With the decision of the 10th Chamber of the Council of State, No. 2023/170 and Decision No. 2024/1853, subparagraph (a) of paragraph 7 of Article 97 of the Regulation on Social Insurance Transactions and the relevant articles of the Circular on ‘Meal Allowances’ prepared on the basis of this Regulation were cancelled. Following the cancellation decision of the Council of State, the Regulation on Social Insurance Procedures was amended and subparagraph (a) of paragraph 7 of Article 97 was rearranged. In this context, with the circular dated 31.12.2024 and numbered 2024/17, the daily amount of the meal allowance to be exempted from the premium-based earnings for the year 2025 and the principles regarding the application were determined.

With this circular, the daily amount of the meal allowance to be exempted from the premium-based earnings and the principles regarding the application have been determined to be valid as of 1 January 2025 (from the monthly premium and service document / withholding and premium service declaration for January 2025). The arrangements made in the Circular are explained under the following headings:

With the Official Gazette dated December 27, 2024 and numbered 32765, Article 17 of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510 was amended.

With this regulation, the calculation method of daily earnings to be taken as basis for allowances and income within the scope of short-term insurance branches (work accident, occupational disease, illness and maternity) has been amended.

Article 17 of the Social Security and General Health Insurance Law dated May 31, 2006 and numbered 5510 was amended as follows:

• Income Tax Exempted Meal Allowance
• Income Tax Exempted Commuter Allowance
• Disability Degree Discounts
• 2025 Income Tax Rates
• Stamp Tax Rate

Income Tax Exempted Meal Allowance

Meal allowance tax exemption amount that is applied as of 1st of Jan 2025 was announced in 329 serial numbered Income Tax General Communique on December 30, 2024 dated and 32768 numbered bis Official Gazette. According to this communique, meal allowance which is provided by the employer outside of the workplace and workplace outbuildings as defined in the (8)th clause of Article 23 of Income Tax Law, exemption amount is defined as 240.00 TRY to be applied for 2025 calendar year.

Per the Temporary Article 105 of Law No. 5510, which entered into force upon its publication in the Official Gazette No. 32765 dated December 27, 2024, and under paragraph (g) of the first subsection of Article 60 of Law No. 5510, collection of all unpaid general health insurance premiums prior to January 1, 2015, along with ancillary debts such as penalties for late payment and late payment surcharges, have been abandoned.

According to the mentioned regulation: