On April 15, 2021, the Rural Neighborhood and Rural Settled Area Regulation were published in the Official Gazette No. 31455 by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. According to the regulation, the rural neighbourhood or rural settled area will be determined by taking into account its socioeconomic status, distance to the city center, accessibility to municipal services, current housing status and similar issues.
Rural neighbourhood, rural green areas and city center are defined in article 3 titled “Definitions” of the regulation. Accordingly, Rural Neighborhood refers to the neighbourhood specified within the scope of the additional article 3 of the Metropolitan Municipality Law No. 5216.
Rural Settled Area refers to the area determined within the scope of the additional article 3 of the law and not less than ten thousand square meters in the neighbourhoods that are not completely identified as rural neighbourhoods.
The City Center refers to the places where the population is densely populated or separated from the surrounding settlements due to socio-economic reasons within the boundaries of the metropolitan district municipality or where commercial, social and cultural structures and public services are carried out together.
The determination of rural neighbourhoods is included in Article 4 of the Regulation, and whether the rural settlement feature continues, the distance to the city center and the transportation status, whether the municipalities have access to at least two of the services such as road, water, wastewater, solid waste, public transportation at full capacity should be taken into account. At the same time, it will be taken into consideration whether the rural nature of the current housing situation continues, whether it is in settled and development areas in accordance with the zoning legislation.
One or more of the factors such as the high socio-economic rural population ratio of the rural neighbourhood, the fact that agriculture, forest, pasture, pasture and winter lands constitute a significant part of its surface area, that agricultural production, livestock and forestry activities are not determined as the main source of income. will take place between. In neighbourhoods that cannot be identified as rural neighbourhoods, rural settled areas can be determined, not less than 10 thousand square meters.
Rural settled areas can be identified to include a part of one or more neighbourhoods.
In Article 6 of the Regulation, the procedures to be carried out by the municipalities are included. Accordingly, first, the decision will be taken by the district municipal council, and this decision, which includes the proposal, will be sent to the metropolitan municipality. The Metropolitan Municipality Council will make a decision within 90 days at the latest. The metropolitan municipal council has to take a decision within the specified time and may accept or reject the proposal from the district municipality as it is or by changing it.
The Metropolitan Municipal Council may decide to expand or narrow its proposal regarding the rural neighbourhood within that region, taking into account the economic and social integrity, and to extend the proposal for the rural settled area within a neighbourhood to the boundaries of the neighbourhood. However, the Metropolitan Municipal Council will not be able to change it to cover all metropolitan borders or to cover or exceed the district municipality borders. The rural/residential area decision will start from the beginning of the calendar year following the decision. The exclusion from this status will also expire at the beginning of the calendar year following the year in which the decision was made.
Exemptions and discounts are regulated in Article 9 of the Regulation and its continuation. Buildings, lands and lands used as workplaces by tradesmen who are exempt from income tax (such as locksmiths, porters, quilts), taxpayers subject to simple income tax (very small businesses such as actually working or being in their own business; tailor, midwife, circumciser, etc.) .), buildings, lands and lands used as workplaces and buildings used for residential purposes (houses, houses, etc.) will be exempt from real estate tax.
Buildings, plots and lands used in agricultural production (barn, haystack, feeder, field, etc.) will be exempt from the real estate tax, building construction, building construction (building license) fee, and zoning fees.
The real estate tax for buildings, lands and lands used in commercial, industrial and touristic activities (taxpayers who exceed income tax-exempt tradesmen and taxpayers subject to income tax in simple method but do not keep books on the basis of the balance sheet, in other words, used by taxpayers who keep books with business accounts), A 50 per cent reduction will be applied to the taxes levied in accordance with the Law, the fees charged in accordance with the Law No. 2464, and the participation shares in expenses.
Water charges (drinking and used water) discounts will be determined at a low tariff, not exceeding 50 per cent of the lowest tariff set for workplaces and 25 per cent of the lowest tariff set for residences.
This practise will not affect the rural settled area and surrounding borders process determined by the zoning legislation.
