Germany–Turkey Double Taxation Agreement

It depends on whether you remain a German tax resident or formally emigrate. Once you deregister from Germany (Abmeldung) and establish genuine Turkish residency, Germany's right to tax your non-German-source worldwide income ends. Germany keeps the right to tax German-source income — German rental income, German civil-service pensions, and (capped) German statutory pension and dividend income — regardless of where you live afterward.

Two separate layers apply. First, only part of a German statutory pension is taxable at all in Germany's domestic system: for someone retiring in 2026, 84% of the gross pension is taxable and 16% stays tax-free for life, with the taxable share rising 0.5 percentage points each year toward 100% by 2058 for later retirees. Second, under the DTA's Article 18, Germany has no right to tax the first roughly €10,000 of gross pension per year at all — that portion is taxable only in Turkey. Above that threshold, Germany may withhold tax at source, capped at 10% of the gross pension, while Turkey — as your country of residence — also has a right to tax it under Turkish law, giving you a credit for the German tax already paid.

Germany's exit tax under §6 AStG applies if, at the point you cease German tax residency, you (a) have been a German tax resident for at least 7 of the previous 12 years, and (b) hold — or held at any point in the preceding 5 years — a stake of 1% or more in a domestic or foreign corporation (a GmbH or AG, for example). If both conditions are met, unrealised gains on those shares can be taxed as if sold on your departure date, even though you haven't actually sold anything. It generally does not catch ordinary listed shares or fund units held below that 1% threshold, though 2025 rules extended a version of the exit-tax logic to certain large investment fund holdings. Get advice before emigrating if you hold a meaningful company stake.

Yes. Deutsche Rentenversicherung pays pensions worldwide with no destination restriction. Notify them of your Turkish IBAN and address, and keep submitting the annual Lebensbescheinigung (proof-of-life certificate) they require — missing it can suspend payments. For the EUR-to-TRY conversion, a specialist transfer service is usually much cheaper than your bank's standard SWIFT rate.

NV-1A is the German form non-resident pensioners file with Finanzamt Neubrandenburg — the centralised tax office handling German pensions paid abroad — together with a Turkish tax residency certificate (Ansässigkeitsbescheinigung). It lets the correct treaty-reduced withholding rate be applied at source, instead of full German withholding that you would otherwise have to reclaim, which can take a long time.

Apply through GİB (Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı), most easily via e-Devlet: log in with your Turkish ID and password, search for "Mukimlik belgesi başvuru dilekçesi", and submit your passport number, address, the country the certificate is for, and the purpose of the request (claiming DTA relief). It is normally issued within days in both Turkish and English, and German payers typically want it renewed annually.

Yes, and this is one of the most commonly confused points. A German civil-service (Beamte) pension falls under Article 19 (Government Service) of the DTA and is taxed exclusively in Germany, full stop — Turkey has no taxing right over it at all. The ordinary statutory pension (gesetzliche Rente) falls under Article 18 instead, where Germany has no source-taxing right on the first roughly €10,000/year, then a right capped at 10% at source above that, with Turkey also taxing with a credit. Mixing the two up is a frequent and costly mistake.

No. The Germany-Turkey DTA covers income tax, corporation tax, trade tax, and net wealth tax — it does not cover inheritance or gift tax. This is a meaningful gap: if you have assets in both countries, German inheritance tax and Turkish veraset ve intikal vergisi (inheritance and transfer tax) can both apply to the same estate without an equivalent treaty mechanism to prevent double taxation. Estate planning for German-Turkish assets needs separate, specific advice.

Once you spend 183+ days a year in Turkey and are Turkish tax resident, Turkey generally has the right to tax employment income for work physically carried out there, even though your employer and payroll are German. This surprises a lot of remote workers who assume German PAYE withholding settles the matter. Tell your employer as soon as your Turkish residency is established — there is also a separate question of whether your continued presence creates a German 'permanent establishment' risk for the employer, which is worth flagging to them.

No, that's exactly what the treaty prevents — but you do need to actively claim the relief. Germany withholds tax at source (capped at 5% if you hold 25%+ of the paying company's capital, otherwise 15%). As a Turkish tax resident, you also declare the dividend income in Turkey but claim a credit for the German tax already withheld, so you are not taxed on the same euro twice. Keep your German dividend withholding statements — you'll need them as evidence for the Turkish credit.

Article 4 of the DTA sets out tie-breaker tests used when domestic law would otherwise make you resident in both countries: first, where you have a permanent home available; if that's ambiguous, your "centre of vital interests" (closer personal and economic ties); then habitual abode; then nationality. In practice, moving your main home to Turkey, spending 183+ days a year there, deregistering in Germany, and obtaining a mukimlik belgesi together build a strong case that Turkey is your treaty residence.

German-source rental income stays taxable in Germany regardless of where you live — you keep filing a German Steuererklärung for the property. As a Turkish tax resident you may also need to declare it in Turkey, in which case Turkey credits the German tax already paid so you are not taxed twice on the same rental income.

The current treaty was signed in Berlin on 19 September 2011, entered into force on 1 August 2012, and applies retroactively from 1 January 2011. It replaced the previous 1985 treaty, which Germany had formally terminated in 2009 (ceasing to apply from 1 January 2011) after disputes over how German pensions paid to Turkish residents should be taxed — the new treaty's Article 18 pension rules are a direct result of that renegotiation.

The official treaty text (German, Turkish, and English) is published by Germany's Bundesministerium der Finanzen and by Turkey's Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı (GİB) on gib.gov.tr, listed among Turkey's in-force double taxation agreements. Always check the current published text rather than relying solely on summaries — treaty commentary (including this page) simplifies for clarity.