Taxation of Mutual Funds
Taxation of income from mutual fund participation certificates has been amended by Temporary Article 67 of the Income Tax Law after October 1st 2006. On October 1st 2010, the Temporary Article 67 has been amended and the section related to taxation of entities has been revised.
In this application;
The income obtained by legal entities who are full and limited taxpayers upon selling of fund participation certificates shall not be subject to 10% tax withholding. Non-entity corporations who are full and limited taxpayers and other corporations shall be subject to 10% tax withholding. In addition, incomes obtained by individuals who are full and limited taxpayers from the sale of investment fund participation certificates, including exchange traded funds shall be subject to 10% tax withholding..
- With the amendment made in the Tax Law on October 1st 2006, internal taxation of mutual funds has been abolished and external taxation system initiated. Accordingly, no withholding will be made so long as a fund investor holds a fund participation certificate and 10% withholding will apply on the income obtained at the time of sale. Consequently, the fund investor may postpone the tax until he sells the fund participation certificates he holds.
- No tax withholding will apply to incomes obtained from disposition of participation certificates of investment funds, at least 51% of which is continuously composed of stocks traded in ISE, and held for a period of more than one year.
- Full taxpayers subject to corporation tax shall be subject to 20% corporation tax payable on such income. Withholding made as above will be deducted from the corporation tax.
- Taxable base will be calculated on the sales price in mutual fund sales transactions of the client using the First In First Out (FIFO) method and 10% Income Tax Withholding will be applied on income obtained by the client from such sale at the time of the transaction.
- There is no change in the amount of tax paid in total according to the current application, upon abolishment of taxation on the mutual fund portfolio and upon transition to taxation on client basis on October 1st 2006, only payment of tax by the client is postponed to the date of sale of the fund back to the founder.

