What the 1% provision actually requires
No. Making a will in Türkiye does not, by itself, give your estate the new 1% inheritance-tax rate. The special provision concerns transfers by inheritance from a person benefiting from article 20/D during that person’s exemption period. Eligibility rests on the deceased’s status. The heir’s residence or the place where the will was signed cannot establish it on their own.
Article 2 of Law No. 7582 added this rule to article 16 of the Inheritance and Gift Tax Law. The official parliamentary text confirms the direction of the transfer: from the person benefiting from the income-tax exemption. It does not make drafting a will a qualifying condition.
What a will can determine
A will records how a person intends their assets to pass after death. Whether those instructions take effect depends on the will’s validity and the applicable succession rules, considered alongside the assets, family circumstances and existing documents.
For cross-border estates, Turkish conflict-of-laws rules distinguish the deceased’s national law from the treatment of immovable property situated in Türkiye. The official TKGM legal compilation, article 20 of Law No. 5718, identifies Turkish law for Turkish immovable property. A foreign will should therefore be reviewed in context, rather than presumed either sufficient or ineffective.
The tax analysis turns on whether the deceased benefited from article 20/D, whether the inheritance falls within the relevant period and whether Turkish inheritance tax applies to the transfer. Foreign-country taxation remains a separate question.
Before signing a new will
A useful starting point is an asset list showing ownership, country and asset type, together with existing wills, succession agreements, residence information and article 20/D documents. The intended beneficiaries and any changes in family circumstances since earlier documents were signed also need to be recorded.
The agreed legal work should cover the services you need, including any coordination with advisers abroad. In particular, a new will should be checked against earlier wills so that a document prepared for one country does not unintentionally disrupt arrangements elsewhere.
Our 1% inheritance-tax guide explains the wider eligibility conditions.
Heirs and lifetime gifts
If my heir qualifies for article 20/D, does my estate automatically get 1%?
No. The provision refers to inheritance from the qualifying person. The heir’s own eligibility does not substitute for the deceased’s qualifying status. The particular transfer must still be assessed.
Can I give assets away now and use the same rate?
The special provision covers inheritance and does not extend that rate to lifetime gifts. Giving an asset away now therefore needs its own tax assessment before ownership changes.
Initial contact with LP Legal is free. We communicate fluently in Turkish and English; paid interpreting can be arranged for other languages. Begin with the countries involved, asset categories and whether wills already exist. Full financial records are not needed in the initial form.
Prepared for LP Legal by Selahattin Hakan Yıldırım. Contact us to discuss a specific situation.
This article provides general information as at 21 October 2026. It is not legal or tax advice and does not create a lawyer-client relationship.