According to the Turkish Tax Law, taxation of wage income is made in the form of deduction at source. In this regard, employers are obliged to deduct income tax, stamp duty and social security premiums from the gross wages of the people they employ and pay them to the relevant public institution (Revenue Administration of Social Security Institution.)
On the other hand, if some employees’ income exceeds the determined limits, they are required to submit an annual income tax return and report their income to the Revenue Administration of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. The circumstances in which employees must submit an annual income tax return and the procedures for annual income declaration have been clarified by Law No. 7194, which came into force in 2019. In this context, the following employees are required to submit an income tax return:
- Employers whose total wage income from a single employer reaches the fourth tax bracket must submit an income tax return.
- Employees who change jobs during the year and whose wage income reaches the second tax bracket for both employers separately during the year are required to submit an income tax return.
- Even if the wage income earned by employees who changed jobs during the year does not reach the second bracket of the cumulative income tax base for one of the employers, employees whose cumulative income tax base total for the income received from both employers reaches the fourth income tax bracket are required to submit an income tax return.
Within the framework of the provisions mentioned above, employees who must submit an income tax return for the year 2024 are as follows:
- Employees whose cumulative income tax base of wage earnings from a single employer from the date of 01.01.2023 to 31.12.2023 exceeds 1,900,000 Turkish Liras.
- Employees who changed jobs between the dates of 01.01.2023 and 31.12.2023 and whose cumulative income tax base of the wage earnings they earned from the first and second employers reached 150,000 Turkish Liras separately.
- Employees who change jobs but whose cumulative income tax base on the wages earned from two employers does not reach 150,000 Turkish Liras at one of the first or second employers, but whose cumulative income tax base reaches 1,900,000 Turkish Liras.
Those who earn wage income must submit the declaration by the end of March of the following year. Since the last day of March coincides with a public holiday this year, the deadline for submitting a declaration will be April 1, 2024.
