The four deductions, in order
Turkish payroll subtracts four things from gross pay, always in this order:
- SGK employee share — 14% of gross.
- Unemployment insurance employee share — 1% of gross.
- Income tax — progressive 15%–40%, calculated on a cumulative base.
- Stamp duty — 0.759% of gross.
The income tax piece is the only one that gets complicated. The other three are flat rates on the gross amount and never change month-to-month. The minimum wage exemption layer (more on that below) reduces the income tax and stamp duty bases — it does not reduce SGK or unemployment.
The minimum wage exemption (asgari ücret istisnası)
Since 2022, the portion of every salary equal to the minimum wage is exempt from income tax and stamp duty. This single rule is responsible for most of the confusion in modern Turkish payroll. It means two things in practice:
- Net minimum wage exists not because of a discount, but because the minimum wage's own tax is exempted away.
- Higher salaries also benefit: everyone's first ≈brüt minimum wage worth of monthly pay is tax-free.
If you've ever wondered why a small raise barely moves your net, this is partly why — and the cumulative bracket effect (below) does the rest.
The cumulative tax base — why your net drops mid-year
Turkish income tax is calculated on a cumulative base. Every month, your year-to-date taxable income is computed, and the bracket is applied to that running total. As the year progresses, you cross into higher brackets, and your monthly net pay drops even though your gross is unchanged.
For a salary around the median, the typical pattern is: comfortable nets for the first 4–6 months, a noticeable drop somewhere in the middle, and a smaller second drop later in the year. By December, you might be netting 10–15% less than in January for the same gross — this is structural, not an error on your payslip.
2026 brackets at a glance
Brackets are updated each year against the revaluation rate. The structure is:
| Annual cumulative taxable income | Marginal rate |
|---|---|
| Up to roughly the first bracket | 15% |
| Second bracket | 20% |
| Third bracket (waged income) | 27% |
| Fourth bracket | 35% |
| Above the fourth | 40% |
For exact bracket thresholds, the Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı publishes the annual figures every January.
What AGİ ("Asgari Geçim İndirimi") was and why it's gone
Until 2022, the AGİ — a small monthly amount that varied by marital status and children — was added on top of net salary. The minimum wage exemption replaced it. If your older contract or payslip references AGİ as a separate line, it's legacy formatting; the actual benefit is now bundled into the exemption.
Worked example: 100,000 TL gross
For a gross of 100,000 TL/month in 2026, a January (first month) net pay typically looks like:
- SGK 14% → −14,000 TL
- Unemployment 1% → −1,000 TL
- Income tax (15% bracket, after exemption) → variable, but around −8,000 to −11,000 TL
- Stamp duty (after exemption) → around −650 TL
- January net ≈ 74,000–76,000 TL
By December, the same gross might net ≈ 65,000–68,000 TL after bracket creep. This is why annual averages are more useful than single-month calculations.
Common confusions worth clearing up
- "Net" job ads: A 100k net offer in January is not a 100k net offer in December. Always ask: net which month? Most professional offers mean January net.
- Bonuses are taxed at the marginal rate. A year-end bonus stacks on top of the cumulative base, so the entire bonus is taxed at whatever bracket you're already in — often 27% or 35%.
- Side income changes the math. If you also invoice as a freelancer (serbest meslek), that income is taxed separately on its own return, and SGK/unemployment do not apply.
- Cost to employer is much higher than your gross. Employer-side SGK adds another ~20.5% on top of your gross. A 100k gross salary costs the company ≈ 120k+.
How to use this
When negotiating, do three things: (1) ask for the gross number, (2) compute January net and December net both, (3) compare against the company's stated benefits package (private health, food card, transport) which is not subject to income tax in many cases and effectively raises your real net.