Getting a Tax Number in North Cyprus

If you are settling in North Cyprus as a student or resident, you may at some point be asked for a "tax number". Locally this is a taxpayer registration (mükellefiyet kaydı) with the Tax Office — the Gelir ve Vergi Dairesi (literally "Income and Tax Office"), whose official site is vergi.gov.ct.tr, published in Turkish only.

An honest warning up front: there is no published application procedure for foreigners. As of 10 July 2026, the official site has no page, form or document list titled anything like "obtaining a tax number" (the main page, forms section and announcement archive were all checked). Various unofficial websites claim "bring these three documents, issued the same day" — none of that could be verified against any official source, so this page does not repeat it.

How to get one: in person, after a phone call

The only route that can be verified:

1. Call the Tax Office branch for your district (numbers below) and ask which documents a foreign national or student needs for a taxpayer registration. Staff may speak limited English — if your Turkish is thin, ask a Turkish-speaking friend, your university's international office or your landlord/agent to call with you.
2. Go to the branch in person with whatever the branch listed. Take your passport regardless — no identity check happens without it.

Processing time, any fee, and the exact document list are not published officially, so they are deliberately not stated here. What the branch tells you is what counts.

Branches and phone numbers

All branches, from the Tax Office's contact page (numbers shown in local format; from abroad, dial +90 392 before each):

• Nicosia (Lefkoşa) — head office — 4B Kızılay Sokak, Yenişehir; tel 228 81 43, 229 07 21–26; fax 228 87 04
• Famagusta (Mağusa) — Bülent Ecevit Bulvarı; tel 366 57 64; fax 366 16 11
• Kyrenia (Girne) — Mustafa Çağatay Caddesi, İhtiyat Sandığı Binası, Yukarı Girne; tel 815 21 59; fax 815 37 28
• Güzelyurt — İsmet Paşa Mahallesi; tel 714 21 32; fax 714 29 60
• İskele — 20 Temmuz Caddesi; tel 371 22 57; fax 371 27 12
• Lefke — Ahmet Paşa Sokak; tel 728 75 40

Numbers and addresses change; confirm against the official contact page. Opening hours are not published on the official page — ask when you call.

When will you actually need it?

There is no official list of transactions that require a tax number. Here is the verified picture:

Opening a bank account: conflicting sources. Some third-party guides include a tax number among the required documents; others list only passport, proof of address and similar. No bank in North Cyprus publishes an official document list for foreigners, so the most that can honestly be said is "some banks may ask for one" — check with the bank you intend to use. See Opening a Bank Account for the licensed-bank list and branch contacts.

Registering your rental contract: the Tax Office requires rental contracts (with title-deed copies) to be registered in its system, and new contracts must include the parties' identity and contact details. The announcement does not explicitly require the tenant to obtain a tax number — what is mandatory is the contract registration itself. Ask the office whether a registration number is created for you in the process. The tenant's side of renting is covered in Renting as a Student.

Rent withholding tax and stamp duty: rental contracts are subject to stamp duty, and there is a withholding tax (stopaj) regime on rent — but who pays it is genuinely murky: the 2023 decree's text puts the obligation on the landlord (or their representative), while common local practice describes the tenant paying it out of the rent. Put it in writing in your contract. The decree lapsed on 31 January 2024 and the current arrangement could not be verified when this page was prepared, so no rates or amounts are given here — confirm the current rate and who owes it with the Tax Office.

Work permits: the Labour Office's page on foreign work permits does not list "obtaining a tax number" among the required steps; the process runs through the employer. The claim that a tax number is a work-permit prerequisite could not be verified.

The online tax portal — and why it does not help you here

• The Tax Office's transactional portal is at online.vergi.gov.ct.tr (Turkish only).
• It serves existing taxpayers: filing returns (VAT, rent, salary withholding), paying by card, querying registrations and debts, and requesting a no-debt certificate.
• The username and password are issued at the Tax Office on application (there is an official password-request form, including a power-of-attorney variant). So the online channel presumes you have already been to a branch — it is not a way to obtain a tax number remotely.
• No e-Government route either: the TRNC e-Government portal's Tax Office page states outright that no Tax Office service is offered through the e-Government gateway.