Turkey Tax Residency (6-month rule)

Key parameters
Threshold	6 months (effectively 183 days)
Period / Window	Calendar year (1 Jan – 31 Dec)
Counting	Any part of a day
Alternative	Domicile test

You are a Turkish tax resident for a calendar year if you meet either of two tests, in any order:

• Domicile — your settled home (ikametgah) under Turkish civil law is in Turkey.
• Six-month presence — you're present in Turkey continuously for more than six months within a calendar year. Short absences don't interrupt the count, but the six months must fall inside a single calendar year.

Meeting either test makes you a Turkish tax resident, taxed on worldwide income. Falling short of both makes you a nonresident, generally taxed only on Turkish-source income.

A set of statutory exceptions overrides the six-month test for people present in Turkey solely for a specific, temporary purpose. Foreign government and consular staff, scientists and specialists on a defined engagement, business representatives running a specific project, journalists, students, and people receiving medical treatment all keep nonresident status even past six months, as long as they don't intend to settle permanently.

• The statutory exceptions are narrow and fact-specific. They protect someone in Turkey for a genuinely defined, temporary purpose, not someone who has simply relocated and works from home indefinitely.
• Domicile can make you resident even with low physical presence. A settled home in Turkey under Turkish civil law can trigger residency independently of the six-month count.
• Turkish nationals living abroad don't automatically become nonresident. Those working for a foreign branch of a Turkey-headquartered private company or a Turkish public institution generally stay fully liable despite living abroad, unlike other Turkish nationals abroad on a residence or work permit.

Getting your residency status wrong and understating tax typically triggers a penalty equal to the tax lost, rising to three times that if it's treated as fraud. Turkey increasingly detects this through FATCA and Common Reporting Standard data-sharing with other countries, not just domestic audits. Professional tax advice is strongly recommended in situations like this.

Settling in well past the threshold

You move to Istanbul in February and stay through the rest of the year, with no trip abroad longer than a week. You clear the six-month presence test comfortably, so you're a Turkish tax resident for the year.

A defined project doesn't trigger residency

You're seconded to Turkey for an eight-month project with a fixed end date and no intention to stay afterward. Even though you're present for more than six months, the exception for a specific, temporary assignment means you're not treated as a Turkish tax resident.

Low presence, but domicile still applies

You keep a settled home in Istanbul year-round but travel constantly for work, present in Turkey for only 90 days this year. You fall well short of the six-month test, but your domicile there still makes you a Turkish tax resident regardless of how little time you actually spend there.

• Income Tax Law No. 193 — Articles 4–5 (residence)
• Revenue Administration (GİB) — Guidebook for non-resident taxpayers