What is the Turkish DST?
Türkiye’s Dijital Hizmet Vergisi (Digital Services Tax: DST) entered into force on 1 March 2020 under Law No. 7194. It is levied on revenue from specified digital services provided in Türkiye, with no deduction for expenses, costs or taxes. The statutory rate is 7.5%, but Presidential Decision No. 10767 applies 5% from 1 January 2026 and 2.5% from 1 January 2027 (Law 7194, Art. 5). The DST targets large digital platforms operating cross-border, regardless of physical presence.
In-scope digital services
- Digital advertising services, including ad control and performance measurement, transmission and management of user data, and the technical services for delivering ads.
- Sale of digital content and services for listening to, watching or playing it online (software, apps, music, video, games, in-game purchases).
- Provision of digital environments where users interact (marketplaces included), and intermediation in these services.
Thresholds and exemptions
- Exemption thresholds: a taxpayer is exempt if, in the preceding accounting period, its Turkish in-scope revenue was below TRY 20 million or its worldwide in-scope revenue was below EUR 750 million; the tax therefore applies to groups above both thresholds, measured at consolidated group level (Art. 4(1)).
- Exemptions (Art. 4(6)): telecom services subject to the Treasury share, services subject to special communication tax, services under Article 4 of Banking Law No. 5411, sales of products developed in R&D centres, and payment services under Article 12 of Law No. 6493.
Compliance mechanics
The tax period is monthly and returns are due by the end of the following month. Non-filers may be warned through the contact channels, domain name, IP address and similar data of their website, and the warning is published on the Revenue Administration’s site (Art. 7). The access-blocking sanction in the original law was annulled by the Constitutional Court on 18 May 2023 (E. 2020/11, K. 2023/98).
Do: monitor global and Turkish revenue against the thresholds; if in scope, set up the filing calendar and reflect the 2026–2027 rate cuts in pricing and contracts.
Don’t: assume DST is duplicative of corporate tax: it is revenue-based and applies regardless of profitability or a permanent establishment.
DST in the financial model
Türkiye’s digital services tax applies to in-scope revenue (5% in 2026, 2.5% from 2027): advertising, intermediation and digital content, for groups above the dual thresholds (global and Turkish revenue). Because it taxes revenue rather than profit, the modelling consequence is blunt: a thin-margin marketplace can owe DST exceeding its Turkish profit, and the tax interacts with transfer-pricing design (which entity books Turkish-source digital revenue). Contract practice has followed: platform agreements include DST gross-up or pass-through clauses; as the rate falls, check whether those clauses track the change automatically. The forward-looking note: DST regimes were built as interim measures pending OECD Pillar One; until that settles, treat DST as a permanent line in Türkiye-facing digital P&Ls and a standard diligence question on revenue characterisation.
Sources. Law No. 7194 (Arts. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 52); Presidential Decision No. 10767 (Official Gazette 25 December 2025, No. 33118). Official Turkish texts.