Tourism share bookkeeping: accrual, payment and expense treatment

The tourism share (turizm payı) is a levy on the business's own net sales, not a charge on the guest, so it is booked as the hotel's cost: accrue it against an expense account and credit account 360 each period, clear 360 to the bank when it is paid, and keep the payment document for the Ministry.

The return is filed, the money has left the bank, and the accountant still owes an answer to two questions: which account does this go in, and can we deduct it? Unlike the accommodation tax, nobody at the desk collects this one from the guest. After reading this piece you will know the accounts, the two entries, how to tie the declared base to your ledger, and what proof the Ministry can ask to see. A companion article covers who pays the tourism share and how the return works; this one starts where that stops.

Whose cost is the tourism share?#

It is the business's own cost. The tourism share is levied on the hotel's revenue, not on the guest, so no invoice line carries it and no receptionist collects it. Article 6 of Law No. 7183, the law that created the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, charges the share on the revenue a business earns from its activities in the listed facilities (consolidated text, mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab), 2026).

Contrast this with the accommodation tax, which is charged to the guest and shown as a separate line, so the hotel collects it and passes it on. That tax has a counterparty; the tourism share does not. The bookkeeping consequence follows directly: a collected tax needs a receivable and a payable side, while the tourism share needs only an expense and a liability. Mixing the two in one account destroys both pictures, and anyone who has read how the accommodation tax is booked, with the guest as counterparty will recognize how different the entries are.

The rate for accommodation facilities is five per thousand (0.5%) of total net sales and rental income, halved for tourism types the Ministry of Culture and Tourism chooses to encourage, such as winter, thermal, health, rural and qualified sports tourism (Law No. 7183, Article 6, consolidated text). No published Ministry list of encouraged types was found, so treat any halving as a question for your adviser with a written answer, not as an assumption in the ledger.

Which accounts hold the tourism share?#

The liability belongs in account group 36, taxes and other obligations payable, and in practice account 360. The expense side goes to whichever expense account your chart assigns to it, used the same way every period.

Group 36 is titled "Ödenecek Vergi ve Diğer Yükümlülükler", taxes and other obligations payable. Account 360, "Ödenecek Vergi ve Fonlar", holds taxes, duties, fees and funds payable, which is exactly what the tourism share is. This structure comes from the Accounting System Implementation General Communiqué, Serial No. 1 (Resmî Gazete (opens in a new tab), 26.12.1992).

Account 361 is for staff social security deductions and employer contributions, so it is not the home for this levy even when the payment leaves the same bank account. Account 368, "Vadesi Geçmiş, Ertelenmiş veya Taksitlendirilmiş Vergi ve Diğer Yükümlülükler", takes amounts not paid within the legal period, and deferred or instalment amounts falling due within a year of the balance sheet date. Anything due after more than a year goes to 438. Account 369, "Ödenecek Diğer Yükümlülükler", exists for other obligations; if your adviser prefers it, use it consistently, because the value of the account is that it always means the same thing.

Businesses that keep expenses by type under the 7/B option record taxes, duties and fees in 795, "Vergi, Resim ve Harçlar", instead of a function-based expense account. The choice between general administrative and marketing or selling expense is a policy decision, not a legal one. Write it into your chart of accounts note so a new accountant cannot silently change it.

How do you record the accrual and the payment?#

Accrue the share in the month the revenue arises by debiting the expense account and crediting 360, then clear 360 to the bank when the money leaves. Two entries, in that order, every period.

The accrual entry is a debit to the expense account and a credit to 360. The payment entry is a debit to 360 and a credit to the bank account. The liability should return to zero after each payment, and any residue is a signal, not a rounding difference.

Accrue monthly even if you file quarterly. The filing period set by the Tourism Share Return General Communiqué (Serial No. 1) changes when the return is filed and the money is paid, not when the cost arises; a quarterly filer simply lets the 360 balance build for three months.

Never net the share against sales. It is a cost of the period, not a reduction of revenue, and netting it distorts both the revenue line and the expense line that a reviewer will test first. If payment slips past the legal period, move the balance to 368 so the aging is visible on the face of the balance sheet rather than hidden in a current liability. Keep the bank receipt and the filed return together from the moment both exist: the pair is the file the Ministry asks for, and reconstructing it later is the expensive way.

How do you tie the base to net sales in the ledger?#

The base is a legal figure, total net sales and rental income from the listed activities, while the ledger gives you a commercial figure. The gap between them must be a written bridge, not a memory.

Net means net of value added tax and after returns, discounts and allowances, so the sales group and its reducing accounts produce the figure the return starts from. Rental income earned from activities in those businesses is inside the base, per Article 6 of Law No. 7183. Keep it as an identifiable line in the ledger rather than buried in other income, or you will rebuild it by hand every period.

Judgment items, such as whether a particular commission, a complimentary stay or a retained cancellation fee belongs in the base, are legal questions under the communiqué and the law, not accounting preferences. Get the answer in writing and keep it with the file. If your day-end process feeds the books from the property system, what moves from the hotel system to the accounting system at day end determines how clean the sales figure is before you start.

Build a one-page bridge each period: the ledger's net sales, each reconciling item added or subtracted with a reason, and the declared base at the bottom. Date and sign it. Reconcile before filing: a difference found by an inspector is a finding; the same difference explained on a signed page prepared in advance is a note. Watch the cut-off too. Revenue accrued on the last day of a period belongs in that period's base, and a day-end process that posts after the bridge is prepared will break the tie.

Is the tourism share an expense?#

Yes. The tourism share is a deductible expense for income and corporate taxpayers under general tax principles, and Law No. 7183 defines the levy itself (consolidated text, mevzuat.gov.tr, 2026). Whether a given amount is deducted on a cash or accrual basis follows the tax rules that apply to your business, so confirm the timing with your accountant.

The wording ties the deduction to the share paid, so an accrual sitting unpaid at year end deserves a check with your adviser before you treat it as a deduction in that year. It is not a value added tax item and it is not passed to the guest, so it appears neither on the guest's invoice nor in the VAT return. Anyone who books it like the accommodation tax has created a phantom receivable.

Under the 7/B expense-by-type option it lands in 795, "Vergi, Resim ve Harçlar", which is where a reviewer will look for it if that option is used. Keep the expense account stable across periods: a mid-year switch between general administrative and marketing expense splits the same cost across two lines and invites a question you then have to answer from memory. If the hotel also pays the accommodation tax, keep the two visibly apart in the ledger. One is a collected tax with a guest counterparty, the other is your own cost with none. Confirm your own case with your accountant, particularly an unpaid balance at year end or any instalment arrangement, because the treatment follows the facts of that file.

What proof must a certified business give the Ministry?#

Under the procedures set by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the TGA, certified businesses must submit proof of payment of the tourism share within fifteen days, as part of the compliance obligations in Article 11 of Law No. 2634, and must produce it at on-site inspections.

The duty falls on "belgeli işletmeler", Ministry-certified businesses. If your only licence comes from a municipality, confirm your position with the Ministry and your adviser rather than assuming either way. Article 32(1)(d) of the same law, added by Law No. 7334 of 18 July 2021, makes failure to submit the document within fifteen days, or failure to present it at an inspection, a ground for a warning (uyarma) to the certificate holder (mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab), 2026).

A warning under that law is final. That is what turns an accounting habit into an inspection duty: the file is not paperwork behind the ledger, it is the evidence the certificate depends on. The practical file is small: the filed return, the bank receipt showing payment, and the signed bridge page for the period, kept together and retrievable by period. The fifteen days run under the Ministry's procedures, so confirm the start of the period with the Ministry and a legal adviser, and control the receipt at the moment it is produced. A receipt found three weeks later is a different conversation from one filed the same week. Treat the submission as a calendar task with an owner, not as something the accountant remembers when the return is filed.

Which month-end checks catch tourism share errors?#

These checks catch the common tourism share errors before the return goes in, and they take less time than answering one inspection question. Tourism share accounting in Türkiye fails in predictable places, so test those places directly.

The recurring differences are few and predictable: revenue accrued after the bridge was prepared, rental income left inside other income, returns posted to the wrong period, and a payment cleared to the wrong bank account. The same discipline protects the accommodation tax return; the month-end checklist for the accommodation tax return follows the same logic. For the wider vocabulary of levies a hotel faces, see the glossary of hotel taxes and levies in Türkiye.

What to do next#

Build the one-page bridge and the payment file for the current period, then take the year-end accrual question to your accountant in writing. The pieces fit in one order: the share is your cost, not the guest's; it lives in 360 until paid; the base is proved by a signed bridge from the ledger; the deduction follows the law's wording; and the receipt is what the Ministry asks to see.