A foreign company that ships goods to Turkey meets a customs system that is European in structure and Turkish in detail. The tariff is the European Union's, the customs union removes the duty on industrial goods that move between the two, and the value rules are the WTO's. The details are where the money goes: an additional customs duty that applies to Chinese-origin goods even when they arrive from Hamburg with an ATR certificate, an import VAT of twenty per cent paid at the border before it is recovered on the return, an excise on four lists of goods, a product-safety inspection that treats the importer as the manufacturer's stand-in, a permit for anything used, and, since February 2026, no duty-free route for parcels sold online to Turkish consumers. In my files the foreign seller who is surprised is the one who quoted delivered-duty-paid without a Turkish importer of record, the one whose German warehouse shipped Asian-origin goods under an ATR and met the additional duty, and the one whose e-commerce model was built on a thirty-euro threshold that no longer exists. This page sets out who may import, how the duty is found, the customs union and the additional duty, import VAT and excise, product safety, the special cases and the parcel rules, as they stand in 2026.
Sources, checked 9 September 2026. Customs Law No. 4458, Articles 5, 15, 24, 27, 58, 59, 128, 167, 181, 225 and 234; Import Regime Decision No. 3350 as consolidated by the Ministry of Trade, Articles 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10, and the 2026 import communiqués, in particular 2026/1, 2026/9 and 2026/19; Decision No. 3351 on Additional Customs Duty, Articles 2 and 4, as amended on 11 July 2026; Association Council Decision 1/95, Articles 4 and 13; Value Added Tax Law No. 3065, Articles 16, 21, 28, 29, 46 and 47, and Presidential Decision 7346 (Official Gazette 32241, 7 July 2023); Special Consumption Tax Law No. 4760, Articles 1 and 16; Product Safety and Technical Regulations Law No. 7223, Articles 4, 6, 9 and 20, and the Ministry's product safety and inspection communiqués for 2026; Decision 2009/15481 on the application of the Customs Law, Articles 62, 86 and 126, as amended by Presidential Decision 10813 (Official Gazette 33130, 7 January 2026); the Ministry of Trade's postal and express shipment guidance dated 5 March 2026.
Who imports: the importer of record and the broker
Article 8 of the Import Regime Decision lets any natural or legal person with a Turkish tax identification number carry out import transactions, and any partnership with capacity to act; the Ministry's communiqué 2026/19 governs the electronic authorisation for import applications. The foreign seller itself, with no Turkish tax number, cannot be the importer. Article 5 of the Customs Law allows a representative to act before customs, directly in the importer's name or indirectly in the representative's own name for the importer's account, but requires the representative to be established in the Turkish customs territory, and Article 225 channels clearance either through the owner's own authorised staff or through licensed customs brokers acting as indirect representatives. Article 181 makes the declarant the debtor for the customs debt, adds the person for whose account an indirect representative declared, and limits the broker's own liability to cases where it knew or should professionally have known that the declaration data were wrong. The consequence for a foreign exporter is structural: a delivered-duty-paid sale into Turkey needs a Turkish importer of record, which is either the buyer, a distributor, or the seller's own Turkish company; the forms that company can take are compared on the liaison office, branch and subsidiary page, and its formation on the company set-up page. A liaison office may not import for sale.
Finding the duty: the tariff, the seven lists and the origin columns
Article 15 of the Customs Law calculates duty under the tariff in force on the date the customs debt arises, and defines the tariff as the Turkish Customs Tariff Schedule adopted by the President, its sub-openings, and the duty rates and agricultural charges attached to it. The rates themselves are in the annexes to Import Regime Decision 3350, republished for each year; the 2026 regime was published on 31 December 2025 with the revised statistical positions. Article 9 arranges the goods in seven lists: list I for agricultural products, list II for industrial products, list III for processed agricultural products that carry an additional agricultural charge computed from a composition table, list IV for fish, lists V and VI for suspended and civil-aviation rates, applied where lower than list II, and list VII for end-use rates. Within each list the columns are the origin groups: the European Union and EFTA, the partners of Turkey's free trade agreements, the developing countries under the generalised system of preferences with their excluded sectors, and "other countries" at the most-favoured-nation rate. Article 4(3) lists the trade defence instruments that sit on top, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, safeguards, quotas and tariff quotas, and surveillance; Article 5 keeps the prohibitions and licences of other laws in force; and Article 7 makes the import of old, used, refurbished, defective or shelf-worn goods subject to a permit, which communiqué 2026/9 administers for used and refurbished goods from 1 January 2026. The Ministry publishes the consolidated decision and lists on its website, and the rate for a given product is read from its twelve-digit tariff line and the origin column, not from a general table.
The customs union, and the additional duty that survives it
Articles 4 and 13 of Association Council Decision 1/95 abolished customs duties between the Community and Turkey for goods in free circulation and bound Turkey to the Common Customs Tariff towards third countries, so an industrial product shipped from the European Union with an ATR movement certificate enters at zero duty whatever its origin; the certificate, its conditions and the exceptions for agricultural and coal and steel products are on the customs union page. Decision 3351 is the qualification. It imposes an additional customs duty on listed industrial and processed agricultural goods, and Article 2(2) provides that goods imported under an ATR certificate that are not of European Union or Turkish origin pay the additional duty at the "other countries" rate, unless preferential origin in a country within Turkey's cross-cumulation system is proved. Article 2(3) caps the total of ordinary and additional duty at the bound rates of Law 474 raised by half, Article 2(7) makes the importer responsible for declaring origin correctly, and Article 4 disapplies the additional duty in inward processing, for goods on lists V and VI, for zero-rated end-use imports, within tariff quotas and, since the amendment of 11 July 2026, for imports made under a customs duty exemption. The lists of goods and rates were revised the same day. For a European distributor this is the line that decides the landed cost: European-origin goods travel duty-free, Asian-origin goods routed through Europe do not, and the origin evidence, not the ATR, is what the customs office examines.
Import VAT and excise: paid at the border, recovered on the return
Value added tax on imports is assessed by customs under Article 21 of the VAT Law on the customs value plus every duty, charge and levy paid on import, plus costs incurred up to the registration of the declaration, price and exchange differences, and, since Law 7555 of 2025, the excise on goods imported against collateral. Article 28 sets the statutory rate at ten per cent and lets the President move it between one per cent and four times that figure; the general rate has been twenty per cent since 10 July 2023 under Presidential Decision 7346, with reduced lists at ten and one per cent. Under Article 46(2) the import VAT is paid together with the customs duty, Article 47 shows it separately on the customs receipt, and a Turkish importer that is a VAT taxpayer deducts it under Article 29 on its return, so for a trading subsidiary the tax is a financing cost between the border and the return rather than a final cost. Article 16 exempts goods placed in transit, in customs warehousing, in temporary storage, in free zones, whose regime is on the free zone page, and goods that are duty-free under Article 167 of the Customs Law within the limits it sets.
Excise follows the same road for four lists. Under Article 1 of Law 4760, list I fuels and lubricants are taxed on delivery by the importer or manufacturer, list II vehicles on first acquisition, and list III alcohol, tobacco and certain beverages and list IV durable and luxury goods on import or on delivery by the manufacturer. Article 16 has customs collect the excise due on import and show it on the customs receipt, and lets customs take collateral for list I goods on terms the Ministry sets. Excise is part of the VAT base, so a list IV product bears excise, then VAT on the excise-inclusive value.
Product safety: the importer answers for conformity
Law 7223 applies the European product model. Article 4 requires every product placed on the market to comply with the technical regulations that cover it and forbids the marketing of non-compliant products, including used and imported used products. Article 9 lays the importer's duties out in the manufacturer's image: place only compliant products on the market, check the conformity marking and documentation before marketing, put the importer's name and contact details on the product or its packaging, provide Turkish instructions and safety information, keep storage and transport conditions, test and track complaints in proportion to the risk, take corrective measures and recalls, keep the conformity documentation for ten years, cooperate with the authorities and complete the registrations the regulations require. Article 6 makes the manufacturer or the importer liable to compensate a person injured or property damaged by the product, with a three-year limitation from knowledge and ten years from marketing, and treats contractual exclusions as void; Article 20 adds administrative fines, revalued each year and doubled on repetition within two years.
At the border the Ministry of Trade enforces this through its product safety and inspection communiqués, republished on 31 December 2025 for 2026, which put toys, machinery, food, medicines, chemicals, textiles, footwear, medical devices, construction products and the CE-marked product groups through risk-based inspection in the electronic system known as TAREKS before release; a separate machinery communiqué, 2026/32, introduced a prior-permission list for certain machines. An importer that is not inspected on a given shipment remains answerable under Law 7223 for the product's compliance and for the truth of the documents it filed.
Used goods, samples, fairs and temporary import
Used and refurbished goods, machinery included, need the Ministry's permit under Article 7 of the Import Regime Decision and communiqué 2026/9 before they can be released for free circulation, and applications filed under the 2025 communiqué for goods dispatched before 1 January 2026 were closed by 15 February 2026. Article 167 of the Customs Law exempts, among other things, goods worth up to 150 euros, household effects of persons moving their residence to Turkey, and travellers' gifts up to 430 euros. Samples and models sent to a natural person for research, design or testing enter under Article 86 of Decision 2009/15481 up to thirty euros per consignment and five consignments a month. Goods for international fairs held in Turkey follow communiqué 2026/1, and equipment that will leave again enters under the temporary import regime of Articles 128 and 129 of the Customs Law, wholly or partly free of import duties and outside trade policy measures, on condition that it can be identified and is re-exported unchanged apart from normal wear.
E-commerce parcels: the exemption ended on 6 February 2026
Until 2024 a parcel sent by post or express courier to a Turkish consumer was cleared on a flat-rate tax up to 150 euros. Presidential Decision 8787 of August 2024 cut the threshold to thirty euros and raised the flat rates. Presidential Decision 10813 of 6 January 2026, published on 7 January and in force thirty days later, removed the threshold altogether by deleting the words that had kept shipments under thirty euros in the simplified route. What remains, on the Ministry's guidance of 5 March 2026, is narrow: books and printed matter for personal use up to 1,500 euros enter at a flat rate of zero; medicines and food supplements sent to a natural person on a medical report or prescription, in non-commercial quantities and up to 1,500 euros, pay a single flat tax of thirty per cent if they come directly from a European Union country and sixty per cent from elsewhere, plus twenty points for goods on excise list IV; every other personal, non-commercial shipment between zero and 1,500 euros and under thirty kilograms is declared by the courier as indirect representative and pays the ordinary import duties and VAT; shipments above 1,500 euros go through the standard procedure. Freight up to the Turkish port of entry is added to the value, at three euros where it is not shown separately. Mobile phones, cosmetics, alcohol and tobacco cannot come by post at all, and the simplified route is limited to five shipments per person per month. A foreign online seller pricing for Turkish customers in 2026 therefore prices full duty and VAT on every order, and its brand protection at the border, through the customs recordal described on the trademark page, matters more than before because the parallel and counterfeit flow moved through the same channel.
Value, licences and penalties
Article 24 of the Customs Law takes the customs value as the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to Turkey, and Article 27 adds to it what the buyer bears outside the price: commissions other than buying commissions, packing, materials and services supplied free or at reduced cost for the production of the goods, and licence fees payable as a condition of the sale. A foreign group that charges its Turkish distributor a royalty on imported goods should expect that royalty to be examined for inclusion in the customs value, and the royalty itself carries the withholding described on the withholding tax page. Article 234 sets the penalty for the two errors customs finds most often: where the declared tariff classification or quantity understates the duty by more than five per cent, or the declared value is lower than the value determined under Articles 23 to 31, the importer pays the difference and a penalty of three times it. Origin declared wrongly to avoid the additional duty is the importer's responsibility under Article 2(7) of Decision 3351.
Six shipments, one table
| Shipment | Duty | Additional duty | VAT and excise | Controls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| German-made machine, ATR certificate, to a Turkish subsidiary | 0% under Decision 1/95 | None, European Union origin | 20% import VAT, deductible | CE inspection through TAREKS, machinery communiqué 2026/32 |
| Asian-origin electronics shipped from a Dutch warehouse with an ATR | 0% ordinary duty | Additional duty at the "other countries" rate under Decision 3351 | 20% VAT; list IV excise if listed | Product safety inspection; origin evidence |
| American-origin equipment shipped direct | List II "other countries" rate for the tariff line | If the line is in the Decision 3351 tables | 20% VAT on value plus duties | Inspection by product group |
| Used Italian production line | 0% with ATR | None | 20% VAT | Permit under communiqué 2026/9 before release |
| Exhibition stand and demonstration units for an Istanbul fair | Temporary import, Articles 128 and 129 | Not applicable | Suspended | Communiqué 2026/1; re-export unchanged |
| Consumer parcel from an online shop, 80 euros | Ordinary duty for the line | If listed | 20% VAT | Courier declares as indirect representative; no flat rate since 6 February 2026 |
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
The freight forwarder is paid on the shipment whether or not the origin was checked. The customs broker files what it is given and is paid per declaration. The marketplace takes its commission on the sale and leaves the duty to the buyer's doorstep. None of them is paid to tell you that the ATR does not cover the additional duty, that the used machine needs a permit before it sails, or that the thirty-euro parcel route closed in February.
We take no commission or referral fee from forwarders, brokers, marketplaces or inspection bodies, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not depend on the volume you ship or the structure you choose. Because our position does not move with the cargo, telling you that a distributor should remain the importer of record, or that a product needs no inspection at all, costs us nothing to say.
One boundary, stated plainly. We are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers and not customs brokers. We do not classify goods line by line or file declarations. What we protect is the Turkish legal position: who the importer of record is and what it answers for, the origin and value rules that decide the duty, the permits and inspections a product needs before release, the contract terms between seller, distributor and importer, and the defence when customs assesses a difference and a penalty.
Before the first container
Send us the product list with tariff lines if you have them, the country of origin and the country of dispatch, whether the goods are new or used, who you intend to act as importer, and the contract you propose with the buyer or distributor. We will tell you the duty structure that applies and whether the additional duty is in play, the VAT and excise at the border, the inspection and permit requirements, and how to allocate them in the contract. Our corporate work is described on the corporate law page.
What this page does not settle
The tariff classification of specific products, anti-dumping and safeguard measures on particular lines, agricultural and food import licensing, the inward and outward processing regimes, authorised economic operator status, transfer pricing on import prices, and the payment and foreign exchange rules for imports are separate subjects. Duty lists, additional duty tables and inspection communiqués are revised during the year, most recently on 11 July 2026; the rules above are those in force on the date checked.
