Hotel taxes and levies in Türkiye: a glossary for owners and investors

Hotel taxes in Türkiye are charged in two different places. Konaklama vergisi (accommodation tax) is a tax on the stay, shown as its own line on the guest's invoice and kept outside the VAT base. Turizm payı (tourism share) is a levy on the business's net sales, declared on a separate return. They are not the same filing.

A new finance manager opens the filing menu and finds two returns with almost the same name: one for the accommodation tax, one for the tourism share. The front desk numbers seem to feed both. They do not. This glossary separates the two duties, then explains the words around them: the document words (fatura, beyanname, matrah), the timing words (vergiyi doğuran olay, dönem, son gün) and who prepares what inside the hotel. After reading, you will be able to look at any invoice or return and say which working it belongs to.

Is the accommodation tax return the same as the tourism share return?#

No. The accommodation tax is charged on the stay and appears on the guest's invoice; the tourism share is a levy on the business's net sales and appears on its own return.

The accommodation tax follows the transaction. It is calculated on the value of the stay and the services sold with it, and the guest sees it as a line on the bill. The tourism share follows the business. It is calculated on the net sales and rental revenue the investor or operator earns from the activity, and no guest ever sees it.

One is set by Article 34 of the Expenditure Taxes Law (Law No. 6802); the other by Article 6 of Law No. 7183, the law that created the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency. They are declared separately, on separate forms, with separate periods, so a single reconciliation file that mixes the two will not balance against either return.

The practical test: if the number comes from invoices issued to guests, it belongs to the accommodation tax working; if it comes from the sales ledger, it belongs to the tourism share working.

What is konaklama vergisi, the accommodation tax?#

It is a tax on overnight stays in hotels, motels, holiday villages, guesthouses and similar facilities, set by Article 34 of the Expenditure Taxes Law (Law No. 6802), published on the Presidency's legislation database.

The scope is wider than the room. The same article covers the other services sold together with the stay inside the facility, such as food, drink, activities and the use of pool, sports or thermal areas. That wording is why a meal sold as part of a stay and a meal sold to someone who is not staying are not automatically the same case. Confirm how your accountant treats sales outside a stay.

The tax must be shown separately on the facility's invoices and similar documents, so folding it silently into the room price fails the requirement even when the total is right. The law also places it outside the VAT base, which is a calculation rule, not a presentation detail: it changes the amount of VAT on the same bill.

This article gives no rate. The rate is set and amended in law, and the current figure should be read from the official text with your accountant, not from a blog post. For more on the base, see what hotels charge accommodation tax on and how.

A useful check for the general manager: pick five invoices from last week and confirm each one carries the accommodation tax as its own line with the correct rate code.

What is turizm payı, the tourism share?#

It is a levy created by Article 6 of Law No. 7183 to fund the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, charged on the net sales and rental revenue a tourism business earns from its activity. The provisions regarding the tourism share (Article 6) entered into force on 1 October 2019 and apply to compound facilities, accommodation facilities and places holding a tourism-purpose rental permit, among others. Ministry-certified food, drink and entertainment facilities and marine tourism facilities are also in scope; travel agencies pay on a different basis, with individual air ticket sales excluded.

The base is the total net sales and rental revenue the investor or operator earns from those activities, which is why the sales ledger, not the guest invoice, is the source document. The rates sit in the law and have been amended by later laws; some encouraged tourism types, such as winter, thermal, health, rural and qualified sports tourism, pay a reduced share. Read the current text with your accountant rather than a table in an article.

Filing periods are monthly for corporate taxpayers and quarterly for everyone else, set by the Turizm Payı Beyannamesi Genel Tebliği (Sıra No: 1), published in the Resmî Gazete on 2 November 2019 (No. 30936). The declaration is filed electronically by 23:59 on the last day of the month after the period and paid within the same time. Deadlines are fixed by law, but the Ministry may issue specific circulars extending filing dates in exceptional cases. Always verify the current filing calendar with your accountant. The Tax Procedure Law and the Law on the Collection of Public Receivables apply to it, and 5% of the amount collected goes to the general budget with the rest to the Agency. The full current text of Article 6 is on the Presidency's legislation database (mevzuat.gov.tr) (opens in a new tab).

KDV and accommodation tax on the same guest bill#

VAT (KDV, katma değer vergisi) is charged on the supply, and the accommodation tax is a separate charge on the stay that the law keeps outside the VAT base, so the two are calculated one after the other, not on top of each other.

Read the bill from the top: room charge, the other services sold with the stay, the accommodation tax line, then VAT on the amount that excludes that line. The most common arithmetic error is multiplying the VAT rate by a total that already contains the accommodation tax, which overstates the VAT declared. The second common error is presentational: a single blended line that hides the accommodation tax inside the room price, which breaks the separate-line requirement even when the guest pays the right amount.

Both taxes need a rate to be calculated, and neither rate is given here. The accountant confirms the current figures and any change of scope that affects a given outlet. Restaurant and bar sales need their own decision: whether a sale falls inside the stay or stands alone changes which rules apply, and that is a question for the adviser, not for the front desk. For the invoicing side, see e-Fatura and e-Arşiv when invoicing guests and agencies.

A clean bill is also a reconciliation tool. When the accommodation tax line is always separate, month-end matching of invoices to the return takes minutes instead of a rebuild.

Document and filing words: fatura, beyanname, tahakkuk, matrah#

These are the words on the paperwork between the front desk and the tax office, and each one names a different object: the document, the form, the debt and the amount the tax is calculated on.

Fatura is the invoice, the document that records the sale; e-Fatura and e-Arşiv fatura are its electronic forms, and which one applies depends on the buyer. Under VUK General Communiqué No. 509, as the Revenue Administration (GİB) explains on its eBelge site, a taxpayer in the e-Arşiv application issues an e-Fatura to buyers registered for e-Fatura, and an e-Arşiv fatura to taxpayers not registered for e-Fatura and to people who are not taxpayers. An e-Arşiv invoice is delivered on paper or electronically, as the buyer requests; private integration (özel entegratörlük) lets a taxpayer without enough IT infrastructure use the application through an integrator.

Beyanname is the return, the form on which the period's figures are declared. Tahakkuk is the point where a declared amount becomes a debt to be paid. Matrah is the base, the amount a tax is calculated on; the accommodation tax and the tourism share have different bases, which is the whole reason they are separate workings. İstisna is an exemption, a case the law takes outside the tax; never assume one applies to your facility without written confirmation from your adviser. Damga vergisi is a tax on certain documents rather than on the stay or the revenue; whether a particular contract falls under it is a question for your accountant.

For the wider compliance vocabulary, see the compliance glossary covering KBS, KVKK, e-Arşiv and ÖKC.

Timing words: vergiyi doğuran olay, dönem, son gün#

Vergiyi doğuran olay is the moment the law says the tax arises, dönem is the reporting window it falls into, and son gün is the last day for declaring and paying it.

The taxable event decides which period a sale belongs to and which version of a rate applies, so it matters more than the invoice date in a hotel with deposits and prepayments. Hotels create awkward timing on purpose: money arrives at booking, the stay happens later, a no-show keeps part of it, and an agency settles after departure. Your accountant decides which period each amount belongs to.

Dönem for the tourism share is monthly for corporate taxpayers and quarterly for others, and the last day is 23:59 on the last day of the month after the period, with payment within the same time. Because the Ministry can shift periods and deadlines by up to one month, treat the calendar as something to confirm each year, not something to remember.

The night audit closes the business day and fixes the revenue figures, which is what makes the invoice total, the accommodation tax line and the return agree later. Write the period on every reconciliation file: a correct number filed in the wrong period is still a correction. For the working itself, see a month-end checklist for the accommodation tax return.

Who prepares what inside the hotel?#

The front desk creates the tax line, the night audit fixes the day, accounting reconciles, the general manager signs off, and the external accountant files.

Front desk posts the accommodation tax as its own line and uses the correct rate code, because a wrong code cannot be repaired by the accountant after the invoice has gone to the guest. Night audit closes the business day so that revenue, invoices issued and the tax line agree before anything is exported. Accounting reconciles the accommodation tax collected against the invoices issued, and separately reconciles the tourism share base against the sales ledger.

The general manager signs off both reconciliations before filing, which is where a wrong scope usually becomes visible before it becomes a correction. The external accountant (mali müşavir) prepares and files the returns, and confirms scope, rates and timing for your facility in writing. Keep the working papers: what was declared, from which report, on which date, and who checked it. The file is the answer to most later questions.

What to do next#

Before the next filing, take last month's invoices and last month's sales ledger and build two separate reconciliation files from them: one for the accommodation tax, one for the tourism share. If the two files cannot be produced independently, the returns are being prepared from a mixed source, and that is the thing to fix with your accountant first.