Turkish Labor Law
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A divorced spouse who is paying alimony will benefit from the Minimum Living Allowance for children, regardless of whether the alimony receiving spouse is working or not.
In general, MLA is applied only to one of the spouses for children, however in case of divorcement, and paying or receiving alimony (spousal support) the question arises about which of the spouse will benefit from the tax deduction for children.
What is Minimum Living Allowance?
Part of the wage that constitutes the amount of minimum subsistence level is not subject to income tax for real persons in Turkey legislation.
Minimum Living Allowance is calculated on the basis of minimum wage regardless of the total earning, and in accordance with the marital status and the number of the children of the employee.
Calculation of MLA
The following rates of annual gross minimum salary are not subject to income tax;
50% for the employee
10% for the non-employed spouse
7,5% for each of the first two dependent children and 10% for third dependent child and 5% for the following dependent children.
Annual gross minimum wage will be multiplied with the total percentage (corresponding to employee) to find the amount not subject to income tax; and the found amount will be multiplied by the first tax bracket percentage (15% for 2017) to find the annual deductible tax. And monthly amount of MLA can be found by dividing 12.
In case of divorcement
Pursuant to Article 175 of Turkish Civil Code, any of the spouses who will be in need as a result of the divorce may demand other spouse to provide spousal support (pay alimony).
Article 32 of Income Tax Law No. 193 sets forth that “MLA deduction will be applied to;
- Each one of the family members receiving real wage,
- Only either wife or husband for children, who are
- For divorced, the children granted alimony will be taken into account in the calculation of MLA.
- Children should means the ones under the age of 18 or 25 for those continuing education, including the children for whom alimony provided, the adopted children and orphan grandchildren living with the employee.
In the light of the above arrangements,
- MLA for the children should be applied to divorced spouse who is paying alimony, even the other spouse is employed and receiving real wage,
- In case the alimony paying father is not benefiting from MLA for the children, mother will benefit from MLA for the children under her custody and dependent to mother from the point of social security.
