Law No. 7577 on Amendments to Certain Laws Has Been Published

With the Law No. 7577 on Amendments to Certain Laws (the "Law"), published in the Official Gazette dated 17 April 2026 and numbered 33227, various amendments have been introduced to several laws.

(i) A new subparagraph has been added to Article 80/1(b) of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510 dated May 31, 2006, stating that:

"In cases where meals are not provided by the employer at the workplace or its annexes, the portion of the daily meal allowance up to TRY 300 corresponding to the days worked shall not be included in the earnings subject to social security premiums. The amount specified in subparagraph (9) shall be increased annually in accordance with the revaluation rate determined pursuant to Article 298 (B) of the Tax Procedure Law No. 213 for the previous year. Fractions not exceeding 5% of the calculated amount shall be disregarded." Accordingly, in cases where meals are not provided at the workplace or its annexes, the portion of the daily meal allowance up to TRY 300 will not be included in the earnings subject to social security premiums.

This amount will be increased annually based on the revaluation rate determined under the Tax Procedure Law No. 213, and fractions not exceeding 5% of the calculated amount will be disregarded. The Social Security Institution is authorized to increase or decrease the determined amount.

With this regulation, the daily meal allowance exempt from income tax and the meal allowance excluded from the social security premium base have been aligned.

The regulation clarifies the status of meal allowances against earnings subject to premiums at the legislative level and introduces a daily upper limit of TRY 300, thereby requiring updates to payroll and internal control systems and ensuring proper application of the exemption threshold.

This provision enters into force on the date of its publication.

(ii) The following sentence has been added to Article 49/1 of the Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447 dated August 25, 1999, after the second sentence:

"The President is authorized to increase the state contribution up to twice its current amount or decrease it by up to half." Accordingly, the President has been granted the authority to increase or decrease the state contribution to unemployment insurance within the specified limits.

This provision enters into force on the date of its publication.

(iii) The phrase "exported abroad" in subparagraph (a) of the second paragraph of Provisional Article 3 of the Free Zones Law No. 3218 dated 06.06.1985 has been amended as "exported abroad, into the free zone, or to other free zones".

With this amendment, the scope of the tax exemption for income derived from export sales under Provisional Article 3 of the Free Zones Law has been expanded. Accordingly, in addition to sales abroad, income derived from sales within the free zone and to other free zones is now also included within the scope of the exemption.

This provision enters into force on the date of publication, to be applied to income generated as of January 1, 2026.

(iv) In addition to the amendments summarized above, the Law also includes various changes concerning different areas of legislation. Detailed information on all provisions introduced by the Law can be accessed through the full text of the Law.

You may access the relevant Law here (In Turkish).

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