Foreign Tax Credit in Türkiye: Certified Receipts

Individuals and companies fully taxable in Türkiye can, under conditions, deduct taxes of a similar kind that they paid abroad on income earned there. The Income Tax Law and the Corporate Tax Law set the rules, and the documents proving the foreign payment are at the centre of them.

Certified proof of payment

The Income Tax Law makes the deduction conditional on proving that tax was paid abroad with documents obtained from the competent authorities and certified by the Turkish embassy or consulate in that place or, where there is none, by the equivalent representatives of the country protecting Turkish interests there. The Corporate Tax Law says the same: taxes paid abroad cannot be deducted unless the payment is proven with documents obtained from the competent authorities and certified in the same way. The Revenue Administration repeats this rule in its rulings, citing the general communiqué on corporate tax.

Both laws also contain rules for cases where the documents have not arrived by the payment date or cannot be submitted at the time of assessment; ask the tax office how they apply to you.

Apostille and translation

The texts we quote name certification by a Turkish embassy or consulate and do not mention the apostille. They also do not set a translation rule for foreign tax receipts. Ask the tax office whether it accepts an apostille in place of consular certification and whether it needs a Turkish translation.

We translate foreign tax assessments, receipts and certificates into Turkish in Ankara through translators sworn before a Turkish notary. The tax office decides on the deduction.