If you earn rent from a property in Turkey, Turkey taxes that rent, wherever you live, whatever passport you hold and wherever the tenant sends the money. Non-resident owners are taxed here on their Turkish-source income, and rent from a Turkish flat is squarely that.

The regime is called GMSİ (gayrimenkul sermaye iradı, income from immovable property). It is declared once a year, in March, and it is far more manageable than most foreign landlords fear once you understand three things: the exemption, the expense methods and the calendar.

The exemption threshold

Turkey exempts a slice of residential rental income from tax each year. The threshold is updated annually for inflation: for 2025 rental income (declared in March 2026) it stands at ₺47,000, and for 2026 income (declared in March 2027) it rises to ₺58,000. Because these figures move every year, always confirm the current amount before filing.

How it works in practice:

  • If your total annual residential rent is at or below the threshold, you generally do not file at all.
  • If it exceeds the threshold, you file, and deduct the exemption from your gross income before calculating tax. It is a genuine tax-free slice, not a filing trigger only.
  • The exemption applies once per taxpayer, not per property. Three flats do not mean three exemptions. Spouses who each own property each get their own.
  • It applies to residential lets only. Commercial rent (an office, a shop) follows different rules, typically with 20% withholding deducted by the business tenant.
  • Landlords with high overall income above a statutory ceiling, and landlords who fail to declare on time, can lose the exemption entirely — one of several reasons late filing is expensive.

At current Istanbul rents, virtually any normally rented apartment clears the threshold within a couple of months, so assume you will be filing.

Lump-sum vs actual expenses: the one real decision

After the exemption, you deduct expenses using one of two methods. This choice is the biggest lever on your bill.

Lump-sum method (götürü gider)

Deduct a flat 15% of your remaining rental income, no receipts, no questions. Simple, safe, and what most small landlords use. The catch: once you choose lump-sum, you are committed to it for two consecutive years. You cannot flip back to actual expenses the following March because a big renovation came up.

Actual expense method (gerçek gider)

Deduct what you genuinely spent, documented with invoices:

  • Maintenance, repairs and insurance premiums (including DASK, the compulsory earthquake insurance)
  • Aidat (the building's monthly service charge) and administration costs paid by the owner
  • Property tax
  • Depreciation on the building
  • Interest on a loan used to buy the property
  • For a recently purchased residential property, a notable extra: 5% of the acquisition cost per year for the first five years of ownership

For owners who bought recently, financed the purchase, or renovated seriously, actual expenses often beat 15% by a wide margin. The bookkeeping burden is real, and where exempt income exists, expenses are deductible only proportionally to the taxable part. This is exactly the calculation an accountant earns their fee on.

Rates and a worked example

Net rental income (after exemption and expenses) is taxed at Turkey's progressive income tax rates, which start at 15% and rise through brackets to 40%. It is the same tariff that catches a taxable gain if you later sell the flat from abroad. The bracket thresholds are re-set every year for inflation, so the effective rate on a single apartment's rent typically lands in the 15–27% range on the net figure. Check current brackets rather than relying on last year's.

Illustration with round numbers (2025 income, one flat, lump-sum method):

  • Gross annual rent: ₺600,000
  • Less exemption (₺47,000): ₺553,000
  • Less 15% lump-sum expenses: ₺470,050 taxable
  • Tax at progressive rates: roughly ₺90,000–100,000, an effective ~15–17% of gross rent

Your own outcome shifts with the year's brackets and your other Turkish income. But that order of magnitude (very roughly one to two months' rent going to tax) is a sound planning assumption for a typical Istanbul flat. When you assess a purchase, run the after-tax numbers, not the brochure numbers. What Istanbul flats yield gross against net walks the whole gap, and our rental yield calculator puts your own figures through it.

The March calendar

  • Filing window: the annual GMSİ declaration for the previous calendar year is submitted in March. Non-residents can file through the tax office's online system (Hazır Beyan), which pre-fills much of the return, or through a Turkish accountant under power of attorney.
  • Payment: the assessed tax is payable in two equal instalments, March and July.
  • What counts as income: rent actually collected during the year (cash basis), plus any past-due rent recovered. Rent collected in advance for future years is taxed in the years it relates to.
  • Paper trail: rent received through bank transfer is your evidence. Turkish rules in any case require every rent payment, whatever the amount, to move through a bank or PTT; collecting cash invites both proof problems and a penalty on you and your tenant. The rule is in collecting rent in cash.

Not declaring is a poor gamble. The tax authority cross-references title registry records, bank transfers and tenant declarations, and assessments arrive with penalties and late interest attached. Voluntary disclosure before you are caught is treated far more gently.

Double taxation: usually a non-problem

Turkey has income tax treaties with well over 80 countries, including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, the Gulf states and most of Europe. Under the standard treaty pattern, income from immovable property is taxable in the country where the property sits (Turkey). Your home country then either exempts that income or credits the Turkish tax against its own, depending on the treaty. In plain terms: you will generally not pay full tax twice, but you may still need to report the income at home. How your specific country handles it is a question for a tax adviser on that side; the Turkish side is exactly as described above.

Keep it boring

The landlords who do well here are the boring ones: rent through the bank, an accountant on a modest annual fee, the expense method chosen deliberately, filed every March without drama. The ones who struggle improvised for three years and then met the penalty regime.

Once this is sorted, check the rest: the ten things owners abroad most often miss are in one list. Take the remote owner check, see your score in a minute and send us your gaps in one message.

If you own remotely, fold the tax calendar into your property management arrangement so March never depends on your memory. Our monthly owner statement is written so your accountant can file from it. And if you do not know what the flat should really be earning, start with a free valuation.