Foreign investors who want to open businesses in Turkey are required to complete a few steps before starting operating. These steps consist of:
- choosing the type of company they want to establish
- have the incorporation documents drafted and notarized in accordance with the Companies Law;
- open the corporate bank account and deposit the share capital required by the law;
- appoint the company’s directors or managers, as prescribed by the legislation;
- submit the incorporation documents and the details of the shareholders and managers with the Trade Register;
- obtain the tax and VAT numbers, as well as registering for social security purposes with the tax office.
After establishing the desired type of business, the process takes from 2 to 3 days. All enterprises of the company can be foreigner. There is no condition of presence of the Turkish citizen as your partner to open a company.
The investor has to be notified about the capital before starting a business, for example, the limited liability company requires a minimum share capital of 10.000 TRY while the joint stock companies must register in the beginning 50.000 TRY.
It is important to know, if you are foreigner and after opening a company you will apply for the work permit than the capital must be at least 100.000TRY.
After creation of the company, the owner of the company automatically received working permit for one year.
The work permits can be obtained outside Turkey (through the Turkish Consulates or Embassies) or directly from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, if the person has a valid Turkish residence permit.
The decision for the work permit is released maximum in one month.
It is advisable to contact an attorney in Turkey in order to respect all the procedures and submit the correct documents to the Turkish authorities.
The necessary documents for the Turkish Consulate or Embassy are the passport, a work visa application, 1 photo and 1 copy of the work contract.
The residents must fill an online application to the Ministry.
The decision of granting the work permit is released in maximum one month.
What are the main points of interest for foreign investors?
The main points of interests for the foreign investors are represented by the three major special investment zones:
– The free zones (20 zones specially designed to increase the number of export investments, with 100% exemption for custom duties, corporate income tax for the manufacturing enterprises, VAT, income tax on the personnel’s salary for companies which exports at least 85% of the goods produced here, the possibility to deposit goods free of charge unlimited and with the possibility to transfer the profits abroad and to Turkey);
– Organized industrial zones (263 zones with low costs on natural gas, water, telecommunication, no municipality tax on construction or on solid waste-the last one if the zone don’t beneficiate from the municipality service, no VAT on land acquisition, exemption from the real estate duty for five years from the construction);
– Technology development zones (39 zones with major exemption until 2024 on corporate and income taxes on the revenue coming from software development, VAT on software application sales, salaries of R&D personnel-but without exceeding 10% of the number of employees).
Other incentives offered for the foreign investors are granted by the double tax treaties (which provide the release of paying the same taxes in the country of residence and in Turkey) and by the Free Trade Agreements (signed with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Croatia, Egypt, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Norway, Palestine, Serbia, South Korea, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia) which is allowing the trades between these countries and Turkey with no custom taxes.
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