Due to the struggling economy and rampant inflation, the Turkish government is rolling out significant tax changes to curb the surge in online shopping from international stores. Import duties are set to rise sharply, and the exemption threshold will be lowered. Additionally, certain product categories will face an extra tax.
Turkey to curb cross-border e-commerce
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Turkey
Author: Stefan Ditrih
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Fiscal subject related
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9687
Content accuracy validation date:
21.08.2024
Content accuracy validation time:
08:27h
E-commerce in Turkey has been booming, with online spending more than doubling last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. This growth is partly due to inflation, but there's also substantial organic growth. This year, Turkey expects continued growth in e-commerce, with nearly 560,000 companies active in the sector. The government in Ankara aims to shield these domestic businesses from the growing popularity of foreign online stores.
Key changes include:
- Import duties on European packages will increase to 30% starting August 21, up from the current 18%.
- Duties on packages from outside the EU will double to 60%.
- The exemption threshold will drop from 150 to 30 euros, meaning more online orders from abroad will be taxed.
- An extra fixed tax of 20% will apply to luxury products under the Special Consumption Tax Law.
These measures follow recent hints from Turkey’s trade minister about new regulations for platforms like Temu and AliExpress. The European Union is also planning to abolish the import duty exemption for packages up to 150 euros by March 2028.
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