Türkiye 2026 Asset Regularisation (Varlık Barışı): Eligibility, Tax Rates and Compliance Guide

What is the 2026 Varlık Barışı and who can use it?

Law No. 7582 added Temporary Article 19 to the Corporate Tax Law. The regime permits individuals and legal entities to notify specified assets held abroad and bring them into Türkiye. It also allows income-tax and corporate-tax taxpayers to regularise specified assets located in Türkiye but absent from their statutory books.

Individuals who are not income-tax or corporate-tax taxpayers may also notify qualifying domestic assets. The regime is therefore not limited to companies. The decisive questions are who owns the asset, where it is located, what type of asset it is and whether the statutory transfer, payment and record-keeping requirements are met.

Which assets are covered?

Real estate is not directly included in the statutory list. If a foreign property or another non-qualifying asset is sold and converted into cash or foreign currency, the resulting financial asset may need to be analysed separately by reference to the transaction date, ownership and documentary trail before any notification is made.

• Cash
• Gold
• Foreign currency
• Securities
• Other capital-market instruments

Deadline and place of notification

Under the current rules, notifications may be made until 31 July 2027 through banks or intermediary institutions in Türkiye. The President has a statutory power to extend the period within the limits set by the law, but taxpayers should plan on the currently effective deadline unless an extension is formally published.

For foreign assets, the owner may act personally or through an authorised representative where the legal and banking documentation supports that representation.

How much tax is payable? Can the rate fall to 0%?

The standard rate is 5%. A lower rate is available where the notified amount is committed to specified investment instruments for the required period. For 2026 notifications, the rate can fall to 0% with a five-year qualifying commitment.

Where must the asset be invested for a reduced rate?

The reduced-rate framework applies to investments specified in the legislation, including qualifying time deposits or participation accounts, government domestic debt securities, lease certificates and venture-capital investment fund participation units, subject to the detailed conditions in the Communiqué.

For a taxpayer making an investment commitment, the notified amount must generally be converted into the qualifying investment within ten days. For foreign assets, the ten-day period runs from the date the asset is transferred or deposited in Türkiye; for domestic assets, it runs from the notification date. The commitment period begins when the asset is placed in the relevant investment instrument.

The lowest tax rate is not automatically the best economic choice. A five-year commitment may be unattractive for a person or business that expects substantial liquidity needs, even though the Varlık Barışı tax itself can be reduced to 0% for a qualifying 2026 notification.

How are foreign assets brought into Türkiye?

Foreign assets that are notified must generally be brought into Türkiye or transferred to an account with a Turkish bank or intermediary institution within two months from the notification date. Where assets are physically brought into the country, customs declarations and supporting evidence become important.

A notification by itself is not enough if the asset remains abroad contrary to the statutory transfer requirement. Bank transfer records, account statements and documents linking the transferred amount to the notified asset should be retained as part of the compliance file.

Domestic assets that are absent from statutory books

Income-tax and corporate-tax taxpayers may also notify qualifying assets that are located in Türkiye but are not recorded in their statutory books. The asset must be demonstrable through the banking or intermediary-institution process and, for bookkeeping taxpayers, entered into the statutory records in accordance with the rules.

This area requires particular care when a company claims that a large amount of cash physically exists outside the books or when a shareholder proposes to place personal funds into the company. Varlık Barışı should not be used to manufacture a fictitious cash balance merely to repair historical accounting entries.

Accounting treatment and the special fund account

For taxpayers keeping books on the balance-sheet basis, the notified asset is recorded on the asset side and a corresponding special fund is recognised in equity/passive accounts. The fund is treated as a capital component. It cannot be withdrawn from the business for two years from the notification date and cannot be used for another purpose other than addition to capital during that period.

As a simplified illustration, if TRY 5,000,000 is received in a bank account, account 102 Banks may be debited and a dedicated Varlık Barışı fund sub-account credited, subject to the entity's chart of accounts and the nature of the asset. The exact account coding should follow the company's accounting policy and documentation.

The tax paid under the Varlık Barışı cannot be treated as a deductible expense and cannot be credited against another tax. In addition, losses arising from a later disposal of the notified assets are not deductible in determining income-tax or corporate-tax profit under the special rule.

Can a shareholder's personal money be introduced into a company?

The first step is to identify the true owner of the asset. A shareholder's personal wealth and an asset belonging to the company are not the same thing. A shareholder making a notification in his or her own name and a company notifying an unrecorded corporate asset can produce very different legal and tax consequences.

Accordingly, the idea that 'the shareholder's money can be put into the company through Varlık Barışı and withdrawn whenever needed' is too simplistic. Ownership, the notifying person, the bank account, accounting treatment, the special fund and the legal basis for any later withdrawal must be consistent with each other.

How far does the tax-audit protection extend?

Where all statutory conditions are satisfied, the Law and Communiqué provide protection against tax examination and tax assessment in relation to amounts attributable to the notified assets. This is not a general immunity covering every period and transaction of the taxpayer.

If an examination begins for another reason and a tax-base difference is identified, the protected treatment depends on whether that difference is attributable to the notified asset and on the limits in the legislation. Any amount exceeding the qualifying notified amount or unrelated to the notified asset remains outside the protection.

A notification made after a tax examination has formally started, or after referral to the tax assessment commission, does not provide protection for tax-base differences identified in that examination or assessment process. The chronology must therefore be reviewed carefully in any file with an existing tax-risk issue.

Can the bank ask where the money came from? The AML dimension

The Varlık Barışı is a tax regime. It does not suspend the obligations of banks and other regulated institutions under Law No. 5549 and the related anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing framework.

The Communiqué states that banks and intermediary institutions do not request supporting documents merely for the Varlık Barışı notification itself. That rule should not be confused with customer due diligence. A bank may still request information or evidence concerning the economic source, purpose or parties to a transfer when its KYC/AML obligations require it to do so.

For significant transfers, it is sensible to preserve the documentary history of the funds—for example foreign bank statements, sale agreements, inheritance records, dividend documentation or investment-account statements—so that the transaction can be explained consistently if the bank asks.

Example: tax on a TRY 5 million notification

Assume TRY 5,000,000 is notified during 2026. The table below shows only the Varlık Barışı tax and does not attempt to measure investment return, opportunity cost, liquidity risk or other taxes that may arise from the chosen investment instrument.

Pre-notification control checklist

• Confirm the true owner and legal nature of the asset.
• Classify the asset correctly as foreign or domestic.
• Confirm the bank/intermediary notification and account-opening process before moving funds.
• Do not miss the two-month period for bringing qualifying foreign assets into Türkiye.
• If choosing a reduced rate, track the ten-day conversion deadline and the full investment commitment period.
• Retain transfer records and source-of-funds documentation.
• For bookkeeping taxpayers, post the asset and special fund correctly and monitor the two-year restriction.
• If there is an ongoing audit, referral or historical tax risk, analyse the protection clause before notification rather than afterwards.

Conclusion: build the transaction before filing the form

The 2026 Varlık Barışı can be valuable for individuals and companies seeking to bring qualifying foreign financial assets into Türkiye or regularise specified domestic assets that are absent from statutory records. Its value, however, depends on execution rather than the notification form alone.

For material amounts, the prudent approach is to prepare one file covering ownership, source and documentation of the asset, the bank-transfer plan, the selected tax rate, the investment commitment, the accounting entry and any existing tax-audit exposure before the notification is submitted.