Turkish Citizens in the UAE: Tax Residency and Türkiye 2026

A Turkish citizen living in Dubai stays a full taxpayer in Türkiye, taxed on worldwide income, for as long as their domicile remains in Türkiye. Article 4 of the Income Tax Law No. 193 treats you as settled in Türkiye if your domicile is there or if you stay in Türkiye continuously for more than six months in a calendar year, and the exceptions in Article 5 are written for foreigners only.

Someone who has genuinely moved their domicile to the UAE is a limited taxpayer, taxed only on income earned in Türkiye, such as rent from an Istanbul flat. This guide covers the two settlement tests, the 1993 Türkiye to UAE treaty, rent and property sales in 2026, military service while abroad, the 20-year exemption and asset repatriation scheme introduced in June 2026, and counting UAE years toward a Turkish pension.

Full or Limited Taxpayer: The Two Tests in Article 4

Article 3 of Law No. 193 taxes individuals settled in Türkiye on all income earned inside and outside Türkiye, and Article 6 taxes individuals not settled in Türkiye only on income earned there. Article 4 decides which you are, and either of its two limbs is enough to make you settled.

Limb	What Article 4 says	What it means from Dubai
4(1) Domicile	Those whose domicile (ikametgah) is in Türkiye, as defined in the Civil Code	Turns on where you live with the intention of staying permanently, not on days
4(2) Six months	Those who stay in Türkiye continuously for more than six months in a calendar year; temporary departures do not interrupt the stay	A long summer in Bodrum with a short trip to Dubai in the middle still counts as continuous

Article 5 lists people who are not treated as settled even after more than six months, such as those on a defined temporary assignment, students, and those staying for treatment, rest or travel. Its opening words are “the following foreigners,” so none of those exceptions is available to a Turkish citizen.

Domicile under the Civil Code

Article 4(1) sends you to the Civil Code, whose Article 19 of Law No. 4721 defines domicile as the place where a person lives with the intention of staying permanently, and says a person cannot have more than one domicile at the same time. Article 20 adds that changing a domicile depends on acquiring a new one.

Read together, our interpretation is that a Turkish citizen who moves to Dubai intending to stay acquires a Dubai domicile and loses the Turkish one, while someone posted to Dubai for a fixed period with a plan to return keeps their Turkish domicile. A registered address in the Turkish population register is evidence of domicile rather than the legal test itself, but we found no official statement from the Revenue Administration confirming that.

Article 3(2) separately keeps Turkish citizens working abroad for official bodies, or for organizations and enterprises headquartered in Türkiye, as full taxpayers. Its relief applies only where the income has been subject to income tax or a similar tax abroad, and since the UAE levies no personal income tax on salaries, our reading is that a Dubai secondee of a Turkish employer stays fully taxable in Türkiye. The UAE side of that salary is covered in our guide to what a tax-free UAE salary still leaves you owing.

The 1993 Türkiye to UAE Treaty

The Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation between Türkiye and the UAE was signed in Abu Dhabi on 29 January 1993 and approved by Law No. 4040 of 27 September 1994. Article 4(1) defines a resident as any person who, under the laws of that state, is liable to tax there by reason of home, domicile, legal seat, place of business or any similar criterion.

There is no nationality condition, so a Turkish citizen resident in the UAE is not shut out the way expatriates are under the UAE’s treaties with the Netherlands, Canada and Kenya. The open question is whether an individual is “liable to tax” in a state with no personal income tax, which the treaty does not answer; in practice the document a Turkish payer or tax office will look for is a UAE tax residency certificate from the Federal Tax Authority.

Egypt’s UAE treaty uses the same liable-to-tax formula, as our guide on Egyptians in the UAE and the 2019 treaty explains. Where you are resident in both states, Article 4(2) applies these tests in order.

Step	Test	Practical effect for a Turkish citizen
(a)	Permanent home available; if in both states, centre of vital interests	An Istanbul flat kept available for you counts as a permanent home
(b)	Habitual abode	Decides where your time is clearly weighted to one country
(c)	Nationality	If (a) and (b) are inconclusive, you are resident of Türkiye
(d)	Mutual agreement	Only for dual nationals or nationals of neither state

The treaty has not been modified by the OECD Multilateral Instrument, because the OECD’s status list of 18 June 2026 shows Türkiye as a signatory without a ratification. Its final clause says the English text prevails if the Turkish, Arabic and English versions diverge; the article numbers below come from the Turkish text published with Law No. 4040 and by the Revenue Administration.

Turkish income of a UAE treaty resident	Treaty rule
Rent from, and gains on, Turkish real estate	May be taxed in Türkiye, Articles 6 and 13(1)
Dividends from Turkish companies	Turkish tax capped at 12% for individuals; 10% for a company holding at least 25%; 5% for the other state’s government or wholly state-owned bodies, Article 10
Interest	Turkish tax capped at 10%, Article 11
Royalties	Turkish tax capped at 10%, Article 12
Gains on other assets, such as shares	Taxable only in the state of residence, but also taxable in the other state if held for one year or less, Article 13(4)
Pensions for past private employment	Taxable only in the state of residence, Article 18
Salary for work performed in the UAE	Taxable only in the state of residence unless the work is performed in the other state, Article 15

Article 13(4) is the clause that catches short-term investors. Turkish shares bought and sold within a year can be taxed in Türkiye even by a UAE treaty resident, while a longer holding is taxable only in the UAE, which does not tax an individual’s gains.

Rent From a Flat in Türkiye in 2026

Rent from property located in Türkiye is Turkish income under Article 7(5) of Law No. 193, so it stays taxable whether you are a full or limited taxpayer. For 2026, Article 21 exempts the first TRY 58,000 of gross proceeds from letting a residence, as updated by General Communiqué No. 332.

The exemption is lost entirely if rent above the threshold is not declared or is under-declared. It is also unavailable where your total wages, investment income, rent and other income exceed the third-bracket amount in Article 103, which the 2026 tariff sets at TRY 1,500,000.

For 2025 income, the Revenue Administration’s quick guide to rental income says anyone who collected more than TRY 47,000 of residential rent must file in March 2026, that the exemption applies to only one dwelling, and that co-owners can each use it separately. Whether a limited taxpayer can use the residential exemption is not addressed in the guide or the Act, so confirm it with your tax office.

Article 86(2) excuses limited taxpayers from an annual return only for income fully taxed by withholding in Türkiye. The payers obliged to withhold under Article 94 are businesses and public bodies, not a private individual renting your flat, so our reading is that rent from a private tenant is not covered by that carve-out.

Selling Property in Türkiye While You Live Abroad

Under Additional Article 80(6) of Law No. 193, a gain on selling real estate is taxable if the property is disposed of within five years of acquisition, however it was acquired, except by gift or inheritance. For 2026 the first TRY 150,000 of such gains is exempt.

The five-year period has applied since Law No. 5615 extended it from four years in 2007, and the January 2026 consolidation shows no later change. After five years of ownership, the gain on a Turkish property is outside the charge.

A limited taxpayer’s return for a property gain is filed with the tax office where the property is located, under Article 101. Article 13(1) of the treaty leaves Türkiye the right to tax that gain, and the UAE side of a property gain is covered in our guide to capital gains on property for UAE residents.

Military Service: Deferral and Foreign-Currency Service

The Military Recruitment Law No. 7179 lets Turkish citizens abroad defer service under Article 38 and discharge it by paying in foreign currency under Article 39. Many guides still cite Article 23 and a EUR 5,000 fee, and both are out of date.

Article 38 allows citizens abroad with a residence permit that includes work authorization, or a work permit, to defer all military service procedures until the end of the year in which they turn 35. The deferral is cancelled if you spend more than half of any calendar year in Türkiye.

Foreign-currency service under Article 39(1) requires at least three years of actual work abroad, not counting time spent in Türkiye, completion of the Ministry of National Defense’s remote training, and payment of the fee in euros or an equivalent convertible currency at application. Article 39(3) excludes anyone whose wages are transferred from Türkiye, which matters for staff on a Turkish payroll posted to Dubai.

The fee is set as an indicator multiplied by the civil-servant salary coefficient. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular notice of 7 July 2026 sets it at TRY 472,653.60 for payments between 1 July and 31 December 2026, converted into euros at the Central Bank’s buying rate on the day of payment, so the euro amount moves with the exchange rate.

Article 24 fines draft evaders and non-reporters without a valid excuse TRY 5 a day if they come forward and TRY 10 a day if caught, amounts that are revalued annually under the Law on Misdemeanors. A repeat after a final fine is referred to the public prosecutor.

New in 2026: The 20-Year Exemption and Asset Repatriation

Law No. 7582, published in the Official Gazette on 4 June 2026, added Additional Article 20/D to the Income Tax Law. It exempts from income tax, for twenty years, the foreign income of individuals who become settled in Türkiye, provided they had neither a domicile nor tax liability in Türkiye in the last three calendar years before settling.

It applies to people treated as settled from 1 January 2026. Tax liability in those three years arising only from Turkish rental income, investment income or capital gains does not block the exemption, so a Dubai-based Turk who kept and let an Istanbul flat can still qualify on returning.

Exempt foreign income does not go on an annual return and cannot generate a foreign tax credit. Law No. 7582 also sets a 1 percent inheritance tax rate for inheritances received by beneficiaries of the exemption during the exemption period.

Bringing savings back: the 2026 asset repatriation scheme

Article 10 of the same law adds Provisional Article 19 to the Corporate Tax Law. Individuals and companies can declare money, gold, foreign currency, securities and other capital market instruments held abroad to a Turkish bank or brokerage by 31 July 2027, and must transfer them to Türkiye within two months of the declaration.

The standard rate is 5 percent of the declared value, collected up front.
Holding commitments reduce it: 0 percent for five years, 1 percent for four, 2 percent for three, 3 percent for two and 4 percent for one, in time deposits, government bonds, lease certificates or venture capital funds.
Declarations from 1 January 2027 to 31 July 2027 pay 0.5 percentage points more.
No tax audit or assessment may be made in respect of the declared amounts.

The President may extend the 31 July 2027 deadline in steps of up to six months, to a maximum of one year. Moving the money out of the UAE is covered in our guide to moving large sums out of the UAE.

Counting UAE Years Toward a Turkish Pension

Under Law No. 3201, Turkish citizens can buy back periods spent abroad after age 18 so that they count toward Turkish social security, paying 45 percent of a daily earnings figure they choose between the minimum and maximum contribution base. The Social Security Institution sets the 2026 range at TRY 495.45 to TRY 4,459.05 per day.

The periods that qualify are documented insurance periods abroad, periods of unemployment of up to one year between or after them, and periods abroad as a homemaker. Payment is due within three months of notification, and the Institution’s worked example of 5,000 days at the floor comes to TRY 2,477,250.

A pension based on these periods under Article 6 requires a definitive return to Türkiye. Whether years of UAE employment without enrollment in a foreign social insurance scheme count as documented insurance periods is not answered in the texts we read, so ask the Institution before paying, and compare the cost with the alternatives in our guide to saving and investing as a UAE expat.

The Order to Do This In

Decide whether your domicile has really moved, because intention to stay permanently in the UAE is what takes you out of Article 4(1).
Never stay in Türkiye continuously for more than six months in a calendar year, remembering that short trips out do not break the stay.
Obtain a UAE tax residency certificate for the treaty rates on Turkish dividends and interest and for the tie-breaker.
Think carefully before keeping an Istanbul home available, since a permanent home in Türkiye can tip the tie-breaker, and nationality settles any remaining doubt in Türkiye’s favor.
Declare Turkish rent every year above the exemption, because an undeclared amount forfeits the exemption entirely.
Track the five-year holding period before selling Turkish property.
Register your military service deferral and plan foreign-currency service once you have three years of actual work abroad.
If you plan to return, check the three-year condition for the 20-year foreign income exemption and the 31 July 2027 repatriation deadline.

What We Could Not Verify

Mevzuat.gov.tr and the Official Gazette refused our requests, so the Income Tax Law, the Civil Code, Law No. 7179, Law No. 3201 and Law No. 7582 were read through Internet Archive copies. The Law No. 7179 copy is from September 2024, and Law No. 7577 of April 2026, reported to raise the military service indicator, could not be read, although the 2026 fee in the consular notice is consistent with that change.

We could not obtain the English text of the treaty, which prevails over the Turkish one, nor confirm its entry-into-force date from a primary source. The implementing communiqués for the 20-year exemption and the asset repatriation scheme, both published on 4 July 2026, were not archived, so any application procedure or certificate requirement they add is not reflected here.

We found no Revenue Administration ruling on when a Turkish citizen working in the UAE loses full tax liability, no primary source on whether limited taxpayers can use the residential rent exemption, and no confirmation of the 2026 withholding rate on Turkish bank interest or the revalued daily military service fines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I pay tax in Türkiye if I live and work in Dubai?

Only on income earned in Türkiye if you are no longer settled there. Article 4 of Law No. 193 treats you as settled if your domicile is in Türkiye or you stay there continuously for more than six months in a calendar year, and a settled person is taxed on worldwide income. A Turkish citizen whose domicile has genuinely moved to the UAE is a limited taxpayer.

Does the six-month exception apply to Turkish citizens?

No. Article 5 of Law No. 193, which excludes people on temporary assignments, students and those staying for treatment, rest or travel, begins with the words “the following foreigners.” Turkish citizens cannot rely on it.

Am I a Turkish tax resident if my address is still registered in Türkiye?

Not automatically. The legal test in Article 4(1) is domicile under Article 19 of the Civil Code, meaning the place where you live with the intention of staying permanently, and you can have only one. A registered address is evidence that points toward Türkiye, so update it and keep proof of your UAE residence.

Is there a double tax treaty between Türkiye and the UAE?

Yes. The agreement was signed in Abu Dhabi on 29 January 1993 and approved by Law No. 4040 in 1994. It has not been modified by the Multilateral Instrument, because Türkiye has not ratified it.

Can a Turkish citizen use the Türkiye to UAE treaty?

Yes. Article 4(1) defines a resident as a person liable to tax by reason of home, domicile or a similar criterion, with no nationality condition. If you are resident in both states, the tie-breaker looks at permanent home, centre of vital interests and habitual abode, and if those are inconclusive, nationality makes you resident of Türkiye.

Do I have to declare rent from my flat in Istanbul while living in Dubai?

Yes, if it exceeds the exemption. For 2026 the first TRY 58,000 of residential rent is exempt under Article 21, but the exemption is lost if rent above it is not declared, and rent from a private tenant is not taxed by withholding. Whether limited taxpayers can use the exemption is not addressed in the law, so confirm with your tax office.

Do I pay tax if I sell my house in Türkiye while living abroad?

Only if you sell within five years of acquiring it, under Additional Article 80(6) of Law No. 193, and property received by gift or inheritance is outside that rule. For 2026 the first TRY 150,000 of the gain is exempt, and the treaty leaves Türkiye the right to tax gains on Turkish real estate.

How much is foreign-currency military service in 2026?

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular notice sets the fee at TRY 472,653.60 for payments between 1 July and 31 December 2026, converted into euros at the Central Bank’s buying rate on the day you pay. The old EUR 5,000 figure no longer applies, and you need at least three years of actual work abroad plus the Ministry’s remote training.

Can I defer military service while working in the UAE?

Yes. Article 38 of Law No. 7179 allows citizens abroad with a residence permit including work authorization, or a work permit, to defer until the end of the year in which they turn 35. The deferral is cancelled if you spend more than half of any calendar year in Türkiye.

What is the 20-year tax exemption for people moving back to Türkiye?

Additional Article 20/D, added by Law No. 7582 in June 2026, exempts the foreign income of individuals settled in Türkiye from 1 January 2026 for twenty years, if they had no Turkish domicile or tax liability in the previous three calendar years. Earlier liability only from Turkish rent, investment income or capital gains does not disqualify you.

Can I bring my Dubai savings to Türkiye under the 2026 asset repatriation scheme?

Yes. Provisional Article 19 of the Corporate Tax Law lets you declare cash, gold, foreign currency and securities held abroad to a Turkish bank or brokerage by 31 July 2027 and transfer them within two months. The rate is 5 percent, or 0 to 4 percent with a holding commitment of one to five years, and declared amounts cannot be audited or assessed.

Can my years working in Dubai count toward a Turkish pension?

Law No. 3201 allows Turkish citizens to buy back documented insurance periods abroad at 45 percent of a chosen daily earnings figure, between TRY 495.45 and TRY 4,459.05 per day in 2026. A pension on those periods requires a definitive return to Türkiye, and whether UAE employment without foreign social insurance qualifies should be confirmed with the Social Security Institution.

Official Sources

Information current as of September 2026. Turkish tax residence turns on domicile and your own facts, the 2026 exemption and repatriation rules have implementing communiqués we could not read, and amounts are revalued every year. This guide is for informational purposes only; confirm your position with the Revenue Administration, the Social Security Institution, the Ministry of National Defense or a qualified Turkish adviser before relying on any treatment described here.

Turkish Citizens in the UAE: Tax Residency, the Treaty and What You Still Owe Türkiye