Company Registration in Turkey.

• Individual or corporate shareholders accepted, foreign or Turkish.
• No nationality or residency requirement on shareholders or directors.
• No local partner and no minimum Turkish shareholding.
• One shareholder is sufficient for both a limited şirket and an anonim şirket.
• A Turkish registered address is required. A virtual office address is generally accepted.

• Passport copies for every shareholder and director, apostilled and sworn-translated into Turkish.
• Turkish tax number for each foreign individual shareholder and director, obtained before filing.
• Articles of association, drafted bilingually and filed through MERSIS.
• Notarised signature declarations for the appointed directors.
• Notarised and apostilled power of attorney, if registering remotely.
• Proof of registered address in Turkey.
• For corporate shareholders, apostilled certificate of incorporation, register of directors and board resolution.
• Capital deposit receipt, for an anonim şirket only.

Where the shareholder is a company rather than an individual, the document burden roughly triples. The parent must supply an apostilled certificate of incorporation, an apostilled register of directors and shareholders, and a board resolution authorising both the Turkish subscription and the person signing on the parent’s behalf. Each is sworn-translated in Turkey. The parent also receives its own Turkish tax number for the participation. Build two to three additional weeks into the timetable where corporate shareholders are involved, and more where the parent sits in a jurisdiction with slow apostille turnaround.

Every Turkish company requires a registered address, and this is one of the few points where cost can be contained without consequence. A virtual office address is generally accepted for registration and for tax office correspondence. A physical office becomes necessary where the activity requires sector licensing, where you intend to apply for work permits, or where the business will employ staff on site. Registering at a virtual address and moving later is straightforward; the address change is a registry filing rather than a restructuring.

Every foreign individual shareholder and every foreign individual director must hold a Turkish tax number, the potansiyel vergi numarası, before the company can be registered. It is applied for at the local tax office with an apostilled, sworn-translated passport copy and is usually issued the same day.

Read down the right-hand column and the pattern is obvious: the Turkish stages total roughly two weeks, and they are largely predictable. The variance sits almost entirely in the home-country stages and in the bank. A founder who starts the apostille on day one and accepts that banking may lag can have a trading company inside a month. A founder who treats the apostille as an afterthought can spend two months on a three-week process.

Where a single individual shareholder registers a limited şirket remotely with documents already apostilled, registration to trade registry certificate has completed in under a week. Where three corporate shareholders in three jurisdictions register an anonim şirket, six to eight weeks end to end is a more honest expectation. Neither is unusual; they are simply different files.

Where timelines actually slip. The single largest source of delay is the upstream document chain: apostille turnaround in your home country, sworn translation in Turkey, and the timing of tax numbers for foreign shareholders. Registry offices in different cities apply the same statutory checklist with slightly different document preferences, which is why local counsel shortens the process more than it appears to on paper.

The power of attorney is the mechanism that makes remote registration possible. It is executed before a notary in your country of residence, apostilled, then sworn-translated in Turkey. Once it is in place a Turkish representative can complete essentially the entire registration chain.

A power of attorney drafted too narrowly is the most common reason a remote registration stalls halfway. It should authorise the representative to obtain tax numbers, reserve the trade name, execute and file the articles of association, make the trade registry filing, complete tax office and social security registration, receive the corporate documents, and where possible open the bank account. Drafting it to cover only incorporation means returning to a notary abroad mid-process to add powers, which costs more time than the original document.

The document is executed before a notary in your country of residence, apostilled under the Hague Convention, then sworn-translated in Turkey. Countries outside the Apostille Convention require consular legalisation instead, which is slower and should be started earlier still.

Bank account opening is the realistic exception. Compliance policies differ between Turkish banks and several require the authorised signatory to attend a branch. Plan one trip, or expect the account to lag the company by several weeks.

KDV is the operational tax that most affects cash flow. It is declared and paid monthly, which means a Turkish company is filing something with the tax office every month from registration regardless of whether it has traded. Standard-rated supplies attract the headline rate, while reduced rates apply to defined categories including certain foodstuffs, books and specified services. Exports are generally zero-rated with input VAT recoverable, which is why trading and manufacturing companies frequently sit in a refund position rather than a payment one.

The refund process is where foreign-owned companies most often underestimate the administrative load. VAT refunds require documented substantiation and are subject to review, and the timing is rarely quick. Companies structured around export activity should model working capital on the assumption that input VAT will be tied up for a period rather than recovered immediately.

Withholding applies to dividend distributions, rent paid to individuals, and specified professional and service payments, each at its own rate and each declared monthly. Where a double tax treaty applies, the treaty rate may reduce withholding on dividends flowing to a foreign parent, but treaty relief requires a certificate of residence from the recipient jurisdiction and is applied at source rather than reclaimed. Structure the shareholding with the treaty position in mind at registration rather than restructuring later.

The domestic minimum tax matters more than it looks. Incentives and allowances can reduce an effective rate substantially, but not below 10% of pre-incentive corporate income. Any model built on incentives alone should be tested against that floor before you rely on it. This is the provision most competitor guides omit entirely.

• A certified public accountant, SMMM or YMM, must be engaged. This is statutory, not a service you can decline.
• VAT and withholding returns are filed monthly, not quarterly.
• Annual corporate tax return and financial statements.
• Accounts are maintained in Turkish lira, with the inflation-accounting consequences that follow.
• Trade Registry Gazette announcements for material corporate changes.

Free zones sit outside the customs territory for most purposes and carry exemptions on customs duties, VAT and, for qualifying activities, corporate tax on export earnings. The limited şirket remains the preferred vehicle inside a zone, as it is outside.

• Operating licence, granted for the specific activity the company will carry out in the zone.
• Entry permit, enabling the company and its staff to enter and operate in the zone.
• Warehousing permit, where the company offers storage services.
• Open area use permit, for activities conducted outdoors.
• Customs duty and VAT exemptions on goods entering the zone.

Separately, Turkey operates an Investment Incentive Programme with regional and sectoral tiers, plus specific relief for research and development activity and technology development zones. Eligibility depends on sector, region and employment commitments rather than on company form.

Separate from the free zones, Turkey operates technology development zones, known as technoparks, attached to universities and research institutions. Qualifying software and research activity conducted inside them attracts relief on corporate tax and on income tax withheld from qualifying personnel, alongside VAT exemptions on specified software sales. For a software or engineering business with genuine development activity in Turkey, technopark status frequently changes the arithmetic more than the headline corporate rate does.

Research and development centres outside the zones can also access relief where headcount and activity thresholds are met. Both routes require application and periodic substantiation rather than self-assessment, and both are assessed on the substance of the activity rather than on how the company describes itself.

Zone eligibility is activity-specific and assessed before the operating licence is granted. If a free zone is part of the plan, the activity definition in your articles of association needs to be drafted with that in mind at registration, not amended afterwards.

Owning shares in a Turkish company confers no residence rights whatsoever. If you intend to manage the business on the ground you generally need a work permit, which functions as a residence permit. If you hold shares without working, you may need nothing at all.

The five-employee rule is the provision that surprises foreign founders most often. A newly formed company can bypass it by depositing TRY 500,000 into the corporate account, but only while the company is under six months old. If a work permit is part of the plan, that window needs to be built into the registration timetable from the start.

A shareholder who does not manage the company and does not draw a salary may not need a work permit at all. In that case the relevant route is an ordinary short-term residence permit, applied for on its own footing rather than through the company, and the company’s existence neither helps nor hinders it materially. This distinction is worth establishing early, because applying for a work permit you do not need triggers the five-employee test unnecessarily.

Where a work permit is granted, it functions as a residence permit for its duration and covers the holder only. Family members apply separately as dependants, and their permits are tied to the principal’s.

Turkish citizenship runs on an entirely separate track. It is property-based and requires USD 400,000 of real estate; registering a company does not advance it. See Turkish citizenship by investment if that is the objective.

Registration and legal personality are not the same moment. The company acquires legal personality on publication in the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette, which follows the registry filing. Until that publication appears, the company cannot validly contract, and agreements signed in the gap sit in an uncertain position. Wait for the Gazette announcement before executing anything material.

Practically, this matters most for leases, employment contracts and supplier agreements that founders want in place before launch. Sign them after publication, or sign them personally and novate to the company afterwards, which adds cost and complication. The delay between filing and publication is usually short, but it is not zero.

Turkey does not issue a single consolidated incorporation pack the way some offshore registries do. The documents arrive from three separate authorities across the registration sequence, and it is the founder’s responsibility to assemble and retain them. Losing one is recoverable but slow, and in the case of the signature circular it can stall banking for weeks.

The corporate document set is what banks, counterparties and licensing authorities will ask for repeatedly. Keep apostilled and sworn-translated copies of each item, because Turkish institutions frequently require originals or certified copies rather than scans, and reproducing them after the fact means going back through the notary.

The signature circular deserves particular attention. It records who may bind the company and in what combination, and Turkish banks treat it as the controlling document for account authority. If the shareholding or management changes, the circular must be reissued before the bank will act on new instructions.

• Appoint a certified public accountant, if not already engaged at registration.
• Register the company e-notification and e-invoice systems where turnover thresholds apply.
• File the first monthly VAT and withholding returns.
• Complete occupational health and safety registration where employees are engaged.
• Confirm whether the activity requires sector licensing before trading begins.

We handle structure selection, Turkish tax number applications, the apostille and translation chain, MERSIS filing, trade registry submission, and tax and social security registration, working with Turkish counsel on the steps that require admission in Turkey. In most cases the founder never travels, though a notarised and apostilled power of attorney is required.

Our first question is whether the business will carry material tax and payroll balances, because that decides whether the extra capital of an anonim şirket is worth paying for. Most providers default to the limited şirket because it is cheaper to sell. That is not always the cheaper answer for the client.

Regulatory disclosure. Sovera Global L.L.C-FZ is a licensed corporate services provider registered in the Meydan Free Zone, Dubai, and supervised by the UAE Ministry of Economy under Commercial Licence 2531729. We are not admitted to practise law in Turkey and work with Turkish counsel on matters requiring it. Registration decisions rest with the Turkish trade registry and the relevant authorities. Rates and thresholds change, sometimes at short notice. Nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.

Primary sources: Ministry of Trade, MERSIS, Investment Office of the Presidency, Turkey, economy of Turkey. Market fee ranges compiled from published rates of Turkish law firms, CPA practices and international incorporators, September 2026.

Turkey is one of 59 jurisdictions we cover. See company formation for the full list, or compare with Dubai, Cyprus and Georgia. Pursuing a Turkish passport as well? Turkish citizenship by investment requires US$400,000 in property and is unrelated to company registration. For residence elsewhere, see the golden visa overview. Operational support: business banking, nominee services and compliance and accounting.