Digital Services Tax in Turkey: Scope, Rates and Liability

Turkey's Digital Services Tax, known as Dijital Hizmet Vergisi or DHV, applies to gross revenue from specified digital advertising, digital content and online intermediation services supplied in Turkey. The tax can apply to a foreign provider even when it has no company, branch, office or permanent representative in Turkey.

This guide reflects the legislation and official rate decision checked on 30 September 2026. It is written for international platforms, software and content groups, advertising businesses, marketplaces and finance teams assessing Turkish revenue. It does not assume that every online sale is taxable: the service, Turkish nexus, group thresholds and revenue owner must all be tested.

What is Digital Services Tax in Turkey?

DST is a transaction-based tax on revenue from defined digital services. It is not a corporate income tax on profit. It is also not the same as Turkish value added tax (Katma Değer Vergisi, or KDV). A transaction can require separate DST, VAT, withholding-tax and corporate-tax analyses.

For the VAT treatment of digital and other supplies, see the site's VAT in Turkey 2026 guide. The two regimes should be reconciled, but one return never replaces the other.

Which digital services are within scope?

Law No. 7194 identifies three main service families and also captures digital intermediation services connected with them. The commercial label used in a contract is not decisive; the actual functions and revenue stream must be reviewed.

When is a digital service supplied in Turkey?

DST applies to covered services supplied in Turkey. Under the law, a service may be treated as supplied in Turkey when it is supplied there, the benefit is enjoyed there, the service is directed at persons in Turkey, or it is evaluated in Turkey. This is broader than asking where the supplier's servers, contracting entity or personnel are located.

A defensible Turkey-revenue method may use customer billing details, payment information, account country, IP or device location, delivery address, advertiser targeting, campaign reports and marketplace records. The evidence should match the service. A global allocation percentage with no transaction-level support is vulnerable if it does not reflect how Turkish use or targeting is identified.

Practical nexus examples

• An advertising campaign targeted at users in Turkey can create Turkish covered revenue even when the advertiser and platform operator are outside Turkey.

• A streaming subscription or game purchased and used by a customer in Turkey can fall within the digital-content category.

• A marketplace commission connected with a Turkish user or transaction requires a Turkey-nexus review even if payment is settled abroad.

• Revenue connected exclusively with users and benefit outside Turkey should be segregated with reliable evidence rather than included merely because a Turkish group company is involved.

Who is liable for Turkish DST?

The taxpayer is the digital service provider that earns the covered revenue. Residence, legal seat, business centre and corporate-tax status do not remove liability. A non-resident provider can therefore be liable even if it does not perform the activity through a Turkish workplace or permanent representative.

The first control is to identify the true revenue owner. In platform groups, the contracting entity, intellectual-property owner, merchant of record, payment recipient and entity recording revenue may differ. Contracts, invoices, app-store or marketplace statements, transfer-pricing records and financial accounts should tell a consistent story.

The Ministry of Treasury and Finance may also hold parties to the taxable transaction or payment and transaction intermediaries responsible where the provider has no residence, workplace, legal seat or business centre in Turkey, or where otherwise considered necessary to secure collection.

Revenue thresholds and group testing

The statutory exemption uses two revenue tests for the accounting period preceding the relevant accounting period. A provider is exempt when its covered Turkish revenue is below TRY 20 million or its worldwide covered revenue is below the equivalent of EUR 750 million. As a result, both thresholds must be exceeded before DST liability can arise.

Where the provider belongs to a consolidated group, the law requires the thresholds to be assessed by reference to the group's total covered revenue. A group should not test each legal entity in isolation and assume that fragmented contracting keeps every company below the limits.

If both limits are exceeded during an accounting period, the exemption ends and liability starts from the fourth tax period following the period in which the limits were exceeded. Threshold monitoring must therefore be monthly even when the prior-year position was exempt.

Services excluded from the DST base

Law No. 7194 excludes revenue from specifically listed services. The exclusion should be applied narrowly to the qualifying service, not automatically to every activity of a regulated or technology business.

• telecommunications services on which a Treasury share is paid under Supplementary Article 37 of Law No. 406;

• services subject to Special Communication Tax under Article 39 of Expenditure Taxes Law No. 6802;

• banking services within Article 4 of Banking Law No. 5411;

• sales of products created through qualifying R&D activity in an R&D centre defined by Law No. 5746, and services provided exclusively through those products; and

• payment services within Article 12 of Law No. 6493.

A payment function embedded in a broader marketplace, advertising or content service does not necessarily exempt the whole consideration. Contracts and accounting should separate genuine payment-service revenue from taxable platform or intermediation revenue where the legal and commercial facts support that distinction.

The DST rate in 2026 and 2027

The original statutory rate was 7.5%. Presidential Decision No. 10767, published on 25 December 2025, changed the operative rate to 5% from 1 January 2026 and 2.5% from 1 January 2027. A 2026 return should therefore not use the older 7.5% rate.

How the tax base is calculated

The base is the gross revenue earned from covered digital services in the relevant monthly tax period. Expenses, costs and taxes cannot be deducted from that base. The DST itself may not be shown separately on the invoice or equivalent document, and no credit or deduction is made from the calculated DST.

Foreign-currency revenue is translated into Turkish lira using the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye buying rate applicable when the revenue is recognised. The revenue-recognition policy, exchange-rate source and Turkey allocation should be documented and applied consistently.

Platform payouts, app-store commissions, payment fees, cloud costs, royalties, advertising rebates and other operating expenses do not reduce the base merely because they reduce the provider's net margin. A group must first identify what revenue belongs to the taxpayer and then apply the gross-revenue rule to that amount.

Registration, return and payment

The ordinary DST tax period is each calendar month. The taxpayer files the return electronically and pays the declared tax by the end of the following month. A provider without an existing Turkish VAT registration follows the special registration route designated by the Turkish Revenue Administration (Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı, or GİB).

Common risk areas for foreign platforms

• Using the obsolete rate: applying 7.5% to 2026 revenue instead of the current 5% rate.

• Testing entities separately: ignoring consolidated group revenue when applying the thresholds.

• Equating DST with VAT: assuming a VAT return, VAT exemption or VAT reverse charge resolves DST.

• Reporting net settlements: deducting commissions, creator payouts, rebates or payment fees from a gross-revenue tax base.

• Weak location evidence: allocating Turkish revenue through an unsupported global estimate.

• Overextending exclusions: treating an entire bundled service as exempt because one component is a payment or regulated service.

Consequences of non-compliance

Ordinary Turkish tax penalties, late-payment consequences and assessment procedures may apply. Law No. 7194 also creates a specific enforcement route for digital service providers that fail to meet return and payment obligations.

The authorised tax office may warn the provider or its Turkish representative and publish the warning on GİB's website. If the obligations are not fulfilled within 30 days after the announcement, the Ministry may decide to block access to the provider's services until compliance is restored. For a consumer-facing platform, that makes registration and filing a business-continuity issue as well as a tax issue.

DST readiness checklist

Official sources

• Turkish Revenue Administration — Digital Services Tax Law No. 7194, consolidated text

• Turkish Revenue Administration — Explanatory Note on Presidential Decision No. 10767

• Official Gazette — Digital Services Tax Application General Communiqué

• Official Gazette — Law No. 7194

Checked on 30 September 2026. This article provides general information. The result can change with the contractual model, revenue owner, customer location evidence, group structure and subsequent legislation. Obtain transaction-specific advice before registering, filing or changing a revenue-allocation method.