Foreign Per Diem in Turkey: How to Calculate It

Calculating the travel allowance (harcırah) for an employee returning from an assignment abroad raises a few extra questions compared with domestic trips: which country's per diem applies, how are the days counted, which exchange rate converts the currency, and how is the advance closed? This guide walks through the foreign per diem calculation step by step, with an example table and Excel columns. The rules described here are Turkish rules.

How is a foreign travel allowance calculated?

A foreign travel allowance is calculated by multiplying the policy-defined number of days by the country per diem, adding documented costs and deducting the advance.

The calculation fits into five steps:

1. Set the number of days: Apply your company policy's counting rule to the departure and return dates.
2. Pick the per diem: Take the per diem defined in the policy, in foreign currency, for the destination country and the employee's grade.
3. Work out the per diem total: Number of days × per diem.
4. Add documented costs: If your policy reimburses them separately, add lodging, local transport and other travel costs.
5. Apply the exchange rate and offset the advance: Convert the total into Turkish lira at the rate set in your policy, deduct the advance and find the amount payable or refundable.

At each of these steps, the company's written travel policy is what really decides. The sections below show what the policy needs to settle at each step.

How are days counted on a foreign assignment?

In private companies, the company's own travel policy decides how days abroad are counted; what matters is that the rule is written down and the same on every trip.

In the public sector, day counting is governed by Law No. 6245 on Travel Allowances (Harcırah Kanunu) and related regulations. In private companies, the policy usually answers these questions:

• Do the departure and return days count as full days or partial days?
• Are days counted as calendar days abroad or as overnight stays?
• Does a separate per diem apply for countries passed through on connecting flights?
• Does the per diem change after a certain number of days if the assignment runs longer?

There is no single right answer to these questions; but giving two different answers on two trips within the same company creates both unequal treatment among employees and a picture that is hard to explain in an audit.

Where are the official foreign per diems and the H schedule published?

Foreign per diems paid to public officials are set every year by a Presidential decision on foreign per diems, in foreign currency by country and title group, and published in the Official Gazette.

Domestic per diems are listed every year in the (H) schedule annexed to the Central Government Budget Law (Merkezi Yönetim Bütçe Kanunu). The figures people search for as "2026 per diem amounts" come from these two sources: that year's (H) schedule for domestic trips, and the decision on foreign per diems in force that year for trips abroad.

This article gives no amounts; they change every year and you should always check the current figure in that year's source. Private companies can use these lists as a reference for their own policy or set their own amounts. For calculators and templates, see the Masraff tools page.

What is the tax-exempt part of a foreign per diem in the private sector?

In the private sector, the part of the per diem paid to an employee that does not exceed the highest public-sector per diem is exempt from income tax; the excess is generally taxed as wages.

This principle rests on Income Tax Law No. 193 (Gelir Vergisi Kanunu). In practice, it means comparing the per diem the company pays on a foreign assignment with the highest per diem applied in the public sector for the same country. If the policy amount is below that limit, the whole per diem stays within the exemption; if it is above, the difference goes through payroll as wages.

Points to watch in practice:

• Keep the exemption limit current by country and by year.
• Show the policy per diem and the exemption limit on separate lines in payroll.
• Assess the social security contribution impact separately.

Confirm the details of the tax and contribution treatment for your company with your financial advisor (mali müşavir).

How are currency, exchange rate, lodging and the advance offset handled?

For a foreign travel allowance, the company policy decides which date and which exchange rate are used; what matters is applying the chosen rule consistently to every trip.

Choosing the rate. Companies usually write one of these options into the policy: the rate on the day the advance was paid, the rate on the day of the expense, or the rate on the day the travel allowance statement is prepared. Which source (for example, Central Bank rates) and which type of rate is used should also be spelled out. Settle the accounting of exchange differences together with your financial advisor.

Lodging and transport. In some policies lodging is included in the per diem; in others the hotel invoice is reimbursed separately. The flight ticket is often bought directly by the company, in which case it does not appear on the employee's statement. If it is not written down which costs the per diem covers, the same cost can be paid twice.

Advance offset. On foreign trips the advance is often paid in foreign currency. At the end of the trip, total costs are compared with the advance in the same currency; the difference is paid to the employee or collected back. If the advance was paid in lira and spending was in foreign currency, the policy's exchange rate rule decides this comparison.

Example foreign per diem calculation table and Excel columns

The table below only illustrates the calculation logic; the amounts are round example figures and do not reflect any official per diem.

Scenario (example): A project manager spends 4 days on assignment in Germany. The company policy sets the per diem for this country at EUR 100 (example), counts departure and return days as full days, and reimburses lodging separately against an invoice. The flight was bought by the company. An advance of EUR 500 was paid before the trip.

The lira equivalent of the EUR 300 payable is calculated at the rate on the date chosen in the policy. If you add the exemption limit to the same table, the payroll team can see separately any part of the per diem above the limit.

If you are building a foreign travel allowance calculation table in Excel, you can put each trip on one row with these columns:

1. Trip number, full name, department
2. Country and city
3. Departure date and return date
4. Number of days (formula based on the policy rule)
5. Per diem (currency and amount)
6. Per diem total
7. Lodging, local transport, other costs
8. Total costs (foreign currency)
9. Advance received (foreign currency)
10. Payable / refund (foreign currency)
11. Rate date and rate
12. Lira equivalent
13. Exemption limit and amount above the limit
14. Document references and approver

Where Excel struggles is tracking documents and approvals: as long as receipts, invoices and manager approvals sit outside the sheet, it is hard to show which row relies on which document.

Conclusion

Once you settle four rules—day counting, the country per diem, the exchange rate choice and the advance offset—a foreign travel allowance calculation comes down to simple multiplication and addition. Checking the amounts every year in the relevant official source and confirming the tax side with a financial advisor makes the rest of the calculation safe.

In Masraff, travel requests go through an approval process and trip expenses are linked to the related travel request; details are on the business travel management page. Employee advances are closed by attaching expense reports to the advance, and the advance closes when the balance reaches zero. You can see how travel costs are managed through expense reports on the expense management page.