Retire in Turkey from New Zealand (2026)

New Zealand has no bilateral social security agreement with Turkey — Work and Income's own published list of agreement countries covers only Australia, Canada, Denmark, Republic of Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Turkey is not on it, and it is also outside the 22-country Pacific Special Portability Arrangement. That does not mean NZ Super cannot be paid to you in Turkey, though: New Zealand has had a separate route called general portability (sometimes referred to as individual portability) since amendments to the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 took effect on 5 January 2010, and it applies to any country in the world, agreement or not. Under general portability, your payment is calculated as a proportion of the standard rate based on the months you lived in New Zealand between ages 20 and 65 — roughly 1/45th of the full rate for each year of residence in that window, up to 100% if you were resident for the full 45 years. You must apply through Work and Income's International Services while you are still "ordinarily resident and present in New Zealand," ideally well before you depart, and extra assistance (living-alone payments, disability allowance, accommodation supplement) does not travel with you. Get a written assessment from Work and Income of your specific portable rate before committing to a move — do not assume your current payment carries over unchanged.

This is a different rule from portability, and it is easy to conflate the two. From 1 July 2024, Work and Income began phasing in a higher residence requirement to qualify for NZ Super or the Veteran's Pension in the first place: the number of years you must have lived in New Zealand since age 20 is rising in stages from 10 years to 20 years by 2042, with the exact figure depending on your date of birth (you must also still have lived in New Zealand for at least 5 years since turning 50). This change affects people turning 65 on or after 1 July 2024 and does not affect anyone already receiving NZ Super. It is a tightening of who can claim NZ Super at all — separate from, and in addition to, the general-portability rate calculation above, which determines how much of your NZ Super is paid once you are entitled to it and living in a non-agreement country like Turkey.

New Zealand and Turkey signed a double taxation agreement on 22 April 2010, in force since 28 July 2011, administered on the New Zealand side by Inland Revenue (IRD). Article 18(2) of that treaty is specific and favourable here: "Pensions and other payments made under the social security legislation of a Contracting State to a resident of the other Contracting State shall be taxable only in that other State." NZ Super is paid under New Zealand's social security legislation, so once you are a tax resident of Turkey, this provision gives Turkey the exclusive right to tax it — consistent with Work and Income's general practice of paying NZ Super overseas gross, with no New Zealand tax withheld at source under general portability. What Turkey itself does with that income under its own domestic tax rules is a separate question worth confirming directly with a Turkish tax adviser or the Gelir İdaresi (Turkish Revenue Administration) before you rely on a specific net figure.

KiwiSaver is a voluntary retirement savings scheme, entirely distinct from NZ Super, and it is not covered by the portability rules above. If you emigrate permanently to Turkey (this route does not apply if you move to Australia, where a transfer to an Australian super fund is the only option), you can generally apply to your KiwiSaver provider for a permanent emigration withdrawal once at least 12 months have passed since you left New Zealand, supported by a statutory declaration and proof of departure. You can withdraw your own contributions, your employer's contributions, and investment returns, but any government contributions must first be repaid. For pension or annuity income you receive "in consideration of past employment" — including any occupational scheme — Article 18(1) of the New Zealand–Turkey tax treaty applies the same country-of-residence principle: it is taxable only in the state where you are resident. Confirm the exact process with your own KiwiSaver provider and, if relevant, occupational scheme administrator before you move.