Turkey has no tax-free allowance for employee gifts. Not a small one, not a seasonal one, none at all. A gift card, a holiday hamper, or a piece of branded merchandise handed to an employee is simply taxed as ordinary wages, the same as their salary. It's also worth flagging upfront that Turkey's persistently high inflation means the country revalues nearly all of its fixed tax thresholds every year, so any lira figure you see here, including in this article, is specific to the year it was published and should be checked before you rely on it.
Why every gift to an employee is taxed as wages
Turkish income tax law, the Gelir Vergisi Kanunu (GVK), defines "wage" in Article 61 in deliberately broad terms: it covers not just cash salary but any benefit with monetary value provided to an employee because of their employment, including benefits in kind. That definition is wide enough to sweep in gift cards, gift checks, and physical merchandise. There's no separate "gift" category that sits outside it.
In practice, that means a gift to an employee, whether it's cash, a gift card, or a product, is fully taxable as wage income unless it falls into one of a handful of narrow, specifically named exceptions (covered below, and none of them are a general gift allowance). The value gets grossed up, income tax withholding applies through the payroll, stamp tax of roughly 0.759% is added on top, and social security (SGK) premiums typically apply as well. There's no minimum value below which a gift becomes exempt, and no occasion-based carve-out for holidays or work anniversaries.
The narrow in-kind exceptions that don't cover gifts
GVK Article 23 does exempt a short list of specific in-kind benefits, and it's easy to mistake these for a general gift allowance. They aren't. The list covers: meals provided on-site at the workplace (fully exempt), meal cards or vouchers for meals taken off-site (exempt up to a daily cap that's revalued every year, so confirm the current year's figure before using it), employer-provided transport to and from work (fully exempt) or reimbursement of public-transit costs (also capped and revalued annually), and a minimum-wage income exemption that's really a payroll-structuring mechanism rather than anything gift-related. None of these categories covers a discretionary gift to an employee, however it's packaged.
Religious holiday bonuses get no special treatment
It's common for Turkish employers to give a bonus or a food package around Ramadan or Kurban Bayramı (the "bayram ikramiyesi"). It's worth being clear that this custom carries no special tax status. A Ramadan or Kurban Bayramı bonus, in cash or in kind, is taxed exactly like any other wage payment: income tax withholding, stamp tax, and typically SGK premiums apply. If it's given as a product rather than cash, it's valued at market price for tax purposes. The religious or seasonal framing doesn't change any of that.
12 gift ideas
Since there's no tax-free figure to plan a gifting budget around in Turkey, and every gift's value gets added to taxable wages regardless of what it is, the more useful approach is choosing merchandise that's genuinely well made and budgeting with the tax treatment already factored in. Here are 12 branded merchandise options, priced in Turkish lira (TRY), with materials, branding methods, and minimum order quantities. Prices are approximate and will move with exchange rates and inflation.
1. Hoodie – The Rex
A heavyweight 280 gsm organic cotton hoodie that gets worn long after any gifting occasion is forgotten, and one of the most popular items in the catalogue.
- Material: 90% organic cotton, 10% polyester.
- Branding: embroidery, print, or patches.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 1,443 TRY/unit.
2. Sports Socks
A low-cost, high-smile item that works well for a whole-team gesture without much per-head budget.
- Material: 80% cotton, 17% polyamide, 3% elastane.
- Branding: knitted-in logo zones.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 144 TRY/unit.
3. Recycled Steel Bottle
A double-walled bottle made from recycled steel: genuinely useful, and a sustainability talking point in one gift.
- Material: recycled stainless steel.
- Branding: laser engraving or print.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 396 TRY/unit.
4. A5 Notebook
A well-made notebook still earns its place on most desks, whether for meeting notes or as a simple desk accessory.
- Material: FSC-certified paper, PU cover.
- Branding: debossed or printed logo on the cover.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 165 TRY/unit.
5. Premium Tote Bag
A sturdy tote leaves the office with people, on the commute, at the market, giving the branding real visibility relative to its price.
- Material: 270gsm cotton.
- Branding: print or custom straps.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 232 TRY/unit.
6. Knitted Scarf
A genuinely useful winter gift, with woven branding that reads as a step above a printed logo.
- Material: 80% viscose, 20% polyester.
- Branding: woven label.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 276 TRY/unit.
7. Baseball Cap
A reliable pick for outdoor events and company outings; an embroidered logo tends to look more premium than the price tag suggests.
- Material: 100% cotton.
- Branding: embroidery.
- Order: MOQ 100 · from 300 TRY/unit.
8. Espresso Mug
A good espresso mug earns daily use at the office coffee machine, putting a logo somewhere people see multiple times a day.
- Material: glazed ceramic, dishwasher and microwave safe.
- Branding: printed or laser-etched logo.
- Order: MOQ 108 · from 304 TRY/unit.
9. Bamboo Tea Bottle
A bamboo exterior over a durable stainless steel interior gives a warmer look than an all-metal bottle, and works well as a mid-range gift.
- Material: stainless steel, bamboo.
- Branding: laser engraving or print.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 673 TRY/unit.
10. RollTop Backpack
A water-resistant backpack with a laptop compartment that quickly becomes someone's everyday bag: a natural pick for a bigger single gift, such as a milestone anniversary.
- Material: GRS-certified recycled PU, water-resistant.
- Branding: print or embroidery.
- Order: MOQ 25 · from 884 TRY/unit.
11. Noise-Cancelling Headphones
A genuine step up in perceived value, and one of the pricier items on this list, so it's best reserved for a milestone gift rather than a routine one, especially since its full value counts toward taxable wages either way.
- Material: recycled ABS, ANC + ENC, foldable.
- Branding: digital print or doming.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 880 TRY/unit.
View Noise-Cancelling Headphones →
12. Wireless Powerbank
A magnetic wireless powerbank in recycled ABS plastic is genuinely useful for any commute or business trip, and a practical mid-range choice.
- Material: recycled ABS plastic.
- Branding: pad print or digital print.
- Order: MOQ 50 · from 662 TRY/unit.
What about client gifts?
Gifts to clients and business partners sit under a different test. They're deductible under the general "ordinary and necessary business expense" rule for representation and hospitality expenses (temsil ve ağırlama giderleri), which requires a clear link to a business purpose, a reasonable proportion relative to the company's scale, and proper documentation. Unlike some other countries, Turkey has no fixed statutory percentage cap on this category, it's a subjective, facts-and-circumstances test applied case by case rather than a clean formula.
Branded or promotional merchandise given out for marketing purposes is more likely to be treated as an advertising or marketing expense, which is straightforwardly deductible as an ordinary business cost, rather than falling under the stricter representation-and-hospitality category. That distinction is a useful planning lever, but it's a less definitively confirmed area than the general representation-expense rule above, so treat it as a reasonable working assumption rather than settled guidance.
VAT on promotional items
Turkey's standard VAT rate is 20%, up from 18% since July 2023. There's a genuine exemption worth knowing: samples and promotional items (numune, eşantiyon, or promosyon ürünleri) given away free for marketing purposes are VAT-exempt on that free transfer, provided they're given without payment as a marketing expense, they're appropriate in quality and quantity to normal commercial practice rather than a disguised sale, and they're labeled "not for sale." Input VAT on these items stays recoverable even though the free transfer itself is exempt.
That exemption is built for genuine promotional and sampling programmes. Whether it clearly extends to ordinary discretionary gifts, to employees or to clients, outside a real promotional programme, is an open question rather than a confirmed rule, so don't assume every branded item qualifies just because it carries a logo.
Separately, Turkey also has an Inheritance and Gift Tax (Veraset ve İntikal Vergisi, with rates from 1% to 30%) that applies to gratuitous transfers between individuals. Whether and how that regime interacts with a company gifting merchandise to an individual isn't clearly confirmed, and it's a distinct tax regime from the income tax and VAT treatment described above, so it's mentioned here for completeness rather than as something proven to apply to corporate gifting.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a gift card to an employee is tax-free. It isn't. Under GVK Article 61, gift cards count as wage income and are fully taxed, grossed up, exactly like a cash gift would be.
- Assuming a Ramadan or holiday bonus gets special tax treatment. It doesn't. The bayram ikramiyesi and similar seasonal gifts are taxed under the same general wage rules as any other payment, in cash or in kind.
- Treating any branded item as automatically VAT-exempt. Only genuine promotional or sample items, given free, appropriately sized to commercial norms, and labeled "not for sale," qualify for the VAT exemption. A general gift doesn't automatically get that treatment just because it's branded.
If you're setting up an ongoing employee gifting program rather than a one-off order, Sunday's employee gifting platform handles sourcing, branding, and delivery in one place.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Turkish tax law changes, and Turkey's high inflation means many fixed thresholds are revalued every year, so the figures above are specific to the year this was published. Confirm the current rules and any current-year figures with a local tax advisor before running a gifting programme.
This guide is part of our complete country-by-country series. See Employee Gift Tax Rules by Country: The Complete 2026 Guide for all 43 countries.
Planning a gifting programme for your Turkish team? Talk to Sunday about sourcing, branding, and shipping any of the items above, from a single small batch to a company-wide rollout. Sunday also supports enterprise-scale rollouts across multiple countries — see the full Sunday platform for details.
