Turkey salary calculator 2026

The defining feature of a Turkish payslip is that the minimum wage itself is free of income tax. Every employee, whatever they earn, has the tax that would fall on a minimum-wage salary struck off their bill, so the progressive brackets only bite on the part of income above that floor. Combined with a social security deduction that comes off before tax, the result is a workforce that pays contributions but often little or no income tax. The calculator reproduces that shape, with one deliberate approximation described below.

Five brackets on top of a minimum-wage exemption

The 2026 schedule the model uses charges 15% on the first 190,000 lira (TRY) of annual taxable income, 20% up to 400,000, 27% up to 1,500,000, 35% up to 5,300,000 and 40% above that. Before any of those rates apply, the model subtracts an annual allowance of 396,360 TRY. That figure is the model's way of expressing the minimum-wage exemption: in the real system the exemption is a credit equal to the tax on the minimum wage, calculated month by month on a cumulative basis.

The practical effect is visible at the 26,006 TRY monthly minimum wage: after the social deduction the taxable income lands entirely inside the allowance, and the income tax line is zero. At 40,000 a month the first lira of tax appears, only 146 a month, and it takes a salary well above the 55,000 average before income tax becomes the larger deduction on the slip.

SGK: the deduction that comes first

The employee contribution is modelled as a single social line at 15% of gross. It bundles the worker's share of social security paid to the Social Security Institution (SGK), which funds the state pension, health insurance and disability cover, together with the small unemployment insurance premium collected alongside it. The 15% is deducted from gross before income tax is calculated, so it reduces the tax base as well as the net. Because it applies from the first lira with no allowance of its own, the contribution is by far the largest deduction for anyone on or near the minimum wage.

What the numbers look like

The first row is the whole story of the exemption: a minimum-wage worker loses exactly 15% to SGK and nothing to income tax. At the average salary the effective rate has only crept to 18.7%, because most of that salary is still covered by the allowance. The curve then steepens quickly: at 125,000 TRY the rate is 28.3%, and at 300,000 it is 36.5%, as the 27% and 35% brackets take over. A Turkish salary conversation is therefore very different at the bottom and the top of the range, which the flat versus progressive guide discusses in general terms.

What the employer pays on top

The employer's SGK and unemployment premiums are modelled at a combined 20.75% of gross. On the 55,000 TRY average that is 11,413 a month, for a total cost of employment of about 66,413. The real employer rate moves with incentive schemes that reduce it for compliant employers and for certain regions and sectors, so 20.75% is the standard figure before any discount.

VAT at 20%, with two reduced rates

The standard VAT rate (KDV) is 20%. A reduced rate of 10% covers a broad basket including many foods, restaurant meals and textiles, and a 1% rate applies to a short list of staples such as bread and some agricultural products. A 100 TRY net price becomes 120 at the standard rate; the VAT calculator lets you pick any of the three rates and work in either direction.

Working time and public holidays

The Labour Law sets a 45-hour working week, and the model divides it into five 9-hour days. The fixed 2026 calendar carries seven national holidays, of which six fall on weekdays, leaving 255 working days. Several are distinctly Turkish and tied to the founding of the Republic: National Sovereignty and Children's Day on 23 April, the Commemoration of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day on 19 May, Democracy and National Unity Day on 15 July and Republic Day on 29 October. Victory Day on 30 August lands on a Sunday in 2026 and so does not reduce the count. The two religious holidays, Ramazan Bayrami and Kurban Bayrami, follow the lunar calendar and are not in the fixed list, so the working days calculator will overstate a real working year by several days.

Where the model is exact and where it is not

The bracket rates and thresholds, the 15% contribution and the 20.75% employer rate are the standard statutory figures, and the calculation is a fair estimate for a full-time employee with one employer. It is an estimate rather than an exact result for two reasons. First, the minimum-wage exemption is applied as a flat annual allowance instead of the cumulative monthly credit the payroll actually uses, so a real payslip will show tax rising through the year as the cumulative income crosses each bracket, while the model spreads it evenly. Second, the stamp tax that Turkish payrolls withhold on salary is not modelled at all. Expect a real net to differ by a small margin.