A Guide To Short Term Kalkan Property Rentals (less than 90 days)
Complying with Turkish Regulations & Tax rules
It is a requirement for private owners of holiday rental property, to run their rentals as a business set up, similar to that of a “Sole Trader” in the UK. The information given below is specific to the sole trader set up and does not consider owners of property in village areas who may have formed limited companies in order to purchase their property in the first place.
If you intend on renting your Kalkan property as an investment and are joint owners in the property, then you will first need to decide in whose name the rental business will be in. Then that person will need to appoint a local Turkish accountant and take both a Business License (Vergi Levhasi) and Tourism License. You will need to give a power of attorney to the accountant and take a consent from the co-owner(s) to run the business.
If the property is not registered in your name, but say for example in the name of your spouse, you will most likely will need to get “right of use” granted to you for the property at land registry before you can start.
The process to take the Tourism License is relatively straightforward for detached villa properties (with legal registration), but it is more complicated for apartments or semi detached villas, where 100% consent is required from all other owners in the building/block. Some apartments which are basement floor, or villas which are close to the waterfront will not be granted a Tourism License at this time.(October 2024). For this reason on our apartment for sale listings, we are clearly stating whether a Tourism License is currently in place or not. If a Tourism License is not in place, and you want to buy with a view to short term letting, then some processes will need to be completed before you commit to buying.
In addition to the sole trader accounting status, & Tourism license, you will need to have your guests’ passport or ID information registered online with Jandarma. Guests need to be registered on arrival and checked out on departure. (For the time being as well owners are also required to keep a manual daily guest book of the names of each guest staying at the property including their arrival and departure dates, length of stay, nightly rental rate and final rental invoice number.)
On departure you will be required to issue a rental sales invoice in Turkish Lira in the lead guest’s name to include the property name and number nights stay. This is an online invoice system. Finally the rental income should be deposited into your Turkish bank account with reference of the invoice number.
The basic principles of rental income taxes in 2024 are as follows:
- 20% Sales Tax called KDV on rental sales.
- 2% Tourism tax
- Annual profit tax which is between 15% and 40% according the amount of profit made. For the tax year 2024 the brackets are as follows:
0TL to 110,000TL: 15%
110,001TL – 230,000TL: 20%
230,001TL – 580,000TL: 27%
580,001TL – 3,000,000TL: 35%
>3,000,001TL: 40%
- In addition there are some standard additional annual taxes to be paid connected with the business license but these tend to be small and vary each year.
However cost allowances are generous:
- All annual overheads such as insurances, property management/site fees, water, electric, internet, council tax provided they are submitted with a legal invoice from the supplier.
- There is no apportionment made for the part of the year the property is not rented out.
- 20%/year of any capital investment over a period of 5 years for renewal and repairs if submitted with legal invoice from the supplier.
- Sales VAT/KDV may be partially offset with VAT/KDV on costs/purchases although the rates vary.
For further advice on renting property as a business, the estimated costs and tax estimates we are happy to assist anyone considering buying a property with our services.
The system of taxation for longer term rentals over 90 days is very much different and we do not go into the details here.