Before you start

A valid passport — the only thing needed for the tax number itself, no residence permit required
An e-Devlet login if you want to file or check online, or just walk into any vergi dairesi
Clarity on your day-count and home base for the calendar year, which drives the 183-day test
If you let a property: the tapu, the lease, and a record of rent actually received

Step-by-step

1
Get your tax number (vergi kimlik numarası)
Free and open to any foreigner. Apply online through GİB's Dijital Vergi Dairesi 'Potansiyel Vergi Kimlik Numarası' form — name in CAPITALS exactly as printed in the passport, with the photo page uploaded — or in person at any Antalya vergi dairesi with your passport and a photocopy. The number is usually issued instantly. Once you hold a residence or work permit, your YKN functions as the tax number.
OnlineWho: YouMinutes online; same day in personFree
2
Work out your tax residency and worldwide-income exposure
You become a Turkish tax resident if you establish a legal residence (ikametgah) here OR stay more than six months — about 183 days — in a calendar year. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; non-residents only on Turkish-source income. There is a narrow exception for people present solely for a specific temporary assignment, worth checking with an accountant if you are on a fixed-term posting. For Antalya's retirees and remote workers the practical bite is pensions, investments and rental income left behind at home.
OnlineWho: You, ideally with an accountantAssess on arrival; reassess each calendar year
3
If you let your flat, file it — and use Hazır Beyan
Rent from a Turkish property is Turkish-source income and taxable regardless of your residency status. GİB's Hazır Beyan ('ready declaration') system pre-fills a return for simple income such as residential rent and lets you submit it online, which is what it was built for. There is an annual exemption for residential rental income below a threshold that is re-set each year, and you choose between deducting actual expenses or a flat lump-sum deduction. Short holiday letting is treated differently from a plain residential tenancy and can pull you into a commercial regime — get that classified before your first season, not after.
OnlineWho: You, or an accountant for anything with a commercial flavourFiled in March for the previous yearFree to file; tax due depends on income after exemption and deductions
4
If you're employed, understand your payslip and then stop worrying
Employees have income tax withheld through payroll (stopaj) across the progressive brackets, plus SGK contributions, and generally never file a return. Ask HR for a breakdown of your bordro (payslip) in your first month: gross, income tax withheld, SGK employee share, stamp duty and net. The brackets are inflation-indexed and re-set annually, so a mid-year jump in the withheld amount usually means you crossed a bracket rather than that something is wrong.
Via employerWho: Your employer's payroll teamMonthly, automatic
5
Freelancers: register a sole proprietorship, and check the teknokent
Remote workers and freelancers invoicing clients register a şahıs şirketi at the tax office, then file monthly VAT, quarterly provisional tax and an annual return — in Turkish, through GİB systems, which is why an accountant is effectively mandatory. If you are 18-29 and it is your first business, file the start-up notice within 10 days for the genç girişimci exemption. Separately, wages of R&D, design and support staff working inside a technology development zone are income-tax exempt under Law No. 4691, and Antalya Teknokent at Akdeniz Üniversitesi is the local zone — worth asking about before you accept a role.
In personWho: You + a muhasebeci (accountant)Registration about a day; then a monthly and quarterly cycleAccountant a recurring monthly fee, plus VAT and Bağ-Kur premiums

Documents you’ll need

Passport, and a photocopy of the photo page for in-person applications
Residence or work permit / foreigner ID (YKN) if you have one — it links to your tax number
Tapu, lease and rent records if you let a property
Your bordro (payslip) records if employed; income, expense and e-invoice records if freelancing

Things most newcomers don’t know

Buying a flat here quietly makes you a Turkish taxpayer the first time you let it — even if you never become resident.

Rental income from Turkish property is Turkish-source, so it is taxable whether or not you pass the 183-day test. A very large share of Antalya's foreign owners let the flat when they are not using it and treat the money as informal. It is not, and Hazır Beyan exists specifically to make declaring it a short online job rather than an accountant's project.

Source: GİB — Hazır Beyan and rental income; PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries (Turkey)

Short-term holiday letting is not the same tax animal as a residential tenancy.

Letting by the week to visitors looks commercial to the tax authority in a way that a twelve-month tenancy does not, and it also runs into separate rules on tourist accommodation and guest registration. Getting the classification right before your first season is far cheaper than reclassifying afterwards, and it is a genuinely common mistake in a city with this much holiday stock.

Source: Turkish rental-income and tourism-accommodation practice, 2026

The 183-day line catches retirees hardest, because their income is all somewhere else.

Someone who moves to the coast on a pension crosses the residency threshold in their first calendar year almost by definition, and Türkiye then taxes worldwide income — pensions, dividends, foreign rent. Double-tax treaties usually decide who taxes what, but only if somebody actually applies them. This is the one point where an hour with a Turkish accountant genuinely pays for itself.

Source: PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries (Turkey); Türkiye's double-taxation treaties

Antalya Teknokent is the local Law No. 4691 zone, and it changes take-home rather than just prestige.

Wages of R&D, design and support staff working inside a technology development zone are exempt from income tax, with support-personnel status capped as a share of headcount. In a city where the tech sector is small, whether a specific role physically sits inside the zone is a real question to put to an employer before signing.

Source: Law No. 4691 (Technology Development Zones); GİB guidance

Common mistakes to avoid

Letting a property and treating the rent as informal income — it is Turkish-source and taxable even for non-residents.
Running a weekly holiday let on the assumption that residential rental rules apply to it.
Assuming a pension paid abroad is out of scope once you have crossed the 183-day residency line.
US citizens forgetting they must still file with the IRS, using FEIE or FTC, on top of any Turkish obligations.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.