Türkiye exempts foreign-source income from tax for twenty years, and new residents must apply by the end of the year

Türkiye now exempts foreign-source income from Turkish income tax for twenty years for people who become Turkish tax residents having had no connection to the Turkish tax system beforehand. Anyone who became tax-resident in Türkiye during 2026 must apply before the year ends.

Remote Work Europe verified both instruments at primary source in the Resmî Gazete.

• Law 7582, Bazı Kanunlarda Değişiklik Yapılmasına Dair Kanun, Resmî Gazete 33270 of 4 June 2026. Its Article 4 inserts mükerrer madde 20/D into Income Tax Law 193.
• Gelir Vergisi Genel Tebliği Seri No: 333, Resmî Gazete 33300 of 4 July 2026, sets out the procedure.

What the provisions say:

• Earnings and revenues obtained outside Türkiye, Türkiye dışında elde ettiği kazanç ve iratlar, are exempt from income tax for twenty years: yirmi yıl boyunca gelir vergisinden müstesnadır
• The applicant must be treated as resident in Türkiye at the date of application, and must have had no tax liability and no residence in Türkiye during the three calendar years before residency was established
• Application is to the applicant’s tax office, for an exemption certificate, İstisna Belgesi
• The deadline is the end of the calendar year in which the person is deemed resident: yerleşmiş sayıldığı takvim yılının sonuna kadar. If residency was established in the final two months of the year, the deadline is the end of February following: takip eden takvim yılının ikinci ayının sonuna kadar

So someone who became Turkish tax-resident between January and October 2026 has until 31 December 2026. Someone who became resident in November or December 2026 has until the end of February 2027.

Why this matters, and what it does not do

This is a substantial provision and it is easy to misread, so two limits are worth stating before anything else.

The exemption is from Turkish tax only. It says nothing about what the country your income comes from will do, and nothing about what your previous country of tax residence may still claim. Whether you end up better off depends entirely on the other side of that equation, and on any double taxation treaty between the two.

And it requires becoming a Turkish tax resident, which is a consequential decision rather than an administrative one. Tax residence follows from where you actually live, carries obligations of its own, and is not something to acquire for the sake of an exemption.

What the provision does tell you is how Türkiye is positioning itself. A twenty-year horizon is unusually long for an incentive of this kind, and the three-year clean-break condition makes clear it is aimed at people arriving rather than people already there. Taken with the digital nomad visa introduced in 2024, Türkiye is building a route for people who earn abroad and live in Türkiye.

Separately: the digital nomad visa has not changed

Remote Work Europe checked. The parameters remain as they were: ages 21 to 55, a university degree, income of USD 3,000 a month or USD 36,000 a year, a limited list of eligible nationalities, and no route to permanent residence. No announcement of any change appears in the Resmî Gazete, from the Presidency of Migration Management, or from the tourism authorities.

One honest caveat on that: the official digital nomad portal returns an error to every request we made, so this finding rests on the absence of any official change notice rather than on reading the portal directly. We also do not publish a precise count of eligible nationalities, because the official sources disagree with each other.

What to watch

Whether the exemption is extended or clarified for people who became resident before June 2026, who appear to fall outside it entirely. Anyone considering an application should take advice from a Turkish tax professional, because the three-year condition and the residence test are where this will turn.