What is a bordro (Turkish payslip)?
A bordro is the mandatory monthly payroll statement every employer in Turkey issues per employee, showing gross salary, statutory deductions, and net pay. In 2026, employees pay 14% social security and 1% unemployment premium. Income tax (15–40%) and 0.759% stamp tax apply only above a minimum-wage exemption. Employers must issue, deliver, and archive it.
What a bordro is
A bordro is Turkey's statutory payroll statement: a document the employer prepares for each employee every pay period, itemizing gross salary, the social security (SGK) contribution base, employee deductions, tax bases, and net pay. It is required by the Tax Procedure Law (art. 238) and social security legislation, and a bordro missing mandatory elements is treated as invalid.
Related terms matter when reading Turkish sources: bordro is the document, bordrolama is the monthly payroll process that produces it, and maaş bordrosu ("salary bordro") is the everyday name for the same document. Employees receive their payslip from their employer and can check their SGK contribution records on the state e-Devlet portal. This page takes the employer's view, which is the one that matters if you are hiring in Turkey directly or through an EOR.
Reading a Turkish payslip line by line
Every calculation starts from gross salary: base wage plus overtime, bonuses, and premiums. The SGK contribution base is derived from it, bounded in 2026 by a floor of TRY 33,030 and a ceiling of TRY 297,270 per month — earnings above the ceiling attract no social security contributions. From this base the employee pays 14% social security premium and 1% unemployment insurance.
Income tax is the part that surprises international employers: it is charged on a cumulative year-to-date base. The 2026 wage tariff runs 15% up to TRY 190,000, 20% to 400,000, 27% to 1,500,000, 35% to 5,300,000, and 40% above (Income Tax Communiqué No. 332). As the cumulative base crosses each threshold during the year, the monthly tax rises — so an employee's net pay falls in the second half of the year even on an unchanged gross salary.
Since 2022 (Law No. 7349, which abolished the old AGİ allowance), the portion of every salary equal to the minimum wage is exempt from both income tax and stamp tax. That is why the 2026 net minimum wage is exactly TRY 28,075.50 — gross 33,030 minus only the 15% social contributions. Above the exemption, a 0.759% stamp tax applies to gross pay. You can trace a full gross-to-net example in the calculator at /bordro/hesaplama.
Employer obligations and record-keeping
Turkish Labor Law art. 37 obliges the employer to hand each employee a signed wage slip (ücret hesap pusulası) at every payment, itemizing the pay period and every addition and deduction. The Tax Procedure Law art. 238 separately requires a signed monthly payroll record, and social security rules define mandatory content — workplace registration number, month, employee identity, contribution days, wage, and signature. A bordro missing these elements is invalid — though the signature element is not required where wages are paid through a bank or against a receipt — and Law No. 5510 art. 102/e-5 sets an administrative fine of half the monthly minimum wage per invalid payroll record.
Electronic payslips are accepted in practice when delivery to the employee can be proven — secure e-signature, registered e-mail (KEP), or a portal that logs access — with the burden of proof on the employer. Retention is long: 5 years for tax purposes (Tax Procedure Law art. 253) and 10 years for social security purposes (Law No. 5510 art. 86), counted from the start of the following year.
What an employee actually costs
On top of gross salary, the employer pays a 21.75% SGK premium (before discounts) and a 2% unemployment premium in 2026. Most private-sector employers qualify for a 2-point Treasury discount, bringing the effective SGK rate to 19.75%. Manufacturing employers keep a 5-point discount through 31 December 2026 (Law No. 7566). Both premiums apply to the same contribution base and stop at the TRY 297,270 monthly ceiling.
For a minimum-wage employee that means a 2026 employer cost of roughly TRY 40,214 per month (33,030 × 1.2175 with the standard discount), before the TRY 1,270 monthly minimum-wage support available to qualifying employers. Budget roughly 21.75% on top of gross for a standard employer, 18.75% for manufacturing, within the ceiling. All current-year rates and thresholds are maintained on the reference page at /bordro/2026-parametreleri.
Common pitfalls for foreign employers
Net-salary agreements are common in Turkey: candidates often negotiate net pay, which means the employer absorbs the rising cumulative tax — the same net costs more in gross every quarter of the year. Model annual cost, not the January payslip.
Two 2026 changes trip up anyone working from older references: the SGK ceiling multiplier rose from 7.5 to 9 times the minimum wage (TRY 297,270, not 247,725), and the employer SGK rate rose to 21.75% (Law No. 7566). Severance is also parameter-bound: terminations dated 1 July–31 December 2026 use a severance ceiling of TRY 73,729.87 per year of service, and first-half 2026 terminations use TRY 64,948.77.
Running a compliant bordro requires Turkish tax and SGK workplace registration before the first hire. Companies without a local entity typically hire through an EOR or delegate to a local payroll provider — in either case the bordro described on this page is what must be produced each month.
| Gross minimum wage (2026) | TRY 33,030 / month |
| Net minimum wage (2026) | TRY 28,075.50 / month |
| Employee contributions | 14% SGK + 1% unemployment |
| Employer contributions | 21.75% SGK (19.75% after standard discount) + 2% unemployment |
| SGK contribution ceiling (2026) | TRY 297,270 / month |
| Income tax on wages (2026) | 15%–40%, cumulative brackets |
| Stamp tax | 0.759% (minimum-wage portion exempt) |
Common questions, answered one by one
Frequently asked
A Turkish salary carries four deductions: 14% employee social security premium and 1% unemployment insurance on the SGK base, income tax at 15–40% on a cumulative annual base, and 0.759% stamp tax on gross pay. The portion of any salary equal to the minimum wage (TRY 33,030 in 2026) is exempt from both income tax and stamp tax.
Turkish income tax is computed on a cumulative year-to-date base, not month by month. When an employee's accumulated 2026 tax base passes TRY 190,000 the rate steps from 15% to 20%, then to 27% above 400,000, and so on — so net pay falls during the year on an unchanged gross salary and resets every January. Employers who promise net salaries carry this rising cost themselves.
In 2026 a standard private-sector employer adds about 21.75% on top of gross salary: 19.75% SGK premium (21.75% statutory rate minus the 2-point Treasury discount) plus 2% unemployment premium. Manufacturing employers keep a 5-point discount through 2026 and add about 18.75%. Contributions stop at the monthly ceiling of TRY 297,270. A minimum-wage employee costs roughly TRY 40,214 per month before support payments.
No income tax or stamp tax is charged on the minimum wage in 2026 — only the 15% employee social contributions are deducted, so net minimum pay is exactly TRY 28,075.50 on a gross of TRY 33,030. The exemption, which replaced the abolished AGİ allowance in 2022 under Law No. 7349, applies to every employee: higher salaries are also untaxed on their minimum-wage-equivalent portion.
Electronic payslips are accepted in practice provided the employer can prove the document reached the employee — via secure electronic signature, registered e-mail (KEP), or a portal that logs access. The signature requirement comes from Labor Law art. 37 and Tax Procedure Law art. 238, and the burden of proving delivery and payment stays with the employer, so keep verifiable delivery records.
Producing a compliant bordro requires registration with the Turkish tax authority and an SGK workplace registration before the first employee starts. A company without a Turkish entity cannot hold these registrations itself, so it typically hires through an employer of record (EOR) or sets up a local subsidiary and delegates payroll to a local provider or software.
The maaş bordrosu is the line-by-line statement of one month's pay: gross salary, employee social security and unemployment premiums, income tax and stamp tax withholdings, and the resulting net amount. For the employer it is the legal proof of payment and the source document for accounting entries. For the employee it is the one summary from which the calculation can be checked.
In the private sector, from the employer: handing over a wage slip at every payment (Labor Law art. 37) and drawing up a monthly payroll record (Tax Procedure Law art. 238) are standing employer duties, so employees request current and past payslips from HR or accounting. Public-sector personnel view theirs month by month through the e-Bordro service on the state e-Devlet portal. The SGK service statement on e-Devlet is not a payslip — it shows contribution days and reported earnings, not the deduction detail.