Selling Online from Home and the Tradesman Exemption in 2026

If you sell products you make by hand at home over the internet, you can sell without registering as a taxpayer, keeping books or filing tax returns, as long as you meet the conditions. This option is called the tradesman exemption (esnaf muafiyeti), and Türkiye's Income Tax Law (Gelir Vergisi Kanunu, GVK) has two separate provisions for selling online from home: 9/1-10 and 9/1-6. Below you'll find which one fits you in 2026, the revenue limits, the withholding the bank applies, whether you can sell on marketplaces, and what happens if you exceed the limit.

Who does the tradesman exemption cover?

The exemption applies to products you make by hand in the home you live in. The examples given by the Turkish Revenue Administration (GİB) are: towels, bed sheets, socks, carpets, kilims, embroidery, straw mats, baskets, tarhana, erişte (homemade noodles), mantı (Turkish dumplings) and similar handicraft products.

Common conditions:

• Production must take place at home; no industrial-type machines or tools capable of mass production may be used.
• No separate workplace may be opened.
• You must not be an income taxpayer for commercial, agricultural or professional income.

Products you buy ready-made from others and resell (for example, jewelry or clothing bought from a wholesaler) are not covered. In that case, you need to register as a regular taxpayer.

The difference between 9/1-10 and 9/1-6

Both provisions apply to home production; what separates them is the sales channel.

GVK 9/1-10: selling online only

If you sell your products exclusively over the internet, you fall under 9/1-10. For 2026, your annual revenue must not exceed 1,900,000 TL (in 2025 this limit was 1,580,000 TL).

Under this provision, your payments must go through a commercial account you open at a bank in Türkiye. The bank withholds income tax at 4% on amounts transferred to the commercial account. If you employ one or more workers, the rate drops to 2%; for the reduced rate to apply in a given month, at least one worker must be employed for at least ten days.

GVK 9/1-6: also using non-internet channels

If you sell your products both online and to neighbors, people around you or at events, you fall under 9/1-6. In this case, your annual online sales must not exceed 396,360 TL, the annual gross minimum wage for 2026.

This provision has no commercial account requirement. A business that buys your product issues an expense voucher (gider pusulası) in your name and withholds income tax at 2%.

Documentation and application

Under 9/1-10, you must obtain a Tradesman Tax Exemption Certificate (Esnaf Vergi Muafiyeti Belgesi). You apply by petition to the tax office for your place of residence or through the Digital Tax Office (Dijital Vergi Dairesi):

1. Log in to the Digital Tax Office.
2. Follow Dilekçelerim (My Petitions) > Yeni Dilekçe (New Petition).
3. Fill in and submit the Tradesman Tax Exemption Petition (Esnaf Vergi Muafiyeti Dilekçesi).
4. Get your certificate and note the renewal every three years in your calendar.

As an exempt tradesman, you don't have to file tax returns, keep books or register as a taxpayer. However, you must keep the expense vouchers issued in your name and the documents for the goods and expenses you buy for your activity for 5 years. That's why you should file your raw material purchase invoices (fabric, yarn, flour and the like) in an orderly way.

Can you sell on marketplaces with the tradesman exemption?

Short answer: it depends on the marketplace.

• Trendyol: You can't sell without a company (as an individual); to become a seller you need a sole proprietorship, a limited company (Ltd. Şti.) or a joint-stock company (A.Ş.). Because an exempt tradesman is not a taxpayer, they are not eligible to sell on Trendyol.
• Other marketplaces: On platforms that ask for a tax certificate, tax number or e-invoice (e-Fatura)/e-archive invoice (e-Arşiv) setup when you apply, you may not be able to open a store as an exempt tradesman. Read the platform's seller terms before applying.
• Your own website and social media: As long as you collect payments through your commercial account, you can stay within 9/1-10.

If you want to stay within the exemption, make sure payments are not collected outside the commercial account (for example, into your personal account); doing so breaches one of the conditions.

What happens if you exceed the limit?

If your annual revenue exceeds 1,900,000 TL (9/1-10):

• You continue to benefit from the exemption during the year in which the limit is exceeded.
• From the start of the following calendar year, you can no longer use the tradesman exemption; you need to register as a taxpayer at the tax office before that date.

If one of the conditions is not met at all (for example, if you opened a workplace or use a mass-production machine), the consequences are more serious: the unpaid taxes are collected together with a tax loss penalty (vergi ziyaı cezası) and late payment interest, and the exemption is lost from the beginning of that year.

What changes once you become a taxpayer?

When you set up a sole proprietorship, you start issuing invoices for your sales. From January 1, 2026, taxpayers other than those on the simplified method and the business account basis issue their invoices as e-Arşiv regardless of the amount; taxpayers on the simplified method and the business account basis issue invoices exceeding 3,000 TL including taxes as e-Arşiv throughout 2026. For details, see our article on the e-archive invoice requirement.

Taxpayers selling online whose gross sales revenue is 500,000 TL or more switch to e-Fatura from July 1 of the following year. We explain this threshold in detail in the article on the e-invoice requirement.

Getting started with selling online from home, step by step

Following this order before you start selling under the tradesman exemption keeps you from later finding that you've breached the conditions:

1. Check that your product is covered. The product must be made at home, by hand and without mass-production machines. If you're not sure, ask the tax office or your certified public accountant.
2. Decide on your sales channel. If you'll sell only online, you fall under 9/1-10; if you'll also sell face to face, you fall under 9/1-6.
3. Open a commercial account (9/1-10). Tell the bank you want to open a commercial account under the tradesman exemption; share only this account in the payment details on your website and social media.
4. Get the exemption certificate. Submit your petition through the Digital Tax Office and note the certificate's validity date.
5. Track your revenue. Record the amounts coming into the commercial account month by month in a spreadsheet; that spreadsheet is enough to see how close you're getting to the limit during the year.
6. Keep your documents. Keep raw material invoices, expense vouchers issued in your name and bank statements for 5 years.

Common mistakes

The mistakes sellers using the exemption make most often come from overlooking the conditions:

• Receiving payments into a personal account: Receiving a customer's bank transfer into your personal account breaks the requirement that payments go through the commercial account.
• Adding ready-made products: Selling products bought from a wholesaler alongside your handmade products takes you outside the scope of the exemption.
• Opening a workshop: Renting a workshop or shop outside your home breaks the "no separate workplace" condition.
• Moving to mass production: Buying industrial-type machines when demand grows also removes one of the conditions.
• Not renewing the certificate: The Tradesman Tax Exemption Certificate is renewed every three years; don't keep selling with an expired certificate.
• Mixed channels: Selling both online and at a market while following the 9/1-10 limit; in this case, 9/1-6 and the 396,360 TL limit apply.

Because some of these mistakes can lead to back taxes, a tax loss penalty and late payment interest, it's important to reassess your situation once you start growing.

Exemption or sole proprietorship?

When choosing between the tradesman exemption and a sole proprietorship, look not only at tax but also at the channel you want to sell through and your growth plans.

• Advantage of the exemption: There's no bookkeeping, tax return or taxpayer registration burden; tax is collected through the bank's withholding. For small-scale, irregular sales, the administrative burden is very low.
• Limits of the exemption: It covers only products made by hand at home, you can't open a workplace, and you can't sell on marketplaces that require a company. You can't issue invoices to corporate customers.
• Advantage of a sole proprietorship: You can open a store on marketplaces including Trendyol, sell ready-made products and deduct your expenses from your income. In this case, the marketplaces' 1% e-commerce withholding tax applies, and this amount is offset on your tax return.
• Burden of a sole proprietorship: Obligations such as issuing invoices, keeping books, filing tax returns and paying for a certified public accountant begin.

In short, if your production will stay at home and you run your sales through your own channels, the exemption makes sense; if you want to grow on marketplaces, you need to set up a company.

Which path should you choose?

The tradesman exemption is advantageous for small-scale home production; however, if you want to grow on marketplaces, invoice corporate customers or sell ready-made products, becoming a taxpayer becomes unavoidable. Planning the timing of the switch in advance by tracking your revenue keeps you from being caught off guard mid-year.