2024/ 1 Turkish International Social Security Agreements
Turkish International Social Security Agreements (23.10.2024)
With this guide, we would like to give you information about the social security agreements signed by Türkiye. This text is an updated version of our previous guide, numbered 2020-14.
Social security practices have started to span across country borders, especially in the recent times. With rapid globalization, citizens are starting to work and reside in other countries more often, either temporarily or permanently, which raises the issue of social security for such people – more specifically on how their social securities will be provided.
There are agreements in place among countries to aid the taxation issues of citizens with dual residencies and of international ventures, while ensuring the protection of international investments.
In this guide we investigate the dual-party agreements which intend to resolve such issues; there are a total of thirty-five such agreements in which Türkiye is a part of.
This text focuses on the social security issues, while our upcoming guides will be focusing on double taxation and investor protection treaties. We hope that these guides will be helpful for our clients with international activities and expats working and living abroad.
Constitutional Background of Social Security Agreements
Article 62 of the Turkish Constitution, titled “Turkish Citizens Working in Other Countries,” states that the State will take the necessary precautions to ensure the social security of Turkish citizens working abroad. Meanwhile, Article 90 of the Constitution, titled “Approval of International Agreements” states that all agreements made by foreign states and international institutions are ruled as laws, thus cannot be objected to with the claim that the terms are unconstitutional, and will take precedence should any discrepancies occur with local rules.
List of Social Security Agreements
Following such rulings and workforce agreements, thirty-five dual-party social security agreements have been signed to ensure the social security of citizens working abroad (along with their dependents) and to ensure the continuation of the benefits they have earned abroad once they return to Türkiye. Agreements with the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Libya, Sweden, Norway, Northern Cyprus, Canada, Macedonia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, Quebec, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, Luxembourg, Croatia, Slovakia, Serbia, Italy, South Korea, Montenegro, Tunisia, Hungary, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Iran and Poland are currently active. In addition, an agreement with Ukraine is currently in the works. Please note that the agreements are not standardized; as such, each agreement may have different terms in terms of provided rights and equalities.
Social Security Agreements Briefly
In general, social security agreements aim for the following.
- The equal treatment of the citizens of both parties.
- The combination of insured duration when determining whether a privilege is earned.
- Providing medical assistance during sickness when the insured or their family is in the other country.
- Providing family aid (e.g. child care funds) to the family members even if they reside in the other country.
- Providing pension payments to the retired even if they retire after returning to their country.
- Continuing pension payments to the retired even after they move to the other country after retiring.
- Providing medical aid to the disabled people residing in the other country by the local social security institutions.
- In case of death, providing social security payments to the relatives of the deceased even if they are residing in the other country.
As such, it is ensured that Turkish citizens can benefit from social security benefits in other countries equivalently with local citizens. In addition, citizens can utilize their social security benefits within Türkiye as well. For health aides, the relatives of the person insured abroad can benefit even if they themselves are in Türkiye.
An important issue to note is that the agreements are contingent on the employment status of the subject. For example, staying abroad as a housewife is not covered by the agreements.
For twenty of the agreements (Germany, Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, France, Georgia, Croatia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Quebec, Northern Cyprus, South Korea, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Slovakia) if the social security start date for the other country is earlier than the Turkish start date, then the earlier date is accepted as the Turkish start date, which may speed up the retirement process. (Belgium and Northern Cyprus have different rules to check)
The number of dual-party social security agreements our country is a part of is ever increasing.
Additionally, developments are being made in tandem with the European Convention on Social Security, signed on 16/04/1964. Should you have any questions about any afore discussed topics you can contact our advisors.
This Guide is a translated version of our guide previously written in Turkish.
Hope it will be useful.
Kind regards,
Tax & International Advisory | Taxia & Taxademy
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