Amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency and Various Laws as to Turkish Financial Regime under Law No. 7555

The Law numbered 7555 Amending the Law on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency, Other Laws, and Decree Law No. 635 (“Amendment Law”), which was published in the Official Gazette dated 24 July 2025 and numbered 32965, introduced amendments to the legislation regulating various sectors, including finance, taxation, energy, industry, technology, research and development, organized industrial zones, industrial zones, and the public personnel regime.

The key highlights of the Amendment Law are as follows:

1.      Amendments to the Law No. 1567 on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency:

• Under the Amendment Law, the regulatory authority of the President has been broadened, and “the refining of precious metals” has also been included within the scope of the Law.
• The Amendment Law revised Article 3(2) of the Law on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency by altering the administrative fine to be  imposed in cases of  unauthorized import or export valuables.  An amendment has therefore been introduced that “violators shall be subject to an administrative fine ranging from half up to twice the market value of the relevant goods or assets, and in the case of attempt, the fine shall be reduced by half”. Therefore, the upper limit of the fine has been increased while the lower limit  has been reduced.
• The Amendment Law introduced changes to  Article 3(5) of the Law on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency revising the sanction of suspension of activities.
• The Amendment Law revised the terminology in Articles 3(7) and 3(8) of the Law on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency by replacing the term “offense” (suç) with “misdemeanor” (kabahat), thereby aligning the characterization of administrative fines with proper legal terminology. In addition, the rules on recurrence have been clarified, providing that if the same  misdemeanor repeated within five years the applicable fines shall be doubled.
• Article 4 of the Law on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency has been entirely replaced. Under the previous provision, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance was authorized to charge annual fees for all permit, license, and information system applications based on the law, and to increase such fees annually in line with the revaluation rate. The revised provision introduces (i) a detailed permit and fee schedule system,  (ii) a requirement to obtain  authorization from the Ministry for foreign exchange trading, membership in Borsa Istanbul’s Precious Metals Market, precious metal refining, and participation in the Kimberley Process, (iii) authority for  the Ministry to designate activity regions and revoke authorizations, and (iv)  three  separate fee schedules providing for additional regional or proportional fees for actions including the opening of headquarters/branches, address changes, declarations of production sites, , type of precious metals processed, and share transfers. It is further stipulated that the fees shall be collected by tax offices, adjusted annually based on the rediscount rate  and calculated with reference to the rates effective as of initial application date. Additionally, the President has been granted the authority to reduce  the tariff rates by half or double them.

2.      Amendment to the Tax Procedure Law No. 213:

• With the amendment the indicator figure of 160 for each hour worked multiplied by the government employee salary coefficient in the calculation of the overtime working fee to be paid to the government employees and contracted personnel who actually perform duties such as enforcement, collection, polling and widespread / intensive tax audits in the provincial organization of the Revenue Administration outside the department and outside of working hours has been increased from 160 to 300. In addition, the limitation that   the number of personnel eligible to receive to be paid overtime wages cannot exceed 20% of the total personnel has been increased to 40%.

3.      Amendments to the Value Added Tax Law No. 3065:

• A new paragraph has been added to Article 13 of the Value Added Tax Law (“VAT Law”), exempting vehicles with GTIP numbers 87.03, 87.04, and 87.11, as specified in the attached list of the VAT Law, from VAT when delivered to authorized authorities under certain conditions and used exclusively for national defense and internal security needs.
• With the addition to subparagraph p) of paragraph 4 of Article 17 of the VAT Law, the sale of immovable property belonging to endowed foundations is exempt from VAT.
• With the addition of  subparagraph ç) to Article 21(1) of the VAT Law, the amount of special consumption tax is now included in the VAT base thereby broadening the VAT base for certain products payable at the time of importation  for goods imported under security thereby broadening the VAT base for certain products payable at the time of importation.

4.      Amendments to Law No. 5307 on the Amendment of the Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG) Market Law and the Electricity Market Law:

• Effective as of 01/01/2026, the freedom of LPG trade between distributors has been abolished.  Under the new rule distributors may no longer sell LPG to other distributors; they may only purchase LPG from them.
• Moreover, LPG storage license holders with empty capacity are obliged to meet the demands that do not harm LPG. Storage tariffs will be prepared by the license holders and implemented following the approval of the Board, which will decide on the applications within 30 days. Initial tariff proposals must  be submitted to the Board no later than 1/12/2025.

5.      Amendments to the Corporate Tax Law No. 5520:

• With the amendment to Article 32/A of the Corporate Tax Law the authority regarding investment incentive certificates has been transferred to the Ministry of Industry and Technology.  Additionally, a clear time limit has been introduced for the corporate tax application, stipulating that a 60% discount may be applied for a maximum of ten accounting periods. It has also been regulated that investment contribution amounts not utilized cannot be taken into account in subsequent periods.
• The President authorized to determine the applicable regions, sectors, technology areas, and investment subjects, set the investment contribution rate up to a maximum of 50%, allow the use of up to 50% of the contribution amount through the application of the reduced tax rate to other income in the first four fiscal periods, impose limits on the ratios of expenditure items, and for investments covered by Law No. 6745, double the applicable periods and increase the rates up to 100 as stipulated.

6.      Amendments to Law No. 5746 on Supporting Research, Development and Design Activities:

• Amendments have been made to the provisions of the Law on Supporting Research, Development and Design Activities that regulate income tax withholding incentives, and the scope of the exemption has been limited to forty times the gross minimum wage.

7.      Amendment to Law No. 6550 on the Support of Research Infrastructures:

• With the Amendment to be made to Provisional Article 1 of the Law on Supporting Research Infrastructures a limit of forty times the gross minimum wage has been introduced for the amount of wages eligible for exemption.

8. Amendments to Law No. 4904 on the Turkish Employment Agency:

• With the Amendment Law, Articles 19 and 20 of the Turkish Employment Agency Law No. 4904 have been amended, and data reporting obligations of private employment agencies have been expanded and made subject to sanctions.
• According to the new regulation, private employment agencies are now explicitly required to report to the Turkish Employment Agency, in a format and within a period to be determined by the Institution, all data regarding job advertisements they publish and individuals they direct to such jobs. Failure to comply with this obligation will result in a formal warning, and if the data is not submitted within seven days following such warning, an administrative fine of TRY 136,190 will be imposed. In the event of a recurrence of the same violation within one year, the fine shall increase to TRY 272,380.

9. Amendments to the Law No. 5510 on Social Security and General Health Insurance:

• With the addition made to the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510, it has been amended to allow applications related to social security to be submitted abroad via labour and social security counsellors and attachés.

The full text of the Amendment Law can be reached via this link. (Only available in Turkish)