Banking Services- Notaria Services - Tax Transactions in Turkey
Can I open a bank account in Turkey?
Yes you can. Before we get there,you need to be informed about the banks in Turkey. All the banks in Turkey work between monday and friday with the working hours of 09.00-17.00.
Some banks remain open at lunch break,some not. Please see the working hours of each bank on their doors.
The top 5 banks in Turkey are :
Turkiye Is Bankasi
Akbank
Turkiye Garanti Bankasi
TC Ziraat Bankasi
Yapi Kredi Bankasi
The procedure of opening a bank account in Turkey is:
You need to go to Tax Office and apply for ‘’ Foreigners Tax Number’’ which is in Turkish ‘’Yabancı Vergi Numarasi’’ (in Alanya Tax Office,they are giving it on the first flor.)
Please make sure that you go to Tax Office with a copy of your passport. If you don’t have it with you,they will kindly ask you to go and copy it somewhere.
After 15 minutes of computer work,you get your tax number.
One day after you get your tax number,you can go to the bank and ask them to open an account for you.The bank asks you to fill the application form and asks you to undersign it.They also take 3 examples of your signature. After the system recognise your signature,you can put money in your account or draw money from any branch in the whole country.
Congratulations,your account has been opened!In general the bank opens a current account for you where you can store or transfer money.From the same account,you can give ‘’Automatic Payment Order’’ to your bank for your electricity,water and internet bills.
As soon as you open your current account,you can ask the bank to make an ATM card allows you to access your account at the times the banks not operating and open internet banking account.
Remember that the banks in Turkey offering high interest on Turkish Lira savings and little interest on USD or EURO savings. The interest rates which banks are offering for Turkish liras are between 9-11 %.
Notary Transactions
Notary services are provided in every city & town in Turkey. Notary transactions are paid. If a non-Turkish citizen wants to buy a house or live in Turkey, notary procedures are required.
What are the most common transactions made by citizens of other countries at notaries in Turkey?
- Proxy
- Rental contract
- Passport translation & approval
- Translation & approval of apostatized documents from foreign countries
- Birth certificate translation and confirmation
- Marriage certificate translation and approval
Requester & sworn translators must be present for foreign language transactions to be made at the notaries.
Tax Procedures
Since the tax issue in Turkey is a very broad subject, we will only talk about the taxes of those who live in Turkey by buying a house or staying for a short time.
We call the land registry tax we pay when buying a house in Turkey. The state collects tax at the rate of 4% of the sales amount declared to the state from each sale.
In addition, there is the property tax that we pay to the municipalities every year. The grading of this tax is regulated by the municipalities in accordance with the relevant laws. However, this tax is around 50 euros per year. If this tax is not paid on time, no enforcement situation will occur, but a late fee must be paid. The delay fee is determined by considering the inflation situation. For 2022, an annual late fee of 15% is charged.
The taxes collected under the name of environmental cleaning tax are the waste sau tax collected according to the m³ of water used. It is collected at a rate within the water usage fees collected by the metropolitan municipalities. Of course, many similar payments are reflected in electricity & water bills. However, these numbers are very small numbers. When collected across the country & transferred to an institution makes up a large budget. For example, TRT tax is 2% of electricity consumption.
There are also taxes related to commercial life such as income tax & VAT tax. We will not go into these matters.
