Turkey has no capital gains tax as a separate tax, and a foreign investor who searches for the rate finds three different answers because there are three different regimes. Gains on shares traded on Borsa İstanbul and on most instruments held through a Turkish bank or broker are taxed by a withholding the intermediary deducts under Provisional Article 67 of the Income Tax Law, and for listed shares that withholding is zero. Gains on property, unlisted shares and other assets sold outside a bank are "value increase gains" under Repeated Article 80, taxed by return at the progressive rates, with a five-year rule for property and a two-year rule for shares. And gains on crypto-assets are in neither list. In my files the non-resident who pays too much is the one whose home adviser assumed a flat rate, and the one who pays too little is the one who sold the shares of a family company to a Turkish buyer within a year and did not know that a fifteen-day return was due. This page sets out the three regimes as they apply to non-residents in 2026, the withholding rates now in force and until when, the position of foreign companies, crypto, property, and the capital gains articles of the American, British and German treaties.
Sources, checked 9 September 2026. Income Tax Law No. 193, Articles 37, 86, 101, Repeated Articles 80 and 81 and Provisional Article 67; Presidential Decision 10680 (Official Gazette 33104, 11 December 2025) extending Provisional Article 67 to 31 December 2030; Council of Ministers Decision 2008/14272 and Presidential Decisions 4454, 4937, 10041, 10680 and 10706 as recorded in the Revenue Administration's withholding rate table; the Revenue Administration's 2026 guides on Provisional Article 67, on other gains and income and on securities income; Corporate Tax Law No. 5520, Articles 2 and 30; Law No. 7518 (Official Gazette 32590, 2 July 2024) on crypto-assets in the Capital Markets Law; the Turkey-United States (1996), Turkey-United Kingdom (1986) and Turkey-Germany (2011) income tax treaties, Article 13 of each.
Three regimes, and which one you are in
The first regime is the withholding of Provisional Article 67, introduced in 2006 for securities and other capital market instruments issued in Turkey or traded on Turkish exchanges, and for deposits and repos. Banks and brokers withhold on the difference between purchase and sale price, on redemption gains and on periodic returns, quarterly, at rates the President sets within the article's limits, and Presidential Decision 10680 of December 2025 extended the regime to 31 December 2030. Under paragraph 7 an individual, resident or not, files no return for income taxed this way, and a non-resident individual or company files no return at all for income from securities the Treasury or Turkish companies issued abroad. Under paragraph 11 a non-resident may nevertheless choose to file an annual return at fifteen per cent in order to set the year's losses on the same type of instrument against gains and recover excess withholding.
The second regime is Repeated Article 80. It lists the assets whose disposal produces a value increase gain: securities and capital market instruments, except those acquired without consideration and shares of resident companies held more than two years; intangible rights; copyrights and patents sold by persons other than their authors; partnership rights and shares; a discontinued business; and immovable property and the rights listed with it sold within five years of acquisition. Repeated Article 81 computes the gain as proceeds less indexed cost and selling expenses. A resident declares such gains on the annual return; a non-resident who is not required to file an annual return declares them under Article 101 on an individual return, filed within fifteen days of the gain to the tax office of the place where the asset was disposed of, and under Article 86 a non-resident files no annual return for income that was fully taxed by withholding in Turkey.
The third regime is the absence of one. Repeated Article 80 does not list crypto-assets, Provisional Article 67 covers instruments issued in Turkey and registered with the Capital Markets Board or traded on Turkish exchanges, and the Administration's 2026 guides on both regimes do not mention crypto at all. That silence is examined below.
What the bank withholds in 2026
| Instrument, held through a Turkish bank or broker | Withholding for individuals, resident or non-resident | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Shares of resident companies listed on Borsa İstanbul, held more than one year | Not within the withholding and not within Repeated Article 80; no Turkish tax | Provisional Article 67(1), sixth paragraph |
| Listed shares held one year or less, and equity-based futures and options | 0% | Decision 2008/14272; rate table |
| Shares of securities investment trusts | 10% | Rate table |
| Equity-intensive funds (at least 51% Borsa İstanbul shares) | 0%; units held more than one year outside the regime | Provisional Article 67(1); rate table |
| Other investment fund units acquired from 9 July 2025 | 17.5% | Rate table; earlier acquisitions 0%, 7.5%, 10% or 15% by acquisition window |
| Venture capital and real estate investment fund units held more than two years | 0% | Decision 4454 |
| Government bonds and bills issued after 1 January 2006 | 10%; 0% for issues acquired between 22 December 2021 and 31 December 2026 and for gold-based issues | Decisions 4937 and 10706; rate table |
| Private sector bonds and lease certificates | 15% for maturities under one year, 10% otherwise | Rate table |
| Treasury and corporate eurobonds issued abroad | Outside the withholding; non-residents file no return, residents declare interest above the threshold | Provisional Article 67(1) and (7) |
| Turkish lira deposits opened or renewed from 8 July 2025 | 17.5%, 15% or 10% by maturity | Decision 10041 |
| Foreign currency deposits | 25% | Decision 7332 |
| Repos | 15% | Rate table |
| Other futures and options | 10% | Rate table |
For a non-resident individual investing through a Turkish broker the practical result is that Borsa İstanbul equities are tax-free in Turkey, government paper bought in the current window is tax-free, and the withholding on the rest is final. The Administration's guide states in terms that the rates apply to resident and non-resident individuals alike, which has been the position since the Constitutional Court struck down the separate non-resident rate in 2009 and Decision 2008/14272 set zero for everyone on listed shares.
Foreign companies and funds
Provisional Article 67(1) sets the rate at zero, since 1 October 2010, for the corporate taxpayers listed in Article 2(1) of the Corporate Tax Law and for foreign investment funds and companies the Ministry treats as equivalent to Turkish funds and investment trusts. A foreign company or fund trading Turkish securities through a Turkish intermediary therefore suffers no withholding on trading, redemption or coupon income within paragraph 1, and, having no Turkish workplace, files no return under paragraph 7. The corporate rules for the payments a foreign company receives outside this regime, dividends above all, are on the dividend withholding page, and the general withholding on payments abroad on the withholding tax page. A Turkish subsidiary's own money market fund income, which follows a different rate, is on the money market fund page.
Unlisted shares, family companies and the fifteen-day return
The sale of shares in an unlisted Turkish company is where the second regime bites a foreign owner. Repeated Article 80(1) taxes the gain on securities unless the shares belong to a resident company and were held for more than two years; Repeated Article 80(4) taxes the gain on partnership rights and shares, which the Administration applies to limited company shares without a holding-period exemption, so that a foreign owner of a limited company pays on the sale whenever it occurs, while the owner of share certificates in a joint stock company held over two years does not. The gain is the price less the cost indexed under Repeated Article 81 and the selling expenses, taxed at the progressive scale that runs from fifteen to forty per cent, and a non-resident declares it within fifteen days under Article 101 at the tax office where the shares were disposed of. The buyer does not withhold; the seller files. A foreign parent that sells its Turkish subsidiary is outside all of this, because a company's gains are corporate income under Article 30 of the Corporate Tax Law and the treaty's business profits and capital gains articles, and the company set-up choices that decide whether the founder holds shares in a joint stock or a limited company are on the company set-up page.
Property: the five-year rule
Repeated Article 80(6) taxes the gain on immovable property and the rights listed with it that is sold within five years of acquisition, on the indexed cost, with an annual exemption of 150,000 lira for 2026, and leaves a sale after five years untaxed. A non-resident owner files the fifteen-day individual return at the tax office where the property lies. The mechanics, the indexation and the repatriation of the price are on the property sale page.
Crypto-assets: regulated, not yet taxed for individuals
Law 7518 of July 2024 wrote crypto-assets, platforms, custody and service providers into the Capital Markets Law and put the platforms under the Capital Markets Board's licence. It did not touch the Income Tax Law. Repeated Article 80 still lists securities, capital market instruments, rights, copyrights, partnership shares, businesses and property, and a crypto-asset is none of these under the Income Tax Law's own terms; Provisional Article 67 reaches instruments issued in Turkey and registered with the Board or traded on Turkish exchanges, which crypto-assets traded on a licensed platform are not. The Administration's 2026 guides on other gains and on the withholding regime are silent. On the text as it stands an individual's occasional gain on crypto-assets has no charging provision, a person who trades with the continuity and organisation of a business is taxed on commercial income under Article 37, and a company's crypto gains are corporate income like any other. I say this with the caution the subject deserves: the position rests on the absence of a provision, the Administration has published no general ruling that I can cite, and a bill can change it in a season. A foreign investor's account at a Turkish platform, and the know-your-customer file behind it, follow the banking rules on the bank account page.
What the treaties add
Domestic law taxes a non-resident only on the gains above; the treaties then say whether Turkey may keep that tax. Article 13 of the American, British and German treaties gives Turkey the right to tax gains on Turkish immovable property and on the business property of a Turkish permanent establishment, and the German treaty adds, in Article 13(2), gains on shares deriving more than half their value from Turkish real estate. For everything else the general rule is that only the state of residence taxes, and each of the three treaties keeps a one-year carve-out for Turkey. Under Article 13(5) of the American treaty Turkey may tax a United States resident's gain on shares or bonds of a Turkish company that are not quoted on a Turkish exchange, if the sale is to a Turkish resident and the holding period does not exceed one year. Under Article 13(4) of the British treaty and Article 13(5) of the German treaty Turkey may tax gains on any other property that arise in Turkey if the period between acquisition and disposal does not exceed one year. In practice these carve-outs coincide with the domestic charge on short-held unlisted shares; for listed shares the domestic rate is already zero, so the treaty question does not arise. The wider American and British positions are on the US treaty page and the UK treaty page.
Six investors, one table
| Investor | Turkish tax on the gain | Filing |
|---|---|---|
| American individual, Borsa İstanbul shares through a Turkish broker, held eight months | 0% withholding | None; Article 13(5) carve-out does not apply to quoted shares |
| British individual, Turkish government bonds bought in 2025 | 0% withholding under the current window | None |
| German fund, Turkish corporate bonds through a Turkish bank | 0% under Provisional Article 67(1) for corporate investors | None |
| Canadian owner sells a Turkish limited company's shares after three years | Progressive tax on the indexed gain under Repeated Article 80(4) | Individual return within fifteen days, Article 101 |
| Dutch owner sells joint stock company share certificates held four years | None under Repeated Article 80(1) | None |
| Australian individual, crypto-assets on a licensed Turkish platform, occasional trades | No charging provision on the current text | None, subject to the caution above |
The table ignores home-country tax, which every one of these investors owes under their own law with a credit or exemption under the treaty where there is one.
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
The broker withholds what the decision says and is paid on the trade. The home adviser applies the home rate and is paid at home. The buyer of the family company does not file the seller's return. None of them is paid to tell you that the fifteen-day return was due, that the two-year exemption applies to share certificates and not to a limited company, or that the bond window closes on a date.
We take no commission or referral fee from brokers, banks, platforms or buyers, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not depend on what you buy or sell or on the size of the gain. Because our position does not move with the transaction, telling you that no Turkish tax is due, or that the treaty adds nothing to a zero rate, costs us nothing to say.
One boundary, stated plainly. We are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers and not your home-country tax preparers. We do not tell you what to buy or what your own state will charge. What we protect is the Turkish legal position: which regime the asset falls in, the rate and the window that apply on the date of sale, the return that is due and where, the corporate form that decides the exemption, and the treaty article that fits.
Before you sell
Send us what you hold and how, through which intermediary, since when, and where you are resident, and, for a company sale, the company's form and the buyer's residence. We will tell you the Turkish tax on the disposal, whether a return is due and by when, whether a holding period or a window changes the answer, and what the treaty allows Turkey to keep. Our cross-border tax work is described on the international tax page, and the corporate rate that applies to a company's own gains on the corporate tax page.
What this page does not settle
Dividends and interest as income rather than gains, the taxation of Turkish residents on foreign-exchange shares and eurobonds, inheritance and gift tax on transfers, the inflation indexation thresholds in Repeated Article 81, the securities transaction rules of the Capital Markets Board, and the home-country treatment of every gain above are separate subjects. The withholding rates are set by Presidential decision, have changed several times since 2024 and are stated here as in force on the date checked.
