The primary law of the Turkish Social Insurance Legislation is the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Code No. 5510. In accordance with this Law, the insurance premium rates to be collected from employers operating in Türkiye who employ personnel are determined as follows:
- For private sector employers, disability, old-age and survivors insurance premium rate is 20% of the insured’s earnings subject to premium. 9% of this is the insured share and 11% is the employer share.
- In jobs belonging to private sector employers where actual service period increment is applied, an additional premium of 1 to 3 points must be paid at the rate of 20%, depending on the type of job. The entire premium for the difference between the rate found in this way and the 20% rate is paid by the employer.
- The premium rate for short-term insurance branches is 2% of the insured’s premium earnings. The employer pays all of this premium. The President of Republic of Turkey is authorized by law to reduce this rate to 1.5% or increase it to 2.5%. The currently applied rate as of the date of this essay is 2%.
- For self-employed insured individuals (independent employees), the premium rate for short-term insurance branches is 6% of their premium-based earnings. 1% of this premium rate is short-term insurance branches and 5% is general health insurance premium.
- The premium rate for trainees who participate in vocational training, development and change training organized by the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) is 5.5% of their premium-based earnings. 1% of this premium rate is short-term insurance branches and 4.5% is general health insurance premium. This premium is being paid by İŞKUR.
- General health insurance premium is 12.5% of the premium-based earnings for those subject to short and long-term insurance branches. 5% of this premium is the insured’s share and 7.5% is the employer’s share.
- For those who are only subject to general health insurance, the general health insurance premium is 12% of the earnings subject to premium.
The premiums belonging to employees share must be cut at source from the gross wages and to be paid by the employer to the Social Security Institution (SSI) by adding the employers share to the amount. The deadline for payment is the end of the month (the last day of the month) in which social insurance premium is declared.
The State contributes to the SSI at the rate of one quarter of the disability, old-age and survivors insurance and general health insurance premiums collected by the Institution every month. The amount to be calculated as state contribution is paid to the Institution by the Treasury within fifteen days following the requested date.
