Exit fee for going abroad
The exit fee required for Turkish citizens traveling abroad has been increased to 1,000 Turkish Lira by presidential decree. The fee, which was 150 Turkish Lira at the beginning of 2024, has increased by 567 percent in two years. Revenue from the fee has become one of the Treasury's fastest-growing sources of cash.
This fee, a type of tax, is collected "to contribute to the state's general budget revenues." After 15 lira of the fee is transferred to TOKİ, the remaining amount is recorded as revenue for the general budget.
According to data from the General Directorate of Public Accounts under the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, 8.66 billion lira in exit fee revenue is expected to be recorded for the entire year 2025. However, 51% of this amount was collected in the first eight months of the year. Between January and July, the amount collected under the name of exit fee reached 4.452 billion lira.
In its June 2024 presentation titled "New Tax Package," the Revenue Administration proposed setting the per-exit tax levied on Turkish citizens traveling abroad at 3,000 TL, increasing the tax annually based on revaluation, and adjusting the authority granted to the President accordingly. The impact analysis estimated that 8,743,760 people paid taxes to leave the country in 2023 and that the same number would pay taxes to leave the country in 2024, resulting in a six-month revenue impact of 12.5 billion TL.
However, this proposal, which sparked widespread backlash, was instead increased more than threefold from 150 lira to 500 lira in August 2024. The fee, which had been raised to 710 lira at the beginning of the year, was subsequently increased to 1000 lira. By January 1, 2026, the revaluation rate is expected to increase to at least 1250 lira.
A total of 2.911 billion lira in exit fee revenue was recorded for the Treasury in 2024. Revenue collected between January and July of 2025 increased by 53 percent compared to the end of last year.
The departure tax was first recognized as the "Foreign Travel Expenditure Tax" by Law No. 196, enacted on February 18, 1963. The tax, which has since been repealed and reintroduced several times, was last legislated in 2007.
According to Law No. 5597, which came into effect in 2007, those traveling abroad with a Turkish passport must pay a fee per exit. On March 8, 2007, when the decision was passed, this fee was 15 TL.
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