What Is Income Tax Withholding Incentive (Gelir Vergisi Stopaj Teşviki)?
The income tax withholding incentive cancels the income tax calculated on the wages of qualifying staff working in R&D centres, design centres and technology development zones in Türkiye.
The incentive applies to R&D, design and support staff working within structures established under Laws No. 5746 and No. 4691. Income tax calculated on their wages is declared on the withholding tax return and then cancelled to the extent the legislation allows.
Economically, the effect is that the employee's net pay is unchanged while the employer's total cost of employment falls. That makes it one of the principal tools for competing on qualified technical talent in Türkiye.
Entitlement depends on documenting that the person genuinely worked on in-scope activities and in the in-scope location. Tracking time spent outside the zone or centre, and separating support staff from R&D staff, is central to that evidence.
The cancellation rates, the limits applied to support personnel, and the rules on time spent outside the zone are revised periodically by communiqué. In tax inspections, the most frequently contested point is whether personnel tracking was evidenced by documentation.