Freelancer income in Turkey: getting paid and sending part of it to Iran

An Iranian freelancer living in Turkey faces two separate problems that usually get mixed together: how a foreign client's money gets into Turkey, and how part of that income reaches family or an account in Iran. The routes freelancers elsewhere take for granted are either closed or restricted for a resident of Turkey, and the Iran leg does not go through a bank because of sanctions. This article separates the two stages and shows which tools are actually available at the time of writing (October 2026).

How does your income get into Turkey?

PayPal: not available to residents of Turkey

PayPal stopped serving customers in Turkey in June 2016 after the banking regulator (BDDK) declined to renew its payment-institution licence over data-localisation requirements. At the time of writing we found no official return for individual users, only talk of partnerships with local wallets. The practical consequence: if a client pays only through PayPal, you need to agree a different method with them.

Wise: sending yes, holding lira no

Published guides report that residents of Turkey can send money from Turkey with Wise, but accounts registered in Turkey cannot hold a lira balance and the Wise card is not issued in Turkey. Dollar or euro balances are active for some users. These limits have changed several times in recent years, so check the current conditions for your country of residence on wise.com before pointing a client to Wise.

Payoneer: the usual route of the platforms

Payoneer operates officially in Turkey and is the default payout channel for marketplaces such as Upwork and Fiverr. The amount lands in your Payoneer account and is transferred from there to your Turkish bank account; in most cases the conversion to lira happens at that step. This route requires a Turkish bank account in your own name.

USDT and stablecoins from the client

Some clients prefer to pay in USDT. It arrives straight in your wallet and you have three options: hold it, sell it on a Turkish platform, or hand it to an exchange office in person. If you choose a Turkish platform, remember that since summer 2025 MASAK Communiqué No. 29 imposes daily and monthly limits and 48 to 72 hour waiting periods on stablecoin withdrawals from domestic platforms; those limits apply to withdrawals from a platform, not to converting USDT in person at an office. The details are in the guide to USDT in Turkey.

A direct bank wire to your Turkish account

If the client is a registered company in Europe or the United States, a SWIFT wire to your foreign-currency account at a Turkish bank is the simplest route. The bank may ask about the origin of the funds and the contract; keep the invoice and contract ready.

The Turkish side: tax and records

Freelance income is subject to Turkish tax rules. For income earned from services to foreign clients that is brought into Turkey and documented, a "service export" exemption exists; its rate and conditions are reported inconsistently and depend on how you are registered. Three things help from today: keep every invoice, keep the inflow traceable (an account in your own name, not someone else's card), and talk to an accountant who knows Turkish tax law before the fiscal year ends. This article is not tax advice.

From Turkey to Iran: three real routes

A bank transfer from Turkey to Iran is not done in practice; since UN sanctions returned in September 2025, Turkish banks generally do not accept transfers to Iran. What remains are three routes compared in detail in the guide to sending money from Turkey to Iran.

Handing lira, dollars or USDT to an exchange office for toman settlement

The most common route for a freelancer: you hand over the currency you hold, and the toman equivalent is paid into the account you have named. The advantages are a known, accountable counterparty, a rate you know before you hand anything over, and a receipt. If your income is in lira, use sending money from Turkey to Iran with a lira handover; if it is in USDT, USDT conversion in Istanbul with a USDT handover. At EL DÖVİZ the rate and fee for every request are confirmed before anything is done, and nothing starts until you approve.

USDT straight to the recipient's wallet in Iran

If you and the recipient are comfortable with crypto wallets, you send USDT directly and the recipient cashes out in Iran. It is fast, but a wrong address or network is irreversible, and you have to account for the USDT price difference between the two markets yourself. For an estimate, see today's USDT rate.

The rented card: the route not to take

Offers circulating in Telegram groups ("pay the lira into this card and toman arrives on yours") are exactly where most fraud and account freezes happen. Iran's transfer ceilings and anti-money-laundering checks are explained in the guide above; the short version is to receive toman only into your own account or one you have formally named.

A simple monthly routine

1. Receive income through one fixed, documented channel, with an invoice for every payment.
2. Keep the share for Turkish expenses in your lira account and set the Iran share aside.
3. Hand over the currency you hold without extra conversions; every intermediate conversion costs another spread.
4. Get the firm rate, the fee and the destination account in writing before the handover, and keep the receipt for every step.
5. Review your tax position with an adviser once a year; the rules change.

With this routine, getting paid and sending part of it to Iran turns from a vague problem into a repeatable process.