British buyers have been the largest Western group on the Turkish coast for thirty years, and the questions they bring me have hardly changed: will my pension be taxed twice, will my State Pension be frozen if I move, and what does Britain do about the Turkish flat when I sell it or die. The answers sit in a treaty signed in 1986 that most owners have never opened, in a government list that puts Turkey among the countries where the State Pension is uprated, and in Turkish statutes that apply to a British owner exactly as to anyone else. This page sets out the treaty from its text as enacted in the United Kingdom, the pension position from the government's own guidance, and the Turkish rules that decide the rest, as they stand in September 2026.
Sources, checked 9 September 2026. Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Turkey for the Avoidance of Double Taxation (signed 19 February 1986, in force 26 October 1988), Articles 4, 6, 13, 18, 19, 22 and 23, as scheduled to the Double Taxation Relief (Taxes on Income) (Turkey) Order 1988; UK government guidance on State Pension increases for people living abroad and the published list of countries where an annual increase is paid; Turkish Income Tax Law No. 193, Articles 3, 4 and repeated Article 20/D; Inheritance and Gift Tax Law No. 7338, Articles 1 and 16; Land Registry Law No. 2644, Article 35.
Residence under the treaty, and the six-month test
Article 4 of the treaty defines a resident of a contracting state as a person liable to tax there by reason of domicile, residence or a similar criterion, and resolves the case of an individual resident in both by the familiar sequence: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality, mutual agreement. On the Turkish side, Article 4 of the Income Tax Law makes a person resident if domiciled in Turkey or present for more than six months in a calendar year, and Article 3 taxes a resident on worldwide income. A British retiree who has moved to Fethiye and kept a house in Kent may be resident in both under domestic law; the treaty tie-breaker decides, and for a person whose life has moved, it decides for Turkey.
Which state is the residence state matters more under this treaty than under most, because the treaty allocates pensions, other income and most gains exclusively to it.
Pensions: taxed where you live, including the State Pension
Article 18(1) is the provision that answers the first question. Subject to the rule on government pensions, pensions and other similar remuneration paid in consideration of past employment, and any payments made under the social security scheme of either state, and annuities, are taxable only in the state of which the recipient is a resident. The words "any payments made under the social security scheme" bring the UK State Pension inside the rule; this treaty, unlike the United States one, does not reserve social security to the paying state. A British pensioner who is a resident of Turkey for treaty purposes is taxable on the State Pension, on an occupational pension and on a personal pension only in Turkey, and the United Kingdom's taxing right is removed by the treaty. In practice the pensioner claims the relief from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs with evidence of Turkish residence, and the pension is then paid without UK tax deducted.
Article 19(2) is the exception. A pension paid by the United Kingdom, or by a local authority, for service to it, which covers civil service, NHS, teachers', police and armed forces pensions, is taxable only in the United Kingdom, unless the recipient is both a resident and a national of Turkey. A retired British civil servant in Turkey keeps paying UK tax on that pension and Turkey may not tax it; a retired British bank employee pays Turkish tax on his and the United Kingdom may not.
The Turkish side of Article 18 has changed in 2026, and it changes the arithmetic for many British retirees. Under repeated Article 20/D of the Income Tax Law, described on the Law 7582 page, an individual who becomes resident in Turkey from 1 January 2026, with no Turkish residence or income tax liability in the three preceding calendar years, is exempt from Turkish income tax for twenty years on income obtained outside Turkey, and a British pension is such income. The treaty removes the United Kingdom's right to tax the pension of a Turkish resident; the exemption removes Turkey's tax on it for twenty years. That is the legal position, and I state it without adjectives, because it is also a position that depends on genuinely being resident in Turkey under both Turkish law and the treaty tie-breaker, on the exemption certificate being obtained from the tax office in the year of settlement, and on the pension not being a government pension under Article 19. The residence permit and the mechanics are on the retirement page.
The State Pension is uprated in Turkey
The second question has a documented answer. The UK increases the State Pension each year only for pensioners living in the European Economic Area, Gibraltar, Switzerland, or a country with which the United Kingdom has a social security agreement that provides for increases, and the government's published list of countries where an annual increase is paid names Turkey alongside Israel, the United States, Montenegro and a dozen others. A British pensioner in Turkey therefore receives the annual increase; a British pensioner in Canada or Australia does not. The pension is paid into a Turkish or a UK bank account at the pensioner's choice, and the currency conversion is the pensioner's cost.
The social security agreement that produces this result is separate from the tax treaty and older than it, and it governs contributions and benefit rights rather than tax. Its detail, and the position of a British national who works in Turkey rather than retires there, is a subject for the social security specialist, not this page.
Property income and gains: Turkey first, credit in the United Kingdom
Article 6 allows Turkey to tax income from immovable property situated in Turkey, including rent, and Article 13(1) allows Turkey to tax gains from the alienation of Turkish immovable property. Neither is exclusive, so the United Kingdom taxes a UK-resident owner on the same rent and gain under its own law and gives credit under Article 23(1) for the Turkish tax paid, within the limits of UK law. Article 23(2) goes further than most treaties: for the purpose of the credit, Turkish tax is deemed to include tax that would have been payable but for specified Turkish incentive provisions, a tax-sparing clause of the kind the United Kingdom no longer negotiates and that survives here from 1986.
The Turkish rules on both are the same for a British owner as for any other and are set out on their own pages: the taxation of rent, including the withholding when the tenant is a company and the exemption for small residential rents, on the landlord page; the five-year rule, the indexing of cost and the fifteen-day non-resident return on the selling page; the annual property tax, which is a municipal tax outside the treaty, on the property tax page. Two British-specific consequences follow. A UK-resident owner who sells after five years pays no Turkish tax on the gain and has no credit to claim against the UK capital gains tax, which applies in full; the Turkish holding period protects against Turkish tax only. And the Turkish gain is a lira figure computed on an indexed cost, while the UK gain is a sterling figure on the historic cost, so the two gains differ and the credit is limited to the UK tax on the same income.
For a Turkish-resident Briton the direction reverses: Turkey taxes the rent and gain as the residence state, the United Kingdom's right under Articles 6 and 13 does not arise because the property is in Turkey, and the UK house left behind is UK-source income and gain that the United Kingdom may tax under the same articles read the other way, with the credit given in Turkey under Article 23(3).
Other income and gains on shares
Article 22 gives the residence state the exclusive right to tax income not dealt with elsewhere, wherever it arises, other than income paid out of trusts. Article 13(4) gives the residence state the exclusive right to tax gains on property other than immovable property and business property, with one exception this treaty is known for: a gain arising in the other state from the alienation of property within one year of its acquisition may be taxed there. A Turkish-resident Briton's UK share portfolio is therefore taxable only in Turkey, subject to that one-year rule, and, for a new resident holding the twenty-year exemption, not taxed by Turkey either; a UK-resident Briton's Turkish shares are taxable only in the United Kingdom unless bought and sold within a year.
The rules the treaty does not touch
Acquisition. Article 35 of the Land Registry Law admits nationals of the countries on the Presidential list, and British citizens are admitted, subject to the district and personal area caps, the closed zones and the two-year project rule for unbuilt land, all described on the nationality and zones page.
Inheritance. There is no inheritance tax treaty between the United Kingdom and Turkey. Turkish inheritance and gift tax applies to Turkish property whoever the owner was, on the property tax value, at one to ten per cent after the per-heir exemption, and Turkish succession law with its reserved shares governs the Turkish property regardless of an English will, as set out on the inheritance page. UK inheritance tax follows the person rather than the property under UK rules, which changed in 2025 to a residence-based test; whether a Turkish flat falls into a UK estate is a question for the UK adviser, and where it does, relief for the Turkish tax is a matter of UK unilateral rules, not of treaty.
Residence permits and citizenship. The property-based residence permit, and the citizenship-by-investment route with its three-year annotation, apply to British nationals on the same terms as to others; they are on the residence-through-property page and the citizenship by real estate page.
The British owner's map
| Income or event | Treaty article | Who may tax | Turkish page |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK State Pension, Turkish resident | 18(1) | Turkey only; exempt for 20 years under Article 20/D for qualifying new residents | Law 7582 |
| Occupational or personal pension, Turkish resident | 18(1) | Turkey only; same exemption | Retirement |
| Civil service, NHS, forces pension | 19(2) | United Kingdom only, unless resident and national of Turkey | |
| Rent from a Turkish flat, UK resident | 6 | Turkey; UK with credit | Landlord |
| Gain on selling the flat, UK resident | 13(1) | Turkey if within five years; UK with credit | Selling |
| UK share gains, Turkish resident | 13(4) | Turkey only, except UK gains on property sold within a year of acquisition | |
| Other income, wherever arising | 22 | Residence state only, except trust income | |
| Annual property tax | Outside the treaty | Turkey | Property tax |
| Death | No treaty | Both under their own laws | Inheritance |
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
The agent who sells a British couple a villa in Kalkan is paid on the sale, and the financial adviser at home is paid on the pension pot that stays invested. Neither is paid to read Article 18 with them, or to tell them that the State Pension will be uprated in Turkey but the civil service pension will stay taxed in Britain. That is not a criticism; it is why the couple usually asks me the pension question after the deed rather than before it.
We take no commission from sellers, agents, developers or financial institutions, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not depend on whether you buy, move or stay. Because our position does not move with the transaction, telling you that the tax result you have read about depends on where you actually live, and on a certificate you must obtain in the year you arrive, costs us nothing to say.
One boundary, stated plainly. We are Turkish lawyers, not licensed investment advisers and not UK tax practitioners. We do not file UK returns, claim UK treaty relief on your behalf or advise on UK inheritance tax, and this page describes the treaty and Turkish law, not UK law. What we protect is the Turkish legal position, alongside the UK adviser who protects the other half.
Before you decide where to be resident
Send us your intended pattern of presence in Turkey, the nature of your pensions and the property you have in mind. We will tell you whether you will be resident in Turkey, whether the twenty-year exemption is available to you and what it covers, which of your pensions fall under Article 18 and which under Article 19, and what Turkey will tax on the property and when. Our Turkish property and residence work is described on the Turkey real estate page.
What this page does not settle
UK tax law, including the procedure for claiming treaty relief, the taxation of pension lump sums, UK capital gains tax on foreign property and UK inheritance tax, is outside this page and should be taken to a UK practitioner. The UK Turkey social security agreement, the treaty's employment and business articles and the position of British nationals working in Turkey are separate subjects.
