Communiqué No. 333, and why you need it

Why the law alone is not enough

Turkish tax legislation routinely leaves application to a communiqué. Read the law by itself and the certificate barely registers. Read the communiqué and it becomes the whole game, because without it the exemption does not apply however well you meet the conditions.

What it pins down

The three-year look-back in operational terms. The deadline, with the November and December arrivals given until the end of February. And the treatment of exempt income, which stays off the return and brings its costs and foreign tax credits with it, meaning neither can be set against Turkish-source income.

The practical consequence

Exempt income is ring-fenced. You cannot deduct the expenses that produced it, and you cannot use foreign tax paid on it against a Turkish bill. For most people in the target group that is a good trade. For somebody with large deductible costs abroad it is worth modelling rather than assuming.

If you read one document

Read this one. It is the text your Turkish accountant will work from, and it is the text the tax office applies when it decides whether to issue the certificate.