When the accommodation tax rate changes: what a hotel updates and when

Türkiye's accommodation tax rate is set by presidential decree within the band defined by Law No. 6802. When a new decree is published in the Resmî Gazete, hotels must update their systems to reflect the new rate from the date that decree specifies. A hotel updates tax tables, invoice templates and agency contracts, and taxes each stay by the service date.

A guest checks in on 28 April 2026 and checks out on 3 May. The accommodation tax rate changed in between. The communiqué tells you which tax period the stay belongs to; it does not tell you which rate applies to the April nights, and that is the first call to make. After reading this piece you will know where the rate comes from, which dates decide it, what a change touches in your hotel, and how to run the night a new rate takes effect.

Where is the accommodation tax rate set, and who can change it?#

In two documents: a law that fixes the band, and a Presidential decision that fixes the number in force. Article 34 of the Expenditure Taxes Law (Law No. 6802) sets the rate at 2% and lets the President move it within limits.

The fifth paragraph of Article 34 sets the statutory rate at 2% and allows the President to raise it by up to the same amount again, to at most 4%, to cut it to as little as half, to 1%, and to set different rates inside those limits. The number a hotel charges therefore comes from the current Presidential decision, not from the law alone. The law says how far the rate can move; the decision says where it sits today.

A decision takes effect on the date it states. Decision No. 11263 took effect on its publication date, 1 May 2026. Never take the rate from a news summary, a chat group or a colleague's email. Read the decision in the Resmî Gazete (opens in a new tab), note its number and date, and keep the file with the period's invoices.

The accommodation tax is a separate line from value added tax and from the room price. Check how your own rates are quoted before you change anything, because the answer decides whether a rate change moves your selling price or your margin. For background on the base the tax applies to, see what hotels charge accommodation tax on and how.

Give one person the job of watching the Resmî Gazete, and a named deputy. A rate that changes while the owner is away should not wait for the owner.

What changed on 1 May 2026?#

The rate halved. Decision No. 11263 replaced the statutory 2% with 1% from 1 May 2026, and the decision itself says the 1% applies until 31 December 2026 inclusive.

The decision is dated 30 April 2026 and was published in the Resmî Gazete of 1 May 2026, issue No. 33240, under the title on resetting the rate in the fifth paragraph of Article 34 of Law No. 6802. It sets that paragraph at 1% instead of 2%, and it took effect on its publication date. It states that the 1% applies until 31 December 2026 inclusive; that end date is part of the decision, not a comment on it.

What the decision does not do: it does not say what happens on 1 January 2027. Do not assume the 1% continues, and do not assume it returns to 2%. Both are guesses until a decision is published. The decision is short; read the text, not the articles about the text, and keep the PDF with the period's paperwork.

If your hotel opened, changed hands or changed accountants during 2026, check which rate each invoice batch actually used. A handover is where a stale tax table survives longest.

Which date decides the rate for a stay that crosses the change?#

The date the accommodation service is provided, not the booking date, the deposit date or the invoice date. For a stay that straddles a rate change, the communiqué settles the tax period but not the rate, so put the question to your accountant in writing.

The third paragraph of Article 34 of Law No. 6802 places the taxable event (vergiyi doğuran olay) at the moment the taxable services are provided. The Accommodation Tax General Communiqué (opens in a new tab) (Resmî Gazete, 14 December 2022, No. 32043) adds that when the price is collected, before the service, after it or not at all, does not affect the taxable event. The same communiqué says that issuing an invoice or a similar document before the service does not trigger the tax. Paper does not create the event; the night does.

For a stay that spans more than one monthly tax period, the communiqué puts the stay in the period of the check-out day when that date is known before the service. If it is not known, the taxable event is deemed to occur on the last day of each period, for the days served in it. That rule answers which month. It does not answer which rate applies to the nights served before 1 May in a stay that ends in May. Ask your accountant, and if the amount is material, ask for the answer in writing so the same question is not reopened next season.

Free stays also trigger the tax: rooms given to the operator, to relatives or to staff, and stays given as promotions or gifts. Staff sleeping in quarters reserved for their own use is the stated exception.

Write the answer down once: a one-page internal note carrying the decision number, the rule and your accountant's position. The front desk and the night auditor should both be able to find it.

Do deposits, early bookings and agency contracts priced before the change need re-pricing?#

A deposit does not fix the rate; the service date does. Agency and corporate contracts are a different problem: they were priced with a tax figure inside them, and for stays from 1 May 2026 that figure no longer matches the decision.

A deposit or a prepayment moves cash. It does not move the taxable event, which stays with the date the service is provided, subject to the answer your accountant gives on stays that cross the change. With travel agency sales, the communiqué is explicit: no tax arises when the room is sold to the agency or by the agency. It arises when the service is provided to the guest. Your invoice to the agency and the guest's stay are therefore two different events, and only one of them carries the tax.

Read each contract for one thing: is the contracted rate net, with tax added on top, or gross, with tax inside? A gross rate priced at 2% hands you a different net when the rate is 1%, and the difference belongs to somebody. Decide who, in writing. If the contract has a taxes-included clause with no change mechanism, you carry the difference until renewal. If it has a re-pricing clause, you have to trigger it in writing and quote the decision number and the gazette date, or the other side will read it as a price rise.

Corporate negotiated rates, group blocks and packages sold through tour operators carry the same question. Check them in the same pass, not one by one when a guest complains. For how to state net rates clearly in the first place, see net rates for travel agents and how to quote them clearly.

Do not re-price a stay that has already been served. If a document turns out to be wrong, that is a correction handled with your accountant's method, not a new rate applied backwards. Fix the wording once, in the contract template, so the next change is a filled-in date rather than a negotiation.

Which settings in the hotel actually carry the rate?#

More than the invoice template. The rate sits in the tax table, in every document that prints it, in the quotes sent to agencies and companies, and in the outlet devices that issue receipts.

Start with the tax table or rate code in the property management system: the code, its percentage and the date it takes effect. Then the invoice and e-document templates: the label on the tax line, the rate printed next to it, and the rounding rule. On the e-Fatura and e-Arşiv route (electronic invoices, issued through a licensed integrator), check the rate that reaches the integrator and the person who reviews a document before it is sent.

Agency and corporate quote templates carry the tax too, whether it is shown separately or folded into the rate, and whether the quote states which date it assumes. Reservation confirmations and the guest bill carry the wording that explains the line to a guest who has never seen it before. Outlet devices are separate: the ÖKC fiscal devices (yazar kasa) at the restaurant and the bar, and any separate point-of-sale terminal. Each outlet and each device is its own setting.

Finally, reports and reconciliation: the accommodation tax report your accountant receives, and the month-end check that ties it to the invoices issued. For that closing routine, see the accommodation tax return month-end checklist for hotels. Underneath all of it sits the person: one named owner for the tax table, one named deputy, and a written record of who changed what and when.

How do you run the night a new rate takes effect?#

Like a night audit with one extra step: close the old business day first, change the rate, then verify the new one before the first real document of the new day is issued. Never test in the live system.

Order matters. Close the business day, then change the rate, then verify. Changing first leaves the closing documents of the old day carrying the new rate. Never issue a test invoice, a test receipt or a test e-document in the live system. A document that has been sent is real; undoing it is a correction with a paper trail, not a deletion.

Verify without issuing: open a draft, read the calculation on screen, check the tax report, then discard the draft. If your system cannot show a calculation without saving it, ask the vendor how they expect a hotel to check a rate. Use two people. One changes the value; the other reads back the percentage, the effective date and the label on the document.

Check the edges on the same night: a stay that began before the change and ends after it, a deposit taken earlier, a group block, an agency booking, and a complimentary room. Check the outlets separately, because a restaurant device does not always take its rate from the front desk system. Log the change: who, when, the old value, the new value, and the decision number and gazette date behind it. Brief the front desk and reservations the day before, with one sentence they can say to a guest. A rate change explained badly at the desk costs more goodwill than the rate itself. For the closing routine itself, see the night audit checklist for closing the hotel business day in order.

How do you explain a changed tax line to a guest or an agency?#

Show the rate, the date it applied and the decision that set it, in one line, and settle the policy in writing before the first guest asks.

The line should say what the charge is, the rate, and that the rate is set by the state rather than by the hotel. A guest who understands the line stops arguing about it. Give the front desk the sentence in writing, in every language the hotel works in, and keep the decision PDF behind the desk and with the invoice batch.

For an agency, send the decision number and the gazette date with the revised quote. A number without a source reads like a price increase; a number with a source reads like a fact. If a guest was quoted a gross price that assumed the old rate, the difference is a management decision, not a system setting. Decide it once, in writing, and apply the same answer to everyone.

If a line was posted wrongly, correct it by voiding and re-posting, never by deleting; see how to void a folio charge without breaking the audit trail. The audit trail is what protects the hotel when the same question arrives three months later. Keep the explanation short: one sentence at the desk and one paragraph in the contract cover almost every case.

What to do next#

Open Decision No. 11263 in the Resmî Gazete, compare it with the tax table your system is using today, and write the one-page internal note: the decision number, the rule that the service date decides, and your accountant's answer on stays that cross a change. Then put a calendar entry in December to read the Resmî Gazete again, because the 1% ends on 31 December 2026 and the next decision, not a forecast, will set what follows.