E-Commerce 1% Withholding Tax: A Guide for Marketplace Sellers

E-commerce withholding tax (stopaj) is the 1% income or corporate tax that marketplaces in Türkiye have withheld from their payments to sellers since January 1, 2025. The withheld amount is not lost: the marketplace pays it to the tax office on your behalf, and you offset it against the tax calculated in your provisional and annual tax returns. This guide covers the legal basis, how the tax base is determined, who is exempt from the withholding, the accounting entry, and what happens with returns.

What is e-commerce withholding tax and what is its legal basis?

The rule rests on three layers of legislation:

• Law: Article 94/1-19 of the Income Tax Law (GVK) and Articles 15/1-h and 30/1-e of the Corporate Tax Law (KVK) require intermediary service providers to withhold tax from their payments to sellers. The rates in the statutory text are 25% under the GVK and 15% under the KVK.
• Presidential Decree: Presidential Decree No. 9284 set these rates at 1%.
• Communiqué: The details are set out in Income Tax General Communiqué No. 330.

The withholding is made by intermediary service providers and electronic commerce intermediary service providers under Law No. 6563, meaning marketplaces such as Trendyol, Hepsiburada, n11 and Amazon. It applies to payments made to sole proprietorships as well as to limited and joint-stock companies.

Tax base: what amount is the 1% calculated on?

The base for e-commerce withholding tax is the product sales price or service fee excluding VAT. Benefits the marketplace provides to you, such as awards and bonuses, are also included in the base.

The most common mistake is assuming the withholding is calculated on the marketplace payout (hakediş), i.e., the net payment. According to the Communiqué, deducting amounts charged to you under names such as commission fee, shipping fee, service fee or bank commission from the sales price does not affect the base. In other words, the basis is the VAT-exclusive price of the sale, not the amount left after the marketplace deducts its commission.

Example calculation

Say you made 36,000 TL in sales (VAT included) on a marketplace in one month, and all your products are subject to 20% VAT. In the same example, the marketplace issued you a commission invoice of 4,800 TL (VAT included).

In this example, the withholding tax is 300 TL. If it were calculated on the amount after commission, the result would be different; but under the rule, the base is always the VAT-exclusive sales price.

Who is exempt from the withholding?

Under Communiqué No. 330, e-commerce withholding tax does not apply in the following cases:

• Persons who are not taxpayers
• Exempt tradesmen under GVK Article 9 (including those who produce at home and sell online)
• Taxpayers taxed under the simplified method
• Those whose earnings are exempt under GVK duplicate Article 20/B (mükerrer 20/B)
• Sales of personal belongings
• Sales whose price is collected outside the marketplace rather than through it (for example, via EFT-POS or as cash on delivery)

For exempt tradesmen, instead of the marketplace's 1% withholding, a separate deduction is made by the bank from the commercial account. We explained the conditions of this regime in our article on selling online from home and the tradesman exemption.

How do filing and offsetting work?

The marketplace that withholds the tax files and pays it with the combined withholding and social security premium return by the 26th of the following month. As a seller, you do not need to file a separate return.

The withheld amount is tax prepaid on your behalf:

1. In the provisional tax period: You offset the withholdings for that period against the tax calculated in your provisional tax return.
2. At year-end: You offset them against the tax calculated in your annual income or corporate tax return.
3. Amount that cannot be offset: If your calculated tax is lower than the amount withheld, the remainder is refunded.

Even in a year when you make a loss, the marketplace keeps withholding; since the withheld amounts cannot be offset in that case, the refund process becomes important. Plan the documents required for the refund together with your certified public accountant (mali müşavir).

Example of offsetting in a provisional tax period

Say a total of 900 TL was withheld by three marketplaces in one provisional tax period. In this example, assume the provisional tax calculated on your earnings for the period is 2,500 TL.

If the calculated tax is lower than the amount withheld, the portion that cannot be offset is carried forward to the next provisional tax period and, at year-end, to the annual return. Any portion that cannot be offset in the annual return is subject to refund.

If you sell on more than one marketplace

For a seller active on Trendyol, Hepsiburada, n11 and Amazon at the same time, each marketplace withholds and files separately. In this case, keep the following in mind:

• Track each channel separately. Keep payout reports per marketplace; the total you offset is the sum of withholdings across all channels.
• Watch for period differences. Marketplaces have different payout days; the withholding for a sale at the end of a month may be deducted from the following month's payment. Track the offset by the period in which the withholding was made, not by the sale date.
• Do not treat withholding tax as an expense when calculating channel profitability. The withholding affects cash flow but is not a cost; measure channel profitability using commission, shipping and advertising costs.

For sales made through your own website via a virtual POS, there is no marketplace in between, so this withholding does not apply. Likewise, sales listed on a marketplace but paid for outside it, for example by cash on delivery, are also out of scope.

Don't confuse withholding tax with VAT

E-commerce withholding tax is an income or corporate tax withholding; it has nothing to do with VAT. You calculate the VAT on your sales as usual and declare it in your VAT return. The 1% withheld by the marketplace is offset in your provisional and annual income/corporate tax returns, not in your VAT return.

Similarly, the commission invoice the marketplace issues to you is independent of the withholding: the VAT on the commission invoice is recorded as deductible VAT, and the fee itself as an expense.

Accounting entry: account 193

The amount the marketplace withholds from your payout is a receivable, not an expense. It is therefore tracked in account 193 Prepaid Taxes and Funds and offset from this account during the provisional tax or annual return period.

In the example above, the entry when the payout is collected looks like this:

We showed separately how to record the commission invoice itself in our article on the marketplace commission invoice accounting entry. For sole proprietorships keeping books on the business account basis (işletme hesabı esası), the same amount is tracked on a separate list as prepaid tax to be offset in the return at year-end.

What happens to withholding tax on returns and cancellations?

When a customer returns a product, the sales price is refunded; for the withheld tax, the Communiqué distinguishes two cases:

• If the marketplace has not yet filed the withheld tax: If the product and its price were returned within the same tax period and before filing, the marketplace can make the necessary correction in its own records.
• If the marketplace has already filed the tax: The marketplace makes no correction. The withheld tax is offset in your provisional and annual returns.

The invoicing side of the return process must also be managed separately: an expense voucher (gider pusulası) is issued for a return from a consumer, and no withholding is applied on this expense voucher. For the general flow of marketplace invoicing, see our marketplace invoicing guide.

Common mistakes

• Recording withholding tax as an expense: Since the withheld amount is a tax to be offset, it is recorded in account 193, not in an expense account.
• Recording the net payout as the sales amount: If sales, commission and withholding are not recorded separately, your VAT and income statements will be wrong.
• Forgetting to offset: Amounts not offset in the provisional tax period are left until year-end, needlessly tightening your cash flow.
• Not noticing withholding when you are out of scope: If you are taxed under the simplified method or are an exempt tradesman, check your payout reports for any withholding.

Monthly checklist for sellers

To track withholding tax correctly, repeat these steps every month:

1. Download each marketplace's payout report and move the withholding line into a separate spreadsheet.
2. Compare the withholding base with the VAT-exclusive total of the sales invoices you issued in the same period.
3. Note the effect of returned and canceled orders on the withholding; check whether they were corrected before filing.
4. Record the withheld amounts in account 193 and send the total to your certified public accountant at the end of the provisional tax period.
5. If your tax status has changed (such as company type or leaving the simplified method), update it in the marketplace seller panels.

This check helps you spot wrongful withholdings early and ensures the amount to be offset at year-end is complete.

The calculation and offsetting of withholding tax can lead to different results depending on your corporate structure and other income; confirm the amounts with your certified public accountant before each filing period.