How to Offset the 1% E-commerce Withholding Tax (Credit It Against Your Taxes)

The 1% withholding tax deduction you see on your payout statement in every payment period is not lost money — it is an advance tax payment you make to the government, and it is offset (credited) against the tax calculated on your income/corporate tax return, both during the advance-tax periods and at year end. Here is the catch: the deduction is made automatically, but the offset is not — you (in practice, your accountant) have to claim and document it on the return. A seller who fails to do this ends up paying part of the same tax twice. In this article we explain, with an example, what withholding tax is, which amount it is deducted from, how the offset flows, and the refund framework for when the withholding turns out to be larger than your tax. To see the amount deducted from your own revenue, you can use the e-commerce withholding tax calculator. Let us say it up front: this is a general framework, and your tax situation varies with your taxpayer status — for your exact situation, consult your accountant.

What is the 1% e-commerce withholding tax, and why is it deducted?

Law No. 7524, which took effect in 2024, made e-commerce intermediary service providers — that is, marketplace platforms like Trendyol — responsible for making a tax deduction (withholding) on the payments they make to sellers. Under Presidential Decree No. 9284 (Official Gazette 22.12.2024), which sets the rate, the deduction has been applied at 1% since 1 January 2025. The mechanism is the classic logic of withholding tax: just as an employer withholds income tax from a salary at the source, the platform deducts 1% of your revenue when it pays your payout and remits it to the tax office on your behalf.

Let us clarify three points:

• The platform does the deducting, but you are the taxpayer it counts for. Trendyol declares and pays the amount it deducts through its own withholding tax return; but this tax counts toward your income or corporate tax. That is why the withholding lines on your statement are each a tax payment record — documents to keep, not to throw away.
• It is not an extra tax, it is an advance payment. Withholding is not a new type of tax; it is part of the income/corporate tax you would owe anyway, collected in advance during the year. Your total tax burden does not change; only the payment schedule is pulled earlier.
• It is deducted whether you turn a profit or not. The tax base for the withholding is not your earnings but your sales amount. It is deducted even from a seller operating at a loss — in that case, since there will be no tax to offset it against, the refund process kicks in; we will get to that below.

Tax base: the sales amount excluding VAT

The most common calculation mistake is in the tax base. Withholding is deducted not from the VAT-inclusive price the customer pays, but from the sales amount excluding VAT — because the VAT inside the price is not your earnings but a tax you collect on behalf of the government, and you do not withhold tax on a tax. The formula:

Withholding = (VAT-inclusive amount ÷ (1 + VAT rate)) × 1%

Note: because the tax base excludes VAT, your product's VAT rate changes the result. On a product with 20% VAT about 0.83% of the VAT-inclusive revenue is withheld, whereas on a product with 10% VAT it is about 0.91%. You can work out the figure for your own product mix with the withholding tax calculator. We laid out the full picture of the VAT-inclusive vs. VAT-excluded distinction for profit calculations in our e-commerce VAT guide — a seller who computes the withholding base from the VAT-inclusive amount overestimates the deduction by 20% and then chases a phantom discrepancy during reconciliation.

How the offset works: it starts with advance tax and ends on the annual return

The offset works in two stages, and the logic is the same in both: from the tax calculated, you subtract the advance payments you have already made toward that tax.

1. During the advance-tax periods

Income and corporate taxpayers file advance tax in three-month periods during the year. On each period's return, the withholdings deducted during that year (and the advance taxes paid in earlier periods) are offset against the advance tax calculated on cumulative earnings; you pay whatever remains. In other words, you see the benefit of the withholding in cash on your very first advance-tax payment, without waiting for year end — as long as the deducted amounts make it onto the return.

2. On the annual income/corporate tax return

When the year closes, the annual return calculates the full tax and offsets two items at once: the entire amount of withholding deducted during the year and the advance taxes paid. "If I deduct the withholding from both the advance tax and the annual tax, am I not double-counting?" — no: the withholding you offset against the advance tax already reduced the advance tax you actually paid, and because the advance tax offset on the annual return is the amount actually paid, the system balances itself out. An important detail: advance tax that has been accrued but not paid is not offset on the annual return — which is why keeping up with your advance tax payments is a precondition of the offset chain.

Example: the offset flow with 1 million TL of annual revenue

Let us make it concrete with numbers. Assumptions: 1,000,000 TL of VAT-inclusive annual revenue, all products carry 20% VAT, and sales are spread evenly across the year. Let us assume the advance tax calculated for the first advance-tax period is 12,000 TL (this amount varies with your earnings and taxpayer type; it was chosen just for the example).

The flow continues for the rest of the year on the same logic: in each period, the withholdings deducted to date and the advance taxes paid are subtracted from the cumulative advance tax calculated. At year end, on the annual return, the full 8,333 TL of withholding together with the advance taxes paid is offset against the tax calculated, and the remaining difference is paid. The result: not a single kuruş of the 8,333 TL is lost — but only if it is recorded on the return. The most reliable way to add up these monthly deductions is the payout statement; we showed line by line where the withholding rows sit on the statement and the credit/debit logic in our guide to reading the current account statement. To see where withholding sits within your payout, you can also look at the payout calculator.

Cash-flow note: withholding does not increase your tax cost, but it pulls the money forward — on 1M revenue, about 8,333 TL sits with the government throughout the year until you file your return. On low-margin, high-revenue products, do not forget to factor this advance payment into your pricing and cash-flow plan.

When the withholding exceeds the tax calculated: the refund and offset framework

In a year when you run at a loss, close with a slim profit, or discounts/exemptions push your tax down, the withholding deducted can turn out larger than the tax calculated — and because withholding is deducted on revenue, this happens more often than you might think. In that case the difference is not lost; the general framework works like this:

1. Offset first: it is deducted from the tax calculated on the annual return; if the tax is zero or smaller than the withholding, the difference arises as "tax to be refunded".
2. Refund by offset: you can request that the surplus be counted toward your other tax debts (e.g. VAT, withholding tax) — in practice this is usually the fastest route.
3. Cash refund: you can also request that the amount be paid into your account; however, depending on the amount, additional documentation, an audit or reporting requirements may come into play, and the thresholds are updated from year to year — be sure to plan this stage with your accountant.

Two practical warnings: first, a refund claim does not happen on its own; it is requested with a schedule of deductions and a petition attached to the return. Second, the entire refund process rests on documentation — the tax office does not want the sentence "Trendyol withholds 1% from me," it wants the breakdown showing who deducted how much in which period. And that brings us to record-keeping.

Record-keeping: the insurance for your offset

The only basis for the offset and the refund is records showing that the deduction was made on your behalf. Set up this routine throughout the year:

• Deduction breakdown per payment period: from the statement, download and save the withholding line on each of the platform's payout payments (period, tax base, amount deducted). This is the raw data for the withholding table to be attached to the return.
• Details of the deducting entity: the offset table shows the name and tax identification number of the party that made the deduction; if you sell on more than one marketplace, tally each platform's deductions separately — all of them count toward the offset.
• Year-end check: compare your own statement total with the withholding total recorded on the return. Every line that is under-recorded is tax paid twice.
• Retention: keep the breakdowns and payment receipts for at least five years — these are the first documents requested in a possible audit or a cash-refund claim.

Frequently asked questions

Can withholding tax be deducted on the VAT return?

No. The 1% withholding is an advance payment of income/corporate tax; its mechanism is separate from VAT. What is deducted on the VAT side is the VAT inside the commission/shipping/service invoices that Trendyol charges — we separated the two worlds in the VAT guide.

Can Trendyol withholding tax be recovered?

The correct name for "recovery" is offsetting: the amount deducted is subtracted from the tax calculated on the advance tax and the annual return. If the tax calculated is smaller than the withholding, the difference can, on request, be refunded either by offset against other tax debts or in cash. It is not money to reclaim from the platform — the counterpart is the tax office.

Is there a difference between a sole proprietorship and a limited/joint-stock company?

The deduction mechanism and the 1% rate are the same; in a sole proprietorship it is offset against income tax, and in a capital company against corporate tax. Exemptions, exceptions and special taxpayer statuses can change the outcome — clarify your own situation with your accountant.

Can the withholding rate change?

The rate is set by Presidential Decree and can be changed. At the time this article was written the rate in force is 1%; verify the current rate from your statement and your accountant before the filing period arrives.

Make the deduction visible, leave the offset to your accountant

With withholding, the seller's job is not tax technique but data discipline: adding up every payment period's deduction in full and handing it to your accountant as a single table at the end of the period. When you connect your Trendyol account, Verimle reads the payout and deduction lines from the statement, makes every deduction item — withholding included — visible on an order and period basis, and flags unexplained gaps between the expected deduction and the actual deduction. Explore the financial reconciliation features — or first use the withholding tax calculator to see what will be deducted from your own revenue over the year. The exact application of the offset and refund steps varies with your taxpayer status; before filing, always let your accountant have the final word.

Official source and verification: The 1% e-commerce withholding rate, the offset/refund process and the income tax filing rules in this article change with legislation and differ from one taxpayer to another; what is described here is general information and does not replace official legislation or the opinion of an accountant. You can follow the current rate and filing obligations through the Revenue Administration (gib.gov.tr) and your digital tax transactions through the Digital Tax Office (dijital.gib.gov.tr). Withholding offset and refund depend entirely on your return, your taxpayer status and your situation that year — this article is not binding tax advice; before making any filing or refund transaction, verify with your own accountant (SMMM). To see what will be deducted from your own revenue over the year, you can use the withholding tax calculator. This guide was reviewed on 18 July 2026.