What changed in 2026?
Presidential Decision No. 11257 dated 30 April 2026 set the deduction at 100% for certain service-export profits under Income Tax Law Article 89/13 and the service-export provision of Corporate Tax Law Article 10. It applies to income and profits for tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026.
Alongside software, the law lists services including architecture, engineering, design, data storage, data processing and data analysis. An appropriate activity code is not enough by itself; the service actually supplied and its place of use must be evidenced.
100% of which amount?
The deduction applies to the profit from these activities, not the invoice total. A separate profit calculation should allocate direct costs and an appropriate share of common expenses. Where the same team serves domestic and foreign activities, the allocation method must be consistent.
The requirement to transfer the entire profit to Turkey by the relevant return's filing date must be monitored separately. Invoices, receipts and exchange differences should reconcile for each customer.
Separate VAT from corporate income tax
The corporate or personal income tax deduction and the VAT exemption for exported services are different provisions. Meeting the conditions for one does not automatically satisfy the other. For VAT, separately assess whether the service is provided for an overseas customer and used abroad.
Keep the contract, delivery records, user or project location, invoice, bank receipt and profit calculation in the same file. An attractive rate is a reason to strengthen documentation, not lower the standard.