VAT General Implementation Communiqué in Türkiye
Since the services such as food and beverage, accommodation, transportation, guidance, sightseeing, health, etc. provided to the participants of the tours organized by the travel agencies resident in Türkiye are provided abroad and the passengers benefit from these services abroad, these services are not subject to VAT in Türkiye. However, the services provided domestically to the participants of the tour organization are subject to VAT.
For this reason, provided that the service fees purchased from abroad in relation to the tour activity are documented within the framework of Tax Procedure Law No. 213, VAT is not applied to the amounts shown in the expenses and documents related to these services.
In the invoice to be issued by the travel agency to the customers, the entire amount constituting the service fee is shown. However, VAT is calculated on the amount remaining after deducting the service fees provided abroad.
On the other hand, if the price of passenger transportation abroad is invoiced separately or the price constituting the transportation is shown separately in the invoice to be issued, this price is exempt from VAT in accordance with Article 14 of Law No. 3065.
Example: (A) The total amount of the fees obtained by the travel agency due to the tour activities organized in the period of April / 2013 is 50.000 TL. Expenses for services such as accommodation, food and beverage, guidance purchased by the company from abroad for its customers during this trip have been certified with documents in accordance with the Tax Procedure Law No. 213. The total amount of such expenses is 15.000 TL and the total amount of ticket costs for transportation is 20.000 TL. In this transaction,
15.000 + 20.000 = 35.000 TL is not subject to VAT.
VAT is calculated over 50.000 – 35.000 = 15.000 TL.
However, in order to be able to make transactions in this way, the company must show the amount of expenses incurred abroad and the transportation cost separately in the invoices to be issued to its customers and calculate tax on the remaining amount.
Source: VAT General Implementation Communiqué
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