When a company rents your flat, the monthly payment often arrives smaller than the figure in the lease. The difference is usually stopaj: in practice the contract amount is usually gross, so the tenant withholds 20% and pays the rest to you, according to an accounting guide dated 23 September 2026. The legal rules below are as of 6 November 2026.
Check what gross and net mean in your lease
Look at the clause that names the rent before you treat a short payment as an error. In practice the figure written in the lease is usually the gross amount: the tenant withholds 20% and pays the remaining part to you, according to an accounting guide dated 23 September 2026. If your transfer is around 20% less than the contract figure, that withholding is the ordinary explanation.
Check whether the lease says net rent or assigns the withholding to the tenant. In practice the figure in the lease is usually gross: the tenant withholds 20% and pays the rest to you, according to an accounting guide dated 23 September 2026. The first question is what the contract amount was meant to be.
If your lease says net rent or that the tenant pays the stopaj, challenge the deduction
A lease that says net rent, or that the withholding is at the tenant's expense, means the company is supposed to bear the stopaj itself, so you should receive the full figure in the lease. Accounting practice as of 26 October 2026 records that companies nonetheless often deduct the stopaj from the owner in exactly this situation, treating a clause meant to protect you as if it did not exist.
Because companies often get this wrong, according to accounting practice as of 26 October 2026, start with the clause itself, not with the payment habit. Read the wording on net rent or tenant-borne withholding, then compare the transfer with the figure the clause promises. A shortfall close to the withholding amount is a signal to raise, not an adjustment to accept silently.
The same accounting commentary, as of October 2026, describes this as a common mistake companies make: the company has applied the withholding to the owner when the contract assigned it elsewhere. Flag the discrepancy to the company and point to the clause.
Check whether your yearly rent crosses the residential exemption threshold
For a flat let as a dwelling, the yearly income has an exemption before income tax: under Article 21 of the Income Tax Law, residential rental income is exempt up to 58,000 lira for the 2026 calendar year.
Income above that threshold that is not declared, or declared incompletely, loses the exemption entirely. So if the company's rent pushes your residential income over 58,000 lira in 2026, you need a complete declaration rather than a partial one; the consequence is written into the same article.
For 2025 income the threshold was different: the Revenue Administration's page states 47,000 lira and that a rental income (GMSİ) tax return is required above that amount. Check which calendar year the payments fall into before comparing against either figure, because the threshold changed between the two years.
The exemption is about your residential rental income, and the declaration question turns on the yearly total. For 2025 the Revenue Administration's page states that residential rental income above 47,000 lira requires a GMSİ return. For 2026, if your residential rental income exceeds 58,000 lira and you do not declare it, or declare it only in part, you lose the exemption.
Know when the company has to pay the withheld tax to the tax office
Once the company withholds the tax, it must pay that amount to its own tax office by the evening of the 26th of the month in which it files the declaration. This follows from Article 119 of the Income Tax Law. The deadline concerns the company's payment, not your receipt, but it matters when you are checking whether the withholding has actually reached the tax authority.
For a company with ten or fewer employees, or none, the Ministry of Finance may set a different payment term of up to three months from the date the declaration is filed. In practice, small companies often file the muhtasar (withholding tax) declaration quarterly, so the payment date can follow that quarterly cycle rather than the month of the rent.