Turkey – Proposal to Increase Digital Services Tax 

Members of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) submitted a draft law proposing to increase the Digital Services Tax (DST) rate and extend its scope of application. 

The Digital Services Tax applies to both international and domestic digital platforms whose global sales income exceeds EUR 750 million and whose income sourced from Turkish consumers exceeds TRY 20 million. 

The current Digital Services Tax rate is 7.5%, which makes Turkish DST one of the highest in the world. The proposed increase is to 12.5%. If enacted, this measure will also impact consumers, who, as in most cases when taxes of this kind are increased, will experience higher monthly subscription fees. 

What Platforms are in scope? 

This measure focuses on collecting more direct taxes from the digital economy’s strongholds. Some of these platforms are: 

• Social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok)
• Video and music streaming services (YouTube, Spotify, Netflix)
• Gaming and app providers (Google Play, Apple App Store, Steam)
• Digital media operators with advertising income

An important note is that the proposed increase of the DST will affect exclusively foreign digital platforms, while the tax will remain the same for domestic companies.