App store commissions: claiming back part of Apple and Google's 30%
Platform commissions on overseas sales are reimbursed at 50% under Article 22, up to 10 products a year. What the caps allow, how a deduction from your payout is evidenced, and why this claim needs no setup.
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Money back on marketing and UA
Most studios treat the store cut as a fixed cost. Apple and Google take their percentage, it shows up as a line in the payout report, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Under Article 22 of Decision No. 10962 a portion of it comes back. Commissions charged by digital platforms on your overseas sales are reimbursed at 50%, for up to 10 products a year. For a studio with real revenue this is often the largest single claim in the programme, and unlike most claims it requires no planning, no pre-approval and no change to how you operate.
What is covered
The item covers commissions charged by App Store, Google Play, Steam, Epic, Microsoft Store and comparable platforms on overseas sales of your software, app or game. It is the platform's cut of the transaction, not your marketing spend, which sits under a different article.
The caps are set in Turkish lira and revalued upward every year. At roughly 47.7 TRY to the dollar:
| Standard Programme | Branding Programme | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate | 50% | 50% |
| Products per year | 10 | 20 |
| Cap per product | 4,000,000 TL, about $84,000 | 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 TL, about $126,000 to $168,000 |
| Cap per year | 20,000,000 TL, about $419,000 | 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 TL, about $629,000 to $838,000 |
Because the rate is 50%, hitting the $84,000 cap on one title means paying about $168,000 in commissions on it. At a 30% store cut, that is around $560,000 of overseas sales. Past that point, more sales of the same title add nothing to this claim.
The per-product cap is what limits you
The annual cap is generous and the per-product cap is not, which produces the same effect we described for mobile studios on the advertising side.
A studio with one title doing $3M of overseas sales pays roughly $900,000 in commissions. At 50% that is $450,000 of support, but the per-product cap holds it to about $84,000.
A studio with four titles splitting the same $3M pays the same total commission, but each title now sits under its own cap. Four times $84,000 is $336,000, four times the single-title outcome for identical revenue.
Nothing here is a structuring trick, and the answer is not to split a game into pieces. You simply need to know which of your titles carry claimable commissions, because the tenth-biggest title in your catalogue may be worth more to this claim than further growth in your biggest one.
How a deduction is evidenced
This item works differently from every other claim, because the money never leaves your bank account. The platform deducts its commission and sends you the net amount, so there is no outgoing payment and no supplier invoice in the usual sense.
The programme accepts the platform's own reporting instead:
- the payout or financial report per product and per country, showing gross sales and the commission withheld
- bank statements showing the net payouts you received
- the store listing showing that the product is yours
The requirement behind this is that the platform account is in the company's own name and the product is marketed under it. A game sold through a personal developer account, or through an account held by a parent company abroad, does not produce a claim for the Turkish entity.
Why this is the easiest claim to start with
Most items in the programme are worth planning around. This one only needs filing, because the spending has already happened. You do not have to change a campaign, hire anyone or sign anything. The commissions you paid last month can be claimed now, and so can the ones from five months ago, because each payout has its own six-month filing window.
If you are still deciding whether the programme is worth the paperwork, test it here first. Pull your last six months of payout reports, take the overseas part, halve it, and compare that with the cap. For most studios the number answers the question.
The calculator will do the same arithmetic across every item if you want the full picture.
Frequently asked
The commission is deducted before I get paid. Is that still an expense I can claim?
Yes, and the programme deals with this directly. The platform's payout or financial report evidences the gross sales and the commission withheld, and your bank statement showing the net transfer confirms it. Those two documents replace the usual invoice and proof of payment.
Does this cover domestic sales in Türkiye?
No. The claim covers commissions on overseas sales, so the payout reports need to be broken down by country, which is what the stores already provide.
Does the 70% target-country rate apply here?
No. The boosted rate applies to promotion, office, event and digital product promotion items. Platform commissions are supported at 50% wherever the sales come from, provided they are overseas.
What if we publish through a publisher?
Then the publisher's store account holds the sales and the commission, not yours, and the claim follows the account. Publishing arrangements are worth mapping before you file, because the answer depends on who contracts with the store.
We have more than ten titles. Which ones do we claim?
The ten with the largest overseas commissions, subject to the per-product cap. Above roughly $168,000 of commissions on a single title, the extra is wasted against that title's cap, so the tenth-largest title may be worth more to you than more of the biggest one.
Sources
https://cyberscope.solutions/blog/app-store-commissions-claim/ · Updated July 21, 2026 · CyberScope Solutions