Veraset ve İntikal Vergisi: Turkey’s Inheritance and Gift Tax
A Turkish property cannot pass to your heirs until this tax has been dealt with — the Land Registry will not move the title until it has. Here is how the tax is calculated, what each heir can receive before it bites, and the deadlines that start running on the day of death.
One tax, two very different situations
Most legal systems separate the tax on what you leave behind from the tax on what you give away in your lifetime. Turkish law does not. A single statute — the Inheritance and Gift Tax Law, Law No. 7338, known in Turkish as the Veraset ve İntikal Vergisi Kanunu — covers both, and the word intikal in its title simply means a transfer. What changes between the two situations is not the law but the rate: a lifetime gift is taxed at roughly ten times the percentage applied to the same value passing on death.
For a foreign owner the scope question answers itself quickly. Real estate physically located in Turkey is within the Turkish tax net regardless of the nationality or residence of the person who owned it, and regardless of where the heirs live. That is the same principle that makes Turkish succession law apply to a Turkish apartment no matter whose family is inheriting it, and we cover that side of the question in our guide to inheritance law in Turkey.
This guide sets out the 2026 rates and exemptions, the filing deadlines that depend on where everyone was at the time of death, how the tax is paid, and where it sits in the sequence that ends with the title deed moving into the heirs’ names. If you want the succession rules themselves — who inherits, in what proportions, and what a Turkish will can and cannot change — read that alongside our guide to the Turkish will (vasiyetname).
Veraset ve İntikal Vergisi — 2026 At A Glance
The figures that drive the calculation
What the same value costs on death and in life
The bands are identical. The rates are not. Set side by side, the gap explains why transferring a Turkish property to your children during your lifetime is rarely the tax saving people assume it to be.
| Portion of the taxable base | Passing on death (veraset) | Lifetime gift (ivazsız intikal) |
|---|---|---|
| First 3,000,000 TL | 1% | 10% |
| Next 7,000,000 TL | 3% | 15% |
| Next 15,000,000 TL | 5% | 20% |
| Next 30,000,000 TL | 7% | 25% |
| The portion above 55,000,000 TL | 10% | 30% |
Two qualifications matter before anyone reads a number off that table. The first is that the rates apply to the taxable base, which is what remains of an heir’s share after the relevant exemption has been deducted — not to the gross value of the property. The second is that the gift column is softened considerably within a family: where property passes without consideration between a person and their mother, father, spouse or children, the tax is calculated by applying half the rate shown in the gift column. That halving does not apply to transfers made by an adopted child to the adopting parent.
The figures in this table are those set for 2026 by the Inheritance and Gift Tax Law General Communiqué Serial No. 57, published in the Official Gazette of 31 December 2025, No. 33124. They are revalued annually, which in practice means a new table every January.
The exemption is per heir, and it is larger than most families expect
The single most misunderstood feature of Turkish inheritance tax is that it is not an estate tax. Nothing is calculated on the total value of what the deceased owned. Instead, the estate is divided into shares according to the succession rules, and each share is then taxed in the hands of the person receiving it, starting with that person’s own exemption.
For 2026 the exemptions are as follows. The share passing to each descendant — children, including adopted children — and to the surviving spouse is exempt up to 2,907,136 TL per person. Where the deceased left no descendants, the share passing to the surviving spouse is exempt up to 5,817,845 TL. For transfers made without consideration during life, the exemption is 66,935 TL, and the same figure applies to prizes won in competitions, draws and the games of chance defined in Law No. 5602.
What the exemption does not do is remove the obligation to file. The declaration is required whether or not tax turns out to be payable, and the clearance that the Land Registry wants to see comes out of that filing. An estate that falls comfortably within the exemptions still has to go through the process — it simply arrives at a lower number, or none, at the end of it. And where the deceased owned a share rather than the whole of a property, it is that share which passes and which is valued; our guide to the shared title deed (hisseli tapu) explains how those fractions are recorded.
The filing deadline depends on where everybody was
Turkish law sets different periods according to where the death occurred and where the heirs are. For an international family this is the detail most likely to be missed, because the clock starts at the date of death rather than at the point the family begins to deal with the estate.
| Situation | Where the heirs are | Time to file |
|---|---|---|
| Death occurs in Turkey | Heirs in Turkey | 4 months |
| Death occurs in Turkey | Heirs in a foreign country | 6 месяцев |
| Death occurs abroad | Heirs in Turkey | 6 месяцев |
| Death occurs abroad | Heirs in the same country as the deceased | 4 months |
| Death occurs abroad | Heirs in a third country | 8 months |
| Lifetime gift or gratuitous transfer | Любой | 1 month from legal acquisition |
| Declaration of absence (gaiplik) | Любой | 1 month from entry in the death register |
These periods are set by Article 9 of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Law. For a family spread across several countries — a parent who died in Turkey, one child in London and another in Dubai — the period is the one that fits each heir’s own position, which is a good reason to establish early who is filing what and from where. Where the estate is being handled by a representative in Turkey, the practical answer is usually a power of attorney granted at the outset rather than negotiated once a deadline is close.
Payment runs on a separate and much longer timetable. Under Article 19 of the same law, the tax is paid over three years from assessment in six equal instalments, falling in May and November of each year. Prizes from draws and games of chance are treated differently and do not attract the instalment schedule. Late instalments carry a late-payment charge, so the due dates printed on the assessment slip are the ones to work from.
From death to a title deed in the heirs’ names
The order is fixed, and each step unlocks the next. Families who go straight to the Land Registry are sent away to start at the beginning.
Establish the death formally in Turkey
A death that occurred abroad has to be evidenced in a form Turkish authorities accept. In practice that means the foreign death certificate apostilled and translated by a sworn translator. Nothing else in the sequence can begin until the fact of death is established on the Turkish record.
Obtain the certificate of inheritance
The veraset ilamı establishes who the legal heirs are and in what proportions. It is the document that converts a family into a list of named shares, and both the tax office and the Land Registry work from it. For foreign heirs it is obtained through the Civil Court of Peace rather than from a notary.
Identify every Turkish asset and value it
The declaration covers the whole of what passes, not only the apartment everyone is thinking about. Bank accounts, vehicles and any other Turkish holdings belong in it. Real estate is declared on the basis used by the tax authorities rather than on an agent’s view of market value — establish which basis applies before you fill anything in.
File the inheritance tax declaration within the deadline
Work out which of the periods in Article 9 applies to each heir — four, six or eight months — and file at the tax office with jurisdiction. The declaration is required even where the exemptions mean no tax will ultimately be due, because the clearance the Land Registry needs comes out of this filing.
Receive the assessment and begin the instalments
The tax office applies the exemptions, calculates each heir’s taxable base and issues an assessment. From that point the liability runs over three years in six instalments falling each May and November. Keep the assessment slip — its due dates, not a general rule, govern when each payment has to be made.
Obtain the clearance from the tax office
This is the document the Land Registry is waiting for: written confirmation from the tax authority that the inheritance tax position has been dealt with. Sources differ on whether it follows full settlement or the first instalment, so ask the tax office handling the file what it will require in your case.
Register the transfer at the Land Registry
With the certificate of inheritance and the tax clearance in hand, the heirs apply to have the title moved into their names. Only at this point does the property become something that can be sold, mortgaged or dealt with. Our guide to the Turkish title deed explains what the register will show once it is done.
Six things that change the outcome
Each of these is routinely discovered late, and each is easier to plan around than to unwind.
Location decides, not nationality
A property in Turkey is taxable in Turkey whoever owned it and wherever the heirs live. Nationality does not take a Turkish apartment outside the Turkish tax net.
Gifting is the expensive route
Lifetime transfers are taxed at roughly ten times the inheritance rate, halved where the transfer is between parents, spouse and children. Rarely the saving people assume.
Every heir gets their own exemption
The tax is charged share by share, not on the estate. More heirs means more exemptions, and often no tax at all on a property that looked substantial.
The clock starts at death
Four, six or eight months depending on where everyone was — not from when the family began dealing with it. Establish which period applies in the first week.
Payment is spread, filing is not
Six instalments across three years, each May and November. The generosity is in the payment timetable; the deadline that actually bites is the one for filing.
No clearance, no title transfer
Until the tax office issues its clearance the property stays in the deceased’s name, which means it cannot be sold, mortgaged or dealt with at all.
What owners can usefully do while they still can
Very little about this regime rewards improvisation after the event, and a surprising amount of it can be smoothed out in advance. The most valuable preparation is also the least technical: making sure the people who will have to deal with a Turkish property actually know it exists, know where the deed is, and know who in Turkey to call. Estates stall far more often on missing information than on tax.
The second piece of preparation is documentary. Foreign heirs will need apostilled and sworn-translated documents at several points, and the time to establish what the local Land Registry and tax office expect is before anyone is working to a four-month deadline.
Third, consider whether a Turkish will is useful in your circumstances. It cannot override the protected shares that Turkish law reserves to close family, but it can remove ambiguity and shorten the route to a certificate of inheritance. We cover what it can and cannot do in our guide to the vasiyetname.
Finally, keep the property’s own obligations current. Annual property taxes in Turkey, building insurance and service charges continue to attach while an estate is being resolved, and arrears discovered mid-process slow everything down. If the family’s intention is ultimately to dispose of the property, our guide to selling property in Turkey covers what follows the transfer.
Own property in Turkey and unsure what your family would face?
We work with licensed Turkish lawyers and tax advisers on succession planning, title transfers and estate administration for non-resident owners.
Turkish inheritance and gift tax — frequently asked questions
The questions foreign owners and their families ask most often about rates, deadlines and getting the title moved.
Where to go next
The rest of our library for foreign owners, from succession and title to taxes and disposal.
- Inheritance law in Turkey — who inherits a Turkish property, and in what shares.
- Vasiyetname: the Turkish will — what a will can and cannot change.
- Property taxes in Turkey — the recurring obligations attached to ownership.
- The Turkish title deed (tapu) — how ownership is recorded and what the deed shows.
- Hisseli tapu: the shared title deed — what a fractional share actually gives you.
- Power of attorney in Turkey — acting on a Turkish property from abroad.
- Selling property in Turkey — the disposal process, for heirs and owners alike.
- Turkey property guides — the full library for international buyers and owners.
Make sure your Turkish property can actually reach your family
Tell us what you own in Turkey and we will walk you through the succession position, the tax your heirs would face and the documents worth preparing now. We work with licensed Turkish lawyers and tax advisers, and we act for owners who are not resident in Turkey.
