Limitation Periods in Turkish Fake Invoice Cases 2026: Eight or Fifteen Years for the Criminal Case (Criminal Code Arts. 66–67), the Offence Date, Interruption and Suspension, Limitation of the Sentence (Art. 68), Five-Year Limits on Assessment, Penalties and Collection (TPL Arts. 114, 374; Law No. 6183 Arts. 102–104), the 31 December 2026 Deadline for 2021 Tax Periods and a Model Petition

There is no single limitation period in a fake invoice file. Five separate periods run on the criminal and tax tracks, each under its own law. The criminal case under Tax Procedure Law (TPL) Art. 359 is subject to a limitation period of eight or fifteen years. Which applies depends on the paragraph of Art. 359 and on whether the act was committed before or after 15 April 2022, and interrupting acts can extend the period by at most half (Criminal Code (TCK) Arts. 66, 67). Once a conviction is final, its enforcement is subject to a separate limitation (TCK Art. 68). On the tax side, tax and the tax loss penalty must be assessed and served within five years from the start of the year following the year in which the tax receivable arose (TPL Arts. 114, 374). An accrued receivable must be collected within five years from the start of the year following its due date (Law No. 6183 Art. 102). This guide explains when each period starts, what interrupts or suspends it, how the offence date is fixed and how the two tracks interact, with worked dates. It shows that for tax periods in 2021 the assessment limitation expires on 31 December 2026, and gives a model petition. It reflects the law in force on 27 October 2026.

Short answer: five separate limitation periods

The criminal case and the tax case are heard by different courts, and each is subject to its own limitation rules. Expiry of a period on one track does not, by itself, affect the period on the other.

Under TPL Art. 113, limitation is the extinction of the tax receivable by the passage of time, and it takes effect whether or not the taxpayer applies for it. In the criminal case, limitation is a ground for dismissal provided for in the Criminal Code, and where such a ground exists the court decides to dismiss the case (Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) Art. 223(8)).

The criminal case: eight or fifteen years?

Under TCK Art. 66(1), the limitation period is fixed by the upper limit of the penalty laid down in the law. The public case is dismissed after fifteen years for offences punishable by imprisonment of more than five and less than twenty years, and after eight years for offences punishable by imprisonment of no more than five years or by a judicial fine. Law No. 7394 raised the upper limits in TPL Art. 359 with effect from 15 April 2022, so the period depends on the paragraph and on the date of the act. For acts committed before that date, the earlier and more favourable upper limits, and the limitation periods that follow from them, must be applied (TCK Art. 7(2)).

For issuing and using fake documents (Art. 359(b)), 15 April 2022 is decisive. For fake invoices used before that date the limitation period is eight years; for those used on or after it, fifteen years. For an invoice used in 2018, for example, the eight-year period expires in 2026 if no interrupting act has been taken. Paragraph (ç) was itself added with effect from 30 April 2021, so it covers only acts committed from that date. Payment-based reductions of the sentence are explained in our guide to effective repentance in Turkish fake invoice cases, and the main guide to this series is Fake Invoice Allegations and KURGAN Tax Audits in Turkey.

When the period starts: the offence date

Under TCK Art. 66(6), the limitation period runs from the day a completed offence was committed and, for a chain offence, from the day the last offence was committed. The first step in a limitation calculation is therefore to establish the date of each act.

A chain offence affects limitation in two directions. A single sentence is imposed and increased by one quarter to three quarters (TCK Art. 43(1)). At the same time, the period for all the acts runs from the last act, so earlier periods that would be time-barred on their own remain in the file. Since Law No. 7394, TPL Art. 359 provides that TCK Art. 43 applies where offences under Art. 359 are committed in more than one calendar year or tax period in execution of the same decision to commit the offence. TPL provisional Art. 34 adds that the conditions of the chain offence introduced by these amendments are determined by holding a hearing. The defence should therefore argue whether the periods were committed in execution of the same decision, and how long the gaps between them were. Where a chain includes acts before and after 15 April 2022, which law and which limitation period apply to the earlier acts is contested, and each period should be argued separately.

Interruption and suspension

Under TCK Art. 67(2), the limitation period of the case is interrupted by the following acts concerning the offence:

• a statement taken from, or questioning of, one of the suspects or accused before the public prosecutor;
• a decision to arrest one of the suspects or accused;
• the issue of an indictment for the offence;
• a conviction, even of only some of the accused.

After an interruption the period starts again; where there is more than one interrupting act, it starts again from the last one (TCK Art. 67(3)). However, the interruptions cannot extend the period by more than half of the period laid down in the law for that offence (TCK Art. 67(4)).

A statement taken by the police is not listed in TCK Art. 67(2), which refers to a statement taken before the public prosecutor. When the interruption date is checked, the record of the statement should show who took it. How a statement in a fake invoice investigation is prepared is explained in our guide Called to Give a Statement in a Turkish Fake Invoice Investigation.

Suspension is governed by TCK Art. 67(1). Where investigation or prosecution depends on obtaining permission or a decision, or on the outcome of a question to be resolved by another authority, the limitation period is suspended until the permission or decision is obtained or the question is resolved. The period is also suspended for an offender who has been declared a fugitive in accordance with the law, until that decision is lifted. Two situations in fake invoice files are discussed under this provision:

• Under TPL Art. 367, the filing of a public case is subject to the result of the examination being notified to the prosecutor’s office with the opinion of the report evaluation commission.
• The criminal court may treat the filing or outcome of an action in the tax court as a preliminary question (CCP Art. 218(1)).

Whether these situations suspend limitation in a specific file, and if so between which dates, is contested and must be assessed separately in the limitation calculation.

Worked examples

The dates of the acts below are hypothetical. The ordinary period assumes there is no interrupting act; the longest period is the maximum that can be reached with interruptions. For the assessment limitation, the tax receivable is assumed to have arisen in the year of the act.

The last row shows that the two tracks run differently. If a chain offence is accepted, the period for the criminal case runs from the last act, while on the tax side the assessment limitation for each period runs from its own year. The 2021 period may become time-barred for tax purposes on 31 December 2026 while remaining in the criminal file as part of the chain. In the second row, the limitation of the case for a 2021 act runs until 2029, while the assessment limitation expires on 31 December 2026.

Limitation of the sentence

Once a conviction becomes final, the enforcement of the sentence is also subject to a time limit. Under TCK Art. 68(1), a sentence of imprisonment of more than five years is not enforced after twenty years, and a sentence of imprisonment of up to five years or a judicial fine is not enforced after ten years. The period runs from the day the judgment becomes final, or from the day enforcement was interrupted in any way, and is calculated on the part of the sentence that remains (TCK Art. 68(5)). Where a judgment imposes penalties of different kinds, the period set for the heaviest penalty applies (TCK Art. 68(4)).

The limitation of the sentence does not remove the conviction; under Art. 68(1) it only prevents enforcement. It matters where enforcement has not started after the judgment became final, or has been interrupted. Where a prison sentence is suspended or the announcement of the judgment is deferred, separate supervision periods apply.

The tax track: assessment, penalties and collection

Under TPL Art. 114(1), tax that is not assessed and served on the taxpayer within five years from the start of the calendar year following the year in which the tax receivable arose is time-barred. Under TPL Art. 19, the tax receivable arises when the event to which the tax law attaches the tax occurs, or when the legal situation is completed. Referral by the tax office to the assessment commission for an assessment of the tax base suspends the period. The suspended period resumes from the day after the commission’s decision is delivered to the tax office, but the time during which the period does not run can never exceed one year (TPL Art. 114(2)). Art. 114 names referral to the assessment commission as the ground that suspends this period; it does not list the start of a tax examination.

The limitation on imposing the tax loss penalty is built the same way. No tax loss penalty can be imposed after five years from the first day of the calendar year following the year in which the related tax receivable arose. The suspensive effect of referral to the assessment commission also applies to this period, and service of the penalty notice within it interrupts the limitation (TPL Art. 374).

When collection limitation is interrupted, the period starts again from the beginning of the calendar year following the year of the interruption. After a reversal decision, the new start is the first day of the year following the year of the new due date. Where the receivable is secured or execution is stayed by a court, the new start is the first day of the year following the year in which the security is released or the stay ends (Law 6183 Art. 103). Payments the taxpayer makes voluntarily after limitation has expired are accepted (Law 6183 Art. 102). The general rules are also explained in our Turkish guide to assessment and collection limitation (in Turkish).

31 December 2026: the deadline for 2021 tax periods

For VAT periods in 2021, and for corporate tax for a 2021 accounting period that matches the calendar year, the tax receivable arose in 2021. The five-year assessment limitation therefore started on 1 January 2022 and expires on 31 December 2026 (TPL Arts. 19, 114(1)). By that date the tax must be both assessed and served on the taxpayer; an assessment made but not served in time does not meet Art. 114(1).

Under TPL Art. 107/A, a notice delivered through the electronic notification system on 28 December 2026 is deemed served at the end of 2 January 2027. If the deemed date of service of a notice for a 2021 period falls after 31 December 2026, this is a ground to argue in the tax court action that the assessment is time-barred. Whether to file an amended return before the deadline is discussed in our guide Amended Return or Defence after a KURGAN Letter in Turkey.

How the two tracks affect each other

A loss of tax is not required for the offence under TPL Art. 359, so expiry of the assessment limitation does not, by itself, end the criminal case. The tax periods still matter to the criminal file in three respects.

The effective repentance point deserves attention. If tax could not be assessed for a period because the assessment limitation expired, then on the wording of the law there is no assessed tax and no penalty attached to it for that period, and the reduction by half becomes arguable. The payments and reduction rates are explained in our guide to effective repentance, and the calculation of the tax assessment in VAT Deduction Denied for Fake Invoices in Turkey.

Building a period-by-period limitation table

Where a fake invoice file covers more than one year, limitation can only be calculated correctly with a table built period by period. The table starts from the list of periods in the indictment or the tax examination report, and each row contains the following information.

The table shows for which periods the defence will seek a decision not to prosecute or a dismissal, and for which it will defend on the merits. The same table is used to fix the scope of an effective repentance payment, since no payment may be needed for a time-barred period.

Periods for the issuing side

For the act of issuing fake documents, the limitation period of the case runs from the date each document was issued and follows the same rules. For the issuer, the periods of administrative measures also come into play. Security may be required under TPL Art. 153/A from persons connected with a tax registration cancelled because it was set up solely to issue fake documents. If there is no other tax debt, that security is refunded where none of the acts in Art. 359, other than using fake or misleading documents, is found to have been committed within the following periods, counted from the start of the calendar year after the security was taken:

• three years, in the cases covered by the first three paragraphs of Art. 153/A;
• five years, in the cases covered by its fourth paragraph.

The assessment of VAT that the issuer must pay because it showed VAT on documents without being entitled to do so (VAT Law Art. 8(2)) is also subject to the assessment limitation in TPL Art. 114. The defence of the issuing side is explained in our Turkish guide to the offence of issuing fake invoices (in Turkish).

Periods during the tax action and collection from directors

If the assessment was served within the period, the assessment limitation is no longer in issue; from then on, the time limit for bringing an action and the collection limitation matter. The period for bringing an action in the tax court is thirty days from service of the notice (Administrative Procedure Law Art. 7). Late payment interest runs on the unpaid part of the tax in dispute from its normal due date until the court decision is served (TPL Art. 112(3)(b)). At the collection stage, collection limitation is interrupted by a court decision reversing a judgment in a disputed public receivable and by a court decision staying execution (Law 6183 Art. 103).

Where tax cannot be collected from the company and proceedings are started against its legal representative, those proceedings are also assessed under the collection limitation rules in Law No. 6183. The conditions of a director’s liability are explained in Personal Liability of Directors and Managers in Turkish Fake Invoice Cases, and the tax court action in Challenging a Fake Invoice Assessment in the Turkish Tax Court.

Points for foreign-owned companies and group teams

For a Turkish subsidiary of a foreign group, the limitation periods affect document retention, the position of managers who have left Turkey and the way the group tracks its exposure.

The five-year retention period in TPL Art. 253 ends well before the criminal limitation period. Keeping delivery, transport and payment evidence for the invoices in question until the criminal limitation has expired, rather than only for the retention period, preserves the material for a defence that may be needed years later. Where a manager is abroad, international cooperation in criminal matters is explained in our guide to international judicial cooperation in Turkey, and travel restrictions in Travel Bans in Turkish Fake Invoice Investigations.

How limitation is raised

On the tax side, limitation takes effect whether or not the taxpayer applies for it (TPL Art. 113); in the criminal case, it is a ground for a decision not to prosecute or for dismissal (CCP Arts. 172(1), 223(8)). Even so, the defence needs to set out the calculation clearly so that the dates of the acts and the interrupting acts in the file are identified correctly. If there is no possibility of prosecution at the investigation stage, the prosecutor decides not to prosecute (CCP Art. 172(1)). At the prosecution stage, if a ground for dismissal provided for in the Criminal Code exists, the court dismisses the case (CCP Art. 223(8)). However, where acquittal can be given immediately, no dismissal decision may be given (CCP Art. 223(9)).

A limitation calculation that treats all the invoices in a file under one date is wrong. The date of each act, the interrupting acts for each period and whether a chain offence has been accepted must be established separately. Law 6183 Art. 58 refers to an objection before the tax objection commission; since the functions of those commissions passed to the tax courts, the challenge is brought as an action in the tax court. Our Turkish model appeal petition against a fake invoice conviction (in Turkish) shows how a limitation objection is raised on appeal.

Model petition

The model below is prepared for a file in which the limitation period for invoices allegedly used in 2017 expired without any interrupting act, while the trial continues for the other periods. The main request is acquittal; dismissal for limitation is requested for the 2017 invoices only if the court takes the view that acquittal cannot be given immediately for them. The dates are hypothetical. It is an English working draft for group review; the petition filed must be in Turkish and completed with the facts of the file.

If the court convicts without regard to limitation, the point can be raised in an appeal to the regional court (CCP Arts. 272, 280). The petition should contain nothing that could be read as accepting the allegation; dismissal is requested only in case the opposite view is taken on acquittal.

How Hukukçular Evi can help

A limitation calculation requires the dates of the acts, the interrupting acts, the more favourable law and any chain offence to be assessed together, while on the tax side each period is calculated separately for its own year. In these files, Hukukçular Evi Ankara prepares the period-by-period limitation table, checks the dates of statements and the indictment as interrupting acts, contests the acceptance of a chain offence and requests a decision not to prosecute or a dismissal for time-barred periods. We also bring tax court actions based on assessment and penalty limitation and challenge payment orders at the collection stage, and we run these together with the defence on the merits. We work in English with foreign-owned companies and group tax and legal teams. The scope of the service is described on our fake invoice defence page (in Turkish), and the lawyer’s profile is on the author page. You can reach us on +90 554 648 37 15.

Frequently asked questions

How long is the limitation period for a fake invoice offence in Turkey?

For fake invoices issued or used on or after 15 April 2022, the limitation period of the case is fifteen years; for earlier acts it is eight years (TCK Arts. 7(2), 66(1)(d)–(e)). For misleading documents (TPL Art. 359(a)) it is eight years for every period.

Which period applies to invoices from before 2022?

The more favourable law in force on the date of the act applies. For acts under Art. 359(b), (c) and (ç), the earlier upper limit was five years, so the limitation period is eight years (TCK Arts. 7(2), 66(1)(e)).

When does the limitation period start?

From the day the offence was committed and, for a chain offence, from the day the last offence was committed (TCK Art. 66(6)).

Which acts interrupt the limitation period?

A statement before the prosecutor or questioning before the judge, an arrest decision, an indictment and a conviction (TCK Art. 67(2)). With interruptions, the period is extended by no more than half: twelve years instead of eight, and 22 years 6 months instead of fifteen (TCK Art. 67(4)).

Does a statement given to the police interrupt limitation?

The law lists a statement taken before the public prosecutor as an interrupting act (TCK Art. 67(2)(a)). A statement taken by the police is not on that list.

Is limitation suspended while the prosecutor waits for the tax examination report?

This is contested. TCK Art. 67(1) suspends limitation where prosecution depends on a decision or on a question to be resolved by another authority, and TPL Art. 367 makes the public case subject to notification of the examination result. Whether and between which dates limitation is suspended must be assessed on the facts of the file.

How long does the tax administration have to assess tax?

Tax not assessed and served within five years from the start of the year following the year in which the tax receivable arose is time-barred (TPL Art. 114(1)). The same period applies to the tax loss penalty (TPL Art. 374).

When does the tax limitation expire for 2021 invoices?

For periods in which the tax receivable arose in 2021, the assessment limitation expires on 31 December 2026. Referral to the assessment commission suspends the period for no more than one year (TPL Art. 114(2)).

Does referral to the assessment commission extend the period?

It suspends the period, which resumes from the day after the commission’s decision is delivered to the tax office. The time during which the period does not run cannot exceed one year (TPL Art. 114(2)).

What is the collection limitation?

A final public receivable that is not collected within five years from the start of the year following the year of its due date is time-barred. Payment, attachment and service of a payment order, among other acts, interrupt the period (Law 6183 Arts. 102, 103).

If the tax limitation has expired, is the criminal case dismissed?

No. A loss of tax is not required for the offence, and the limitation of the case runs separately under the Criminal Code. However, where there is no assessed tax and no penalty attached to it, the sentence is reduced by half under the effective repentance rule (TPL Art. 359).

How does a chain offence affect limitation?

The period runs from the last act, so earlier periods remain in the file (TCK Art. 66(6)). Whether the periods were committed in execution of the same decision to commit the offence should therefore also be argued for limitation purposes.

What decision is given if the limitation period has expired?

At the investigation stage, a decision not to prosecute (CCP Art. 172(1)); at the prosecution stage, dismissal of the case (CCP Art. 223(8)). Where acquittal can be given immediately, the court must acquit instead (CCP Art. 223(9)).

What is the limitation of the sentence after a conviction?

Ten years for imprisonment of up to five years and for judicial fines, and twenty years for imprisonment of more than five years. The period runs from the day the judgment becomes final (TCK Art. 68(1), (5)).

Does limitation keep running while a foreign manager is outside Turkey?

In the criminal case, the period is suspended only for an offender declared a fugitive in accordance with the law, until that decision is lifted (TCK Art. 67(1)). On the collection side, the period does not run while proceedings cannot be taken because the debtor is abroad (Law 6183 Art. 104).

Related guides

• Fake Invoice Allegations and KURGAN Tax Audits in Turkey — the entry point to this series
• Effective Repentance in Turkish Fake Invoice Cases
• Called to Give a Statement in a Turkish Fake Invoice Investigation
• Challenging a Fake Invoice Assessment in the Turkish Tax Court
• Amended Return or Defence after a KURGAN Letter in Turkey
• VAT Deduction Denied for Fake Invoices in Turkey: How the Assessment Is Calculated
• Personal Liability of Directors and Managers in Turkish Fake Invoice Cases
• Precautionary Attachment in Turkish Fake Invoice Cases
• Travel Bans in Turkish Fake Invoice Investigations
• Supplier Due Diligence Against Fake Invoice Risk in Turkey
• International Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters in Turkey
• Limitation Periods for Investor Claims in Turkey
• Legal Guide for Foreign Investors in Turkey (Türkiye) 2026
• Limitation Calculator for Criminal Cases (in Turkish)
• Model Defence Petition in a Fake Invoice Criminal Case (in Turkish)
• Fake Invoice and KURGAN Decision Tool (in Turkish)