On 15 January 2021, the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance published the general communique (“Communique”) regarding the newly introduced “valuable residential real property tax”, which was first announced at the end of 2019. Valuable residential real property tax which has received strong criticism after being introduced, was extensively amended shortly after its announcement and was postponed for a period of one year.

Communique details the specifics of the tax by also including examples on how the tax will be applied as well as its calculation methods. Some of the highlights of the Communique can be summarized as follows:

• Those residential real properties located within Turkey and has a building tax value amount (this value determined as per Real Estate Tax Law numbered 1319 (“Law”)) of more than TRY 5,227,000 (this is the amount announced by certain tax advisors as the currently applicable amount and will be subject to increase each year) will be subject to valuable residential real property tax. This tax is to be paid by the owner of the real property or the holder of real property usufruct right.
• The part of the building tax value exceeding the above amount and applied in the relevant year will constitute the tax base of the valuable residential property tax. Tax rate varies between ‰ 3 – ‰ 10 for different thresholds of the tax base.
• Some of the exemptions are as follows: (i) Residential properties owned by certain governmental authorities, municipalities and universities, (ii) those persons owning only one valuable real property (qualified to be under Law), (iii) valuable residential property with the lowest value, in case the person owns more than one valuable residential property, are exempt from valuable residential property tax.
• Valuable real property taxpayers are required to file their tax returns by February 20th of every year and the tax can be paid in two installments in February and August of the relevant year.