Accommodation tax on hotel invoices: separate lines, refunds and receipts

In Türkiye, accommodation tax (konaklama vergisi) must appear as its own line on the hotel's invoice or similar document and is not included in the VAT base. Under Article 34 of Law 6802, it covers the overnight stay and the services sold with it inside the facility. Whether a particular item sold with the stay falls inside that scope depends on how it is invoiced, so confirm your own case with an accountant.

A guest at checkout sees a line reading konaklama vergisi and a note that it is not included in the total. The cashier has to explain it in one sentence, and the accountant has to be able to defend the same sentence months later. This article explains the accommodation tax on hotel invoices in Türkiye from the invoice outward: what the law requires, how to read the document line by line, which document type a guest receives, and what to do about refunds and outlet receipts. After reading, you will know what to check with your integrator before the season and what to ask your accountant.

What does the law require on a hotel invoice?#

A separate line, outside the VAT base. Article 34 of the Expenditure Taxes Law (Gider Vergileri Kanunu, Law No. 6802) requires the accommodation tax to be shown separately on the facility's invoices and similar documents and keeps it out of the VAT base, according to the consolidated text on the Presidency's legislation database, mevzuat.gov.tr (2026-11-01).

The scope has two halves. The first half is the stay itself: overnight stays in hotels, motels, holiday villages, guesthouses and similar facilities fall inside the tax. The second half wraps around the stay: other services sold together with the stay inside the facility also fall inside it, such as food, drink, activities and the use of pool, sports or thermal areas.

"Shown separately" means its own line, with its own name and its own amount, not folded into the room charge or hidden inside a service line. "Not included in the VAT base" means VAT is calculated on the amount before the accommodation tax; the two are separate lines and never multiply each other.

What the law does not settle for you is just as important: the rate that applies to your facility, exemption and withholding treatment, and the exact label your template prints. Those go to your accountant and your e-document integrator. This article describes the duty in general terms; confirm your own case, and any date or penalty that concerns you, with an accountant or legal adviser. For the wider picture of what the tax covers, see Accommodation tax in Türkiye: what hotels charge it on and how.

How do you read a hotel invoice line by line?#

Read from the top: the charges that form the VAT base, then VAT, then the accommodation tax as its own line, then the total the guest pays.

The room charge and the services sold with the stay sit in the VAT base and are taxed by VAT. VAT is calculated on that base, before the accommodation tax is added. The accommodation tax line follows, computed on its own base as the law defines it, and it takes no part in the VAT calculation. The amount the guest pays is the charges, plus VAT, plus the accommodation tax line.

A note saying the tax is not included in the total usually means the figure above it is a subtotal and the tax is added outside the VAT calculation. Confirm the exact wording and placement with your integrator. The order of the lines, the labels and the rounding are template settings; the substance, meaning which charge belongs in which base, is your accountant's call.

An illustrative invoice structure#

This table shows structure only. It is an example, not a template: no rates and no amounts, because those depend on your facility and your accountant's position.

e-Arşiv or e-Fatura: who decides which document the guest gets?#

The buyer's registration status decides. A taxpayer in the e-Arşiv application issues an e-Fatura to a buyer registered for e-Fatura, and an e-Arşiv Fatura to taxpayers not registered for e-Fatura and to people who are not taxpayers, as the Revenue Administration (GİB) explains on its eBelge site, "e-Arşiv Hakkında" (2026-11-01).

Under Tax Procedure Law (Vergi Usul Kanunu, VUK) General Communiqué No. 509, the split follows the buyer, not the hotel's preference and not the guest's request at the desk. An e-Arşiv invoice is delivered on paper or electronically, as the buyer asks. Private integration (özel entegratörlük, introduced by Communiqué No. 421) lets a hotel without enough IT infrastructure use the application through an integrator. GİB publishes a transition calendar for taxpayers coming into scope; check your own position and date with your accountant rather than with a blog post.

The accommodation tax line is a rule about the content of the document, so it does not change with the document type. An e-Fatura and an e-Arşiv Fatura carry the same separate line. For a corporate guest, the useful question at booking is whether the company is registered for e-Fatura, because that decides what the front office must prepare. The details of the two document types are covered in e-Fatura vs e-Arşiv: invoicing guests and agencies in Türkiye.

What happens when the price changes or a guest asks for a refund after invoicing?#

The invoice no longer matches the stay, and the accommodation tax line has to move with the corrected amount. How that correction is carried on an e-document is a question for your accountant, not a setting you change yourself.

Three triggers are common: a rate correction found after checkout, a refund of one night, and a service removed from the bill after the invoice was issued. Do not issue a second invoice for the same stay without advice. Two documents for one stay is how reconciliation breaks at month end.

Keep three things together: the original document, the reason for the change, and the guest's written request. The accountant needs all three to choose the route. Ask specifically whether the correction reduces the accommodation tax line as well as the VAT, and which document type carries the correction. The two lines move on different bases, so a correction that adjusts only one of them leaves the accommodation tax return wrong even when the guest's bill looks right.

We do not describe here how to cancel or correct an issued e-document. The procedure depends on the document type and on your integrator's setup, and the sources we checked do not settle it.

Do outlet receipts (ÖKC) and services sold with the stay follow the same rule?#

Partly. Services sold together with the stay inside the facility fall inside the accommodation tax's scope under Article 34, but a sale documented on an outlet device raises a separate question about what that receipt must carry.

Law No. 3100 requires first- and second-class merchants who sell goods to, or serve, people other than resellers to use payment recording devices (ödeme kaydedici cihaz, ÖKC), such as electronic cash registers, according to the consolidated text on mevzuat.gov.tr (2026-11-01). The receipt the device issues documents sales for which no invoice is required and takes the place of an invoice. Each device must give a receipt for every sale and a daily closing receipt, and record totals in a fiscal memory.

Article 34 covers food, drink, activities and the use of pool, sports or thermal areas when they are sold together with the stay inside the facility, so the scope question is about the sale, not about which machine printed it. Whether an ÖKC receipt can or must carry the accommodation tax line is not established in the sources we checked. Settle it with your integrator and accountant before the season, not during it. Which of your outlets must use a device, and whether e-Adisyon rules reach a hotel restaurant or bar, are questions for your adviser. The mechanics of fiscal devices in hotel outlets are covered in ÖKC in hotel outlets: fiscal devices, room charges and invoices.

How do you explain the line to a guest at checkout?#

Say what it is, say it is separate from VAT, and say the law requires it to appear separately, in that order, in two sentences.

A working script: "This line is the accommodation tax, a separate tax on the stay. It is shown on its own line and is not part of the VAT." Do not call it VAT, a service charge or a commission. A guest who hears "VAT" will compare it with the VAT line and stop trusting both.

If the guest asks why it was not inside the rate they were quoted, the answer is about how your hotel quotes rates, not about the law. Route that question to a manager. For a corporate guest, point to the invoice rather than the folio: the company's accounting team reads the document, not the bill. Print the same wording on the bill and on the invoice, because two different explanations for one charge is the fastest route to a complaint. Keep a one-page note at the desk with the sentence in Turkish and English; it saves the same conversation at every checkout. How the tax line fits into the wider checkout flow is covered in Hotel checkout process: the bill, the invoice and the goodbye.

Which settings should you check with your integrator before the season?#

Four settings and one workflow: the tax line on the invoice template, the same line on both document types, the outlet device configuration, the correction route, and who reviews an e-invoice before it is sent.

The invoice template must give the accommodation tax its own line, its own label and its own place outside the VAT calculation. Print a sample e-Arşiv Fatura and a sample e-Fatura and check the line on each, not on one. Ask the integrator what the outlet device prints today and whether the tax line is configurable at all. Know the correction route before the first refund, including who is allowed to authorize it. And make sure a person reads the e-invoice before it is sent: that review catches a missing tax line far faster than a month-end reconciliation.

Test with a fictional stay before the season: one room night, one breakfast, one spa charge and one refund, then read the four documents together. AI Otel's compliance layer is built along these lines: KBS, KVKK, e-Fatura and e-Arşiv sit in the core, and e-invoices wait for a person's review before sending. A review checklist for sent e-invoices is in Checking hotel e-invoices before sending: a review checklist.

What to do next#

Take one real invoice, one outlet receipt and one refund case to your accountant and your integrator this week, with the checklist questions in hand. The article fits together in three moves: the law fixes what the document must contain, the buyer's registration fixes which document it is, and the correction and outlet cases are where those two meet and where most errors start. If you want to see how a hotel system can carry these rules in its core, you can request a briefing at https://ai-otel.com/contact.