial exemptions and exclusions granted to public institutions included in the general budget. On this basis, healthcare institutions operating within foundation universities also benefit from the corporate income tax exemption set out in subparagraph (b) of the first paragraph of Article 4 of Corporate Income Tax Law No. 5520, which covers hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, sanatoriums, retirement homes, childcare homes, animal hospitals and dispensaries, animal shelters, veterinary bacteriology, serology and distomatosis institutions and similar establishments operated by public administrations and institutions for the protection and treatment of general human and animal health.
Article 6 of the Draft Law amends additional Article 7 of Law No. 2547 so as to prevent hospitals and similar healthcare institutions operating within foundation universities from benefiting from the corporate income tax exemption, by excluding the exemption provision in Article 4/1-(b) of Law No. 5520.
The rationale of the Draft Law states that these institutions in fact have the character of a commercial enterprise and provide services for consideration under market conditions.
The provision is to enter into force on 1 January 2027.
4) Amendments to the Value Added Tax Law
4.1) VAT exemption on the leasing of residential property included in commercial enterprises (Article 17/4-d of the VAT Law)
Article 7 of the Draft Law brings within the scope of the exemption in subparagraph 4-(d) of Article 17 of the Value Added Tax Law, entitled “Social and Military Purpose Exemptions and Other Exemptions”, the leasing of immovable property having the character of a dwelling that is included in commercial enterprises.
4.2) VAT exemption on the transfer of expropriated property (new subparagraph added to Article 17/4 of the VAT Law)
Under the subparagraph added by Article 7 of the Draft Law to paragraph 17/4 of the VAT Law, the transfer to the State and public legal entities carrying out the expropriation of immovable property expropriated under Expropriation Law No. 2942 is to be exempt from VAT.
4.3) Amendment concerning the scope of the VAT refund and deduction right (reference to Article 32 of the VAT Law)
Under the amendment made by Article 8 of the Draft Law to Article 32 of the VAT Law, entitled “Deduction in Exempt Transactions”:
- supplies and services to the Turkish Red Crescent Society (13/h),
- residential deliveries to foreign nationals (13/i),
- construction of facilities donated to general and special budget public administrations, special provincial administrations, municipalities and villages (13/k),
- healthcare services provided to foreign nationals (13/l),
- deliveries of printed books and periodicals (13/n),
which currently take the form of full exemptions, are to be converted into partial exemptions by removing the right of deduction and refund. The carried-forward VAT arising from these transactions, which in essence are not passed on directly to the final consumer, will therefore be recorded directly as an expense rather than reclaimed.
The above provisions are to enter into force at the beginning of the second month following publication of the law.
5) Bringing Certain Precious Stones Within the Scope of Special Consumption Tax
Article 12 of the Draft Law adds certain goods to List (IV) annexed to Law No. 4760 (for example natural and cultured pearls, diamonds, precious and semi-precious stones) so that special consumption tax at a rate of 20% applies.
The provision is to enter into force at the beginning of the second month following publication of the law.
6) Meal Allowance
Under the amendment made by Article 14 of the Draft Law to Article 80 of Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510, entitled “Earnings subject to premiums”, and in alignment with the tax legislation, where the employer does not provide meals at the workplace or its annexes, the portion of the daily meal allowance for days worked up to TRY 300 will not be subject to earnings subject to premiums.
This amount will be increased each year by the revaluation rate determined for the previous year under paragraph (B) of repeated Article 298 of Tax Procedure Law No. 213.
7) Power to Increase the State’s Share in the Unemployment Insurance Premium
Under the amendment made by Article 9 of the Draft Law to Article 49 of Law No. 4447, entitled “Provisions on unemployment insurance premiums and social security premiums”, the President is empowered to increase or reduce the State’s share in the unemployment insurance premium by up to one half.