Law No. 7538, which was published in the Official Gazette on 15 January 2025, made important amendments to the Social Security and General Health Insurance Law and some other laws and introduced new regulations. A summary of these amendments is given below and the full text of the Law is attached.

Amendments to the Social Security and General Health Insurance Law

• Premium Incentive: The phrase ‘five’ in the first sentence of subparagraph (ı) of the first paragraph of Article 81 of the Law No. 5510 regulating the 5-point premium incentive has been amended as ‘four’. Thus, the amount corresponding to four points of the employer's share of the private sector employers' disability, old age and death insurance premiums will be covered by the Treasury.
• 5-point Incentive in the Manufacturing Sector: The 5-point incentive provisions for the manufacturing sector will continue to be applied until December 31, 2026. The President is authorized to extend the period of this article until December 31, 2027.

Following the determination of the minimum wage amount valid for the year 2025, with the circular dated January 10, 2025 and numbered 2025/2 to be applied between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025; a circular was published determining the lower and upper limits of daily and monthly social security bases, the amounts to be taken into account in the periods spent abroad and service indebtments, the premium amounts to be paid by voluntary insurances and general health insurances, administrative fines and the amounts to be taken as basis in temporary incapacity, funeral and breastfeeding allowances. The main amounts to be taken into account within the scope of the circular numbered 2025/2 are stated below, and detailed information can be found in the circular attached to this article.

According to the Circular dated January 6, 2025 and numbered 27998389-010.06.02-3676469 published by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance with the subject 'Financial and Social Rights', the coefficients used to calculate the wage of a public officers have been revised effective January 1, 2025.

Income Tax Exempted Child Support

With the decision of the 10th Chamber of the Council of State, No. 2023/170 and Decision No. 2024/1853, subparagraph (a) of paragraph 7 of Article 97 of the Regulation on Social Insurance Transactions and the relevant articles of the Circular on ‘Meal Allowances’ prepared on the basis of this Regulation were cancelled. Following the cancellation decision of the Council of State, the Regulation on Social Insurance Procedures was amended and subparagraph (a) of paragraph 7 of Article 97 was rearranged. In this context, with the circular dated 31.12.2024 and numbered 2024/17, the daily amount of the meal allowance to be exempted from the premium-based earnings for the year 2025 and the principles regarding the application were determined.

With this circular, the daily amount of the meal allowance to be exempted from the premium-based earnings and the principles regarding the application have been determined to be valid as of 1 January 2025 (from the monthly premium and service document / withholding and premium service declaration for January 2025). The arrangements made in the Circular are explained under the following headings: