Turkey continues encouraging lira savings

Withholding tax support on Turkish lira bank deposits will continue for another two months until July 31, the Official Gazette said on Tuesday.

The move aims to protect the value of the Turkish lira, to ensure that savings are kept in deposit and participation accounts opened in Turkish lira and to encourage the use of under-pillow savings in these accounts by reducing tax on Turkish lira savings.

For Turkish lira accounts, the withholding tax on deposits of up to six months was cut from 15% to 5% and the tax on deposits of up to one year was cut from 12% to 3%.

On the other hand, for the accounts with a maturity longer than one year, there is no tax on deposits.

The changes will remain in force till the end of July.

The withholding tax support on the deposits, thus, was extended for the third time since September 2020.

*Writing by Yunus Girgin in Ankara