Article 10 of Law No. 7577 on Amendments to Certain Laws, published in the Official Gazette dated 17.04.2026, introduced a significant amendment to paragraph (b) of Article 80, titled “Earnings Subject to Premium,” of Law No. 5510 on Social Insurance and General Health Insurance, which regulates exemption amounts, with respect to the meal allowance exemption provided by employers.

With the amendment, the meal allowance exemption has been separated from child and family allowances and is now specifically regulated under a new sub-paragraph numbered (9). The relevant subparagraph and the new provision that follows are as follows:

“9) In cases where meals are not provided by the employer at the workplace or its annexes, the portion of the daily meal allowance for worked days that does not exceed TRY 300 shall not be subject to earnings taken as basis for premium. The amount specified in sub-paragraph

(9) shall be applied by increasing it annually at the revaluation rate determined pursuant to paragraph (B) of the repeated Article 298 of Law No. 213 with respect to the preceding year. Fractions not exceeding 5% of the amount calculated in this manner shall not be taken into account.”

With the amendment, regardless of whether the meal allowance is paid via bank transfer or through instruments such as meal cards, the daily portion of up to TRY 300.00 shall be exempt from earnings subject to insurance premium, while any amount exceeding this threshold shall be included in the premium calculation. Under the new regulation, the TRY 300.00 amount exempt from income tax has been adopted identically for the social security premium exemption, and the authority to determine this amount annually has been transferred from the Social Security Institution to the revaluation rate specified in paragraph (B) of the repeated Article 298 of Law No. 213 on Tax Procedure. This ensures numerical consistency between the two exemptions. However, while the exemption amounts align when meal costs are paid in cash, they may differ in applications such as meal cards because the income tax exemption is calculated based on the amount including VAT.

The amendment has placed the meal allowance exemption within a more explicit, measurable, and predictable framework. As the amendment shall take effect as of its publication date of 17.04.2026, employers are advised to update their payroll and accounting processes accordingly and to correctly apply the daily exemption amount

Finally, pursuant to Article 5 of Law No. 7577 on Amendments to Certain Laws, published in the Official Gazette dated 17.04.2026, an amendment was made to paragraph 1 of Article 49 of the Unemployment Insurance Law, granting the President the authority to increase or decrease the fixed State contribution rate of 1% in unemployment insurance premiums by up to half. The amendment pertains solely to the State contribution share and does not affect the premium rates applicable to employers and insured individuals.