Your household goods to Turkey: the exemption, the six months and the year you sell nothing

Do you pay import duty when you move your household goods to Turkey? No, if you meet the conditions. Turkish customs law exempts used household goods from customs duties for anyone moving their residence to Turkey, and the rules for that are in an implementing decision. The finding at the source is that the exemption has two clocks. You must have lived outside Turkey continuously for at least 24 months, and the goods must come with you, before you arrive, or at the latest six months afterwards. The pitfall comes after that: what you imported duty-free may not be sold, rented, lent or given away in the first year without customs permission.

When are your household goods exempt?

Condition	What the decision says
Who	anyone who, after at least 24 months continuously outside Turkey, moves their residence permanently to Turkey
Interruption	temporary stays in Turkey of less than six months a year don't break the 24 months, but don't count towards them
What	used household goods: items, furniture and materials for your own home
For whom	the exemption applies per family
When they must arrive	with you, before you come, or within six months of your arrival, with a declaration
Use	for the same purpose in your Turkish home
Excluded	materials for a business or profession, except portable tools
After that	in the first year no selling, renting, lending, pledging or transferring without permission

What counts as household goods?

The implementing decision defines household goods as the items, furniture and similar materials you use personally at home or that meet the needs of your household. It concerns used belongings. Anyone shipping a container of new appliances still in their boxes falls outside that definition.

Materials you use for a business or profession are excluded. Portable devices and instruments may come along. The car is a separate story with its own rules, covered in your car and your driving licence in Turkey.

How do the six months work?

The goods must travel with you, arrive before your arrival, or at the latest six months after your arrival, and a declaration must be made for them. So anyone who goes first with suitcases and has the rest follow has half a year. That second shipment is not a detail: a container arriving after seven months falls outside the exemption.

The 24 months apply to everyone, including people coming back. Anyone who partly lived in Turkey over the past two years, for instance in a holiday home, has to check whether they lived outside Turkey continuously. A stay of less than six months a year doesn't break the period, but those months don't count either. If in doubt, have the removal company check in advance what proof the customs office wants to see.

Why may you sell nothing in the first year?

Because the exemption is meant for your own home. What you imported duty-free may not, without customs permission, be sold, rented, lent, pledged or transferred to anyone not entitled to the exemption. For used household goods that restriction lasts a year. If you lose the conditions, or want to use the items differently, you report it to customs.

So think before you leave about what you take. A sofa you intend to sell in Turkey anyway is better sold in the Netherlands.

What do you arrange in the Netherlands?

An export declaration. Because Turkey is outside the EU, according to Dutch customs you file an export declaration for your removal goods, with an inventory list of the items you take with you. If your removal company does it, check that the list exists; it also helps on the Turkish side.

And your phone and laptop?

They can come along, but Turkey registers every device with an IMEI number. A device you bring works for 120 days without registration, and per person you can register one device on your passport per three calendar years. A device that arrives from abroad by post or via the internet cannot be registered. How that registration works is in the Turkish numbers; what your pet needs, in taking your pet to Turkey.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Turkey or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.