EFFECTIVE DATE OF ACCOMMODATION TAX HAS BEEN POSTPONED

2 April 2020

As is known, the accommodation tax has been introduced by the Law No. 7194 on Digital Service Tax and the Amendment of Certain Laws and Decree-Law No. 375 published on the Official Gazette dated December 7, 2019; accordingly a new provision has been added to the Law No. 6802 on Expenditure Taxes and it has been stipulated that the relevant provision shall enter into force as of April 1, 2020.

Within the scope of the measures taken due to coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the effective date of the accommodation tax has been amended as January 1, 2021 as per Article 51 of the Law No. 7226 published in the Official Gazette (repeating no.1) on March 26, 2020.

Please find below brief information regarding the accommodation tax regulated under Article 34 of the Law on Expenditure Taxes:

Scope of the tax

Accommodation tax is imposed on the accommodation services provided by accommodation facilities such as hotels, motels, holiday camps, hostels, apart hotels, guesthouses, camping sites, mountain houses and all other services (such as food, beverage, activities, entertainment services, the use of pool, thermal pools and areas for sport and the like) which are provided along with the accommodation service under the accommodation facilities.

Taxpayer

Those providing the abovementioned services are the taxpayers of the accommodation tax.

Tax rate and tax base

The accommodation tax rate is 2% and the President is authorized to make a one-fold increase or reduce it to the half. (However, it should be noted that before this amendment it was regulated that the tax rate shall be applied as 1% until December 31, 2020)

The tax base of the accommodation tax is the sum of benefits, services and values rendered in the form of monies, goods or other manners in exchange for providing the abovementioned services. Value added tax is not included in the tax base of the accommodation tax.

Exemptions

Following services are exempt from the accommodation tax:

services provided to students in student dormitories, hostels and camps.
on condition of reciprocity, services provided to the diplomatic representatives of foreign governments, consulates and members of these with diplomatic rights in Turkey as well as the services provided to international organizations and their members to whom tax exemption was granted in accordance with international treaties.

If you have any questions regarding our note above, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Güner Law Office