I. Introduction
A Turkish inheritance has a cross-border element where the deceased was a foreign national, an heir lives abroad, or the estate includes assets in Turkey. Identifying the family members is only the starting point, because the applicable law may differ by asset and by legal issue.
Where the estate includes Turkish real estate, that analysis has to be coordinated with proof of heirship, the use of foreign civil-status documents, land-registry formalities and the inheritance-tax timetable. A will, a lifetime transfer, a matrimonial-property claim or an estate creditor may in addition change the heirs' shares or the steps required before registration.
II. Which Law Applies to a Cross-Border Inheritance?
Article 20 of Law No. 5718 on International Private and Procedural Law provides that succession is governed by the deceased's national law, while Turkish law applies to immovable property situated in Turkey. Rules on the opening, acquisition and division of an estate are connected instead to the law of the country where the estate property is located. A cross-border estate must therefore be analysed by asset and by legal issue rather than under a single assumed law.
Turkish law may therefore govern succession to an apartment in Istanbul even where the deceased and the heirs were nationals of another country, while a bank account or shares may follow a different analysis. Turkish courts may also have jurisdiction where the deceased's last residence, or in its absence estate assets, are located in Turkey, and an estate located in Turkey for which there is no heir passes to the State.
A foreign will is not automatically ineffective because the estate includes property in Turkey, and its form, the deceased's capacity and its substantive effect are separate questions. Law No. 5718 applies its general form rule and also recognises a disposition made in accordance with the deceased's national law, under which capacity is assessed at the time of the disposition. The effect of the will on Turkish real estate must still be assessed together with the succession rules applicable to that property, including reserved shares.
Where Turkish statutory succession applies, descendants form the first class of heirs. The surviving spouse receives one quarter together with descendants, one half together with the deceased's parents or their descendants, three quarters together with grandparents or their descendants, and the whole estate if none of these exists. These shares remain subject to testamentary dispositions, reserved portions and lifetime transfers.
III. Establishing Heirship and Using Foreign Documents
Which Authority Issues the Certificate
Although the estate passes by operation of law, an inheritance certificate is normally required to prove the heirs and their shares before Turkish authorities, banks and land registries. Such a certificate may in principle be issued by a civil peace court or by a notary, but a foreign applicant should ordinarily expect the court route, because Article 71/B of the Notary Law excludes notarial issuance where the certificate is requested by foreigners.
A certificate issued by a foreign court does not necessarily operate directly before the Turkish land registry. Article 37 of the Land Registry Law provides that transfers to foreign natural persons are carried out on the basis of inheritance documents issued by Turkish courts, or issued by the competent authority of their own country and approved by a Turkish court as complying with Turkish succession procedure, and the land-registry guidance applies this to certificates issued by foreign courts. Whether the appropriate route is approval of the foreign determination or a fresh Turkish certificate obtained on the underlying civil-status evidence depends on the issuing authority and the document presented.
Authentication and Translation
Evidence commonly includes the death certificate, identity documents, birth and marriage records, and any relevant will or power of attorney. Names, dates and places of birth should be checked before filing, because even a minor discrepancy can interrupt the documented family link.
The authentication route is not identical for every document. An apostille is generally used where the issuing and receiving states are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention and the document falls within its scope, and consular legalisation may be required otherwise. Foreign-language documents generally also require a Turkish translation completed through the accepted sworn-translation and notarisation process. The country of issue, the type of document and the receiving authority should be checked before the package is finalised.
IV. Registering Inherited Real Estate in Turkey
The Registration File
Under Article 599 of the Turkish Civil Code, heirs acquire the estate as a whole at death, but formal land-registry work is still required before the public record reflects the heirs and before they can reliably deal with the property.
The General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre currently lists the heir's identity document or passport, any representation document, the inheritance certificate and compulsory earthquake insurance for building-class property among the documents used for an inheritance transfer. One heir may initiate the application through Web Tapu. The directorate then communicates the revolving-fund charge and, after payment, gives an appointment for the signature stage. The file may require additional civil-status, translation, tax or representation documents depending on the estate and the applicants.
Capacity to Inherit and Restrictions on Holding
A foreign national's capacity to inherit should be distinguished from the separate rules governing whether that person may retain a particular Turkish property. The inheritance transfer is completed first, after which the land registry assesses the restrictions applicable to foreign ownership. Under Article 35 of the Land Registry Law, inherited immovable property or limited real rights falling outside those restrictions may have to be liquidated. Military and security zones and other statutory restrictions may also affect the result, which depends on the heir's nationality and the property's location, nature and size.
Registration and the Tax Position
Registration does not have to wait until inheritance tax has been assessed. Under the current land-registry guidance, registration may be completed with notification of the result to the relevant tax office within fifteen days. The inherited property cannot later be transferred, nor made subject to a real right, until the inheritance tax attributable to it has been paid in full. A completed registration should therefore not be treated as confirmation that the tax process is also complete.
Delay carries its own consequence at the registry. Where an inheritance transfer has not been registered within two years of the death, the land-registry directorate may itself apply to the court for an inheritance certificate and update the register in the names of the heirs as joint owners. Heirs should not assume that an unregistered file simply remains dormant until they are ready to deal with it.
V. Inheritance Tax Filing and Payment in 2026
Exemptions and Rates
An inheritance and transfer tax return is required even where the inherited value falls below the applicable exemption. For 2026, the exemption is TRY 2,907,136 for each child, adopted child and surviving spouse. Where the surviving spouse inherits alone and there are no descendants, the exemption is TRY 5,817,845. These exemptions should not be extended to other relatives without a separate statutory basis.
The ordinary 2026 inheritance rates are progressive, at 1 per cent on the first TRY 3,000,000 of the taxable base, 3 per cent on the next TRY 7,000,000, 5 per cent on the next TRY 15,000,000, 7 per cent on the next TRY 30,000,000 and 10 per cent on the portion above TRY 55,000,000.
Law No. 7582, published in Official Gazette No. 33270 on 4 June 2026, introduced a narrow special rule. A 1 per cent rate applies to an inheritance transfer from a person benefiting from the income-tax exemption under repeated Article 20/D of the Income Tax Law, where the death occurs within the period prescribed for that exemption. That exemption applies, subject to its statutory conditions, to qualifying foreign-source income of individuals treated as resident in Turkey who had neither a Turkish domicile nor Turkish tax liability during the preceding three calendar years. Prior Turkish tax liability arising from immovable-property income, movable-capital income or capital gains is expressly disregarded. The exemption lasts twenty years. The special rate is therefore not a general 1 per cent rate for foreign heirs, foreign property owners or every person who becomes resident in Turkey, and the conditions of Article 20/D and the timing of the death must be established before it can be applied.
Filing Deadlines and Payment
The ordinary return deadline depends on where the death occurred and where the taxpayer is located:
| Circumstances | Filing deadline |
|---|---|
| Death in Turkey, taxpayer in Turkey | Four months |
| Death in Turkey, taxpayer abroad | Six months |
| Death abroad, taxpayer in Turkey | Six months |
| Death abroad, taxpayer in the same foreign country | Four months |
| Death abroad, taxpayer in a different foreign country | Eight months |
| Declaration of absence | One month following the date on which the decision is recorded in the death register |
Inheritance tax is ordinarily paid in six equal instalments over three years, in May and November. The ability to register inherited property before assessment removes neither the return obligation nor the restriction on a later transfer or encumbrance while the attributable tax remains unpaid.
VI. Estate Liabilities, Renunciation and Procedural Limits
Universal succession transfers liabilities as well as assets. A person who discovers that an estate may be insolvent should therefore examine the renunciation rules before taking steps that could be treated as accepting or administering the estate beyond what its preservation requires.
The default period for renouncing an inheritance is three months. For statutory heirs it generally begins when they learn of the death, unless they prove that they learned of their heirship later, and for appointed heirs it begins when they are officially notified of the testamentary disposition. Renunciation must be made unconditionally, by an oral or written declaration to the competent civil peace court. Interfering in the estate beyond ordinary administration, concealing estate assets or appropriating them can prevent an heir from relying on renunciation.
Disputes concerning reserved portions and lifetime or testamentary transfers follow a different route from routine registration. A reduction claim is generally subject to a one-year period running from the moment the heir learns of the infringement and of the relevant disposition, together with a ten-year long-stop period whose starting point differs according to whether the challenged disposition is testamentary or inter vivos. These periods are not a substitute for estate-specific limitation analysis.
Delay in completing inheritance formalities does not by itself cause the estate to pass to the State, which becomes the ultimate statutory heir only where no other heir exists. Delay does, however, make civil-status evidence, property management and tax compliance more difficult, and it exposes the file to the two-year registry procedure described above.
For a foreign heir the sequence is to identify the Turkish assets and the applicable-law questions, to establish heirship with documents that can be used in Turkey, to complete the registration and tax filings, and to address any restriction, debt or dispute. A step completed in one country does not resolve the Turkish part of the estate.
