Sequence of steps for incorporating a company in Turkey in 2020
Turkish legislation requires foreigners who are looking to incorporate a company in Turkey to have a physical or virtual presence (office) in the country. In this article, among other important things, you will learn how to correctly prepare the necessary paperwork, verify them at a notary public and present the Articles of Association of your newly established company, with the focus on your business features and profile.
The process of incorporating a company in Turkey – key aspects
If you want to register a company in Turkey, you will have to visit the country for 5-7 days. You need to have a foreign passport with you, which at the time of registration of the company, must be valid for at least 6 months, as well as a document of residence (registration), certified by an apostille.
After Turkey issued a series of laws that help attract foreign investment, the process of registering a company in the country has become much easier than it was before.
Foreigners in Turkey can incorporate a company which is fully funded with foreign capital. Now, the mandatory involvement of Turkish capital (investor) in the company is not required, as it was before.
Foreign investors can incorporate any type of Turkish entity, which is provided for by the Commercial Code of the country. After having launched the operations of a company in Turkey, foreign founders and shareholders are free to dispose their corporate shares at their discretion. At the same time, they also receive equal rights and obligations that are no different from those applicable for Turkish citizens.
Stages of company incorporation in Turkey
Since all documents in Turkey must be submitted in Turkish language, an appropriate translation of the passport needs to be arranged.
- Thus, the translation of passport will be the first step before registering a company.
This procedure with translation into Turkish is recommended to be accomplished in Turkey by contacting a sworn translator. After that, the document is certified by a Turkish state notary, and becomes legitimate for submission to the Turkish authorities.
- The next step will be to obtain a tax number from local tax authority.
- It is necessary to submit an application for registration of a Turkish company and Articles of Association in the MERSIS online system, which will then generate the company’s business identification number.
- Next, preparatory procedures for the certification of corporate documents at the Turkish Chamber of Commerce are conducted.
- Conclusion of an office rental agreement and obtaining a legal address for the company. The legislation of the country allows companies to use a virtual office as a legal address or rent a physical one.
- Obtaining an individual taxpayer ID code, which will be necessary when subsequently opening a corporate bank account.
- Opening an account in a Turkish bank for a company (JSC or LLC) and making a deposit. Receiving a bank letter confirming the securing of funds deposited in the account.
Note: Depending on the type of corporate entity type that you decide to incorporate in Turkey (JSC or LLC), it is necessary to deposit at least 1/4 of the declared authorized capital into the bank account.
- The procedure for registering the Turkish company in the Trade Register.
- Certification and registration of corporate books by the notary public of Turkey.
- Publication of the resolution “On incorporating a company” in the government-owned Commercial Bulletin.
After all the above points of the procedure have been completed, the tax officials will visit the company’s office and draw up a protocol of the inspection report. The issuance of such a protocol in the company means that the procedure for establishing a Turkish company is completed, and the company can now proceed to operation.
Important aspects of the formation of the authorized capital when incorporating a company in Turkey
Despite the minimum requirements for the authorized capital set for those wishing to register a company in the jurisdiction of Turkey, it is still recommended that the founders declare the actual size of the authorized capital, based on the scope of activity and focus of the business area.
If at the initial stage of the company’s activity in Turkey you experience shortage of funding, then there lending of resources from the founders may be appropriate, and this is another reason to suspect the company management of tax evasion or other tax fraud.
This is a very important aspect in the formation of the authorized capital of the company. Recently, Turkish tax authorities have been paying particular attention to the facts of manipulating funds in the authorized capital, and such companies have been meticulously checked.
Additionally, when a foreign founder is going to act as the director of his company and plans to actively engage in the management of the Turkish company, in this case, the minimum amount of statutory capital when incorporating a company should be 100,000 TL.
Note: The mere fact of incorporation of a company by a foreigner in the Republic of Turkey does not automatically make the foreigner eligible to work in the country. Therefore, an official work permit should be obtained in the event that the founder of business in Turkey intends to personally work on the territory of Turkey.
Register a company in Turkey with the help of Offshore Pro Group
While incorporation of a company in Turkey is not particularly difficult, you still may require the help of professionals from our consulting company with solid professional standing, as you need to know not only Turkish language to communicate with officials, but also you are required to understand the legal and tax aspects of the country.
Of course, there are many companies in Turkey that provide services to foreigners in registering commercial entities in the country. However, there are many unscrupulous or fraudulent companies providing or offering such services, who delude their customers, and produce no results.
Our company – Offshore Pro Group has a team of experienced accountants and lawyers who have been working in the market for more than 10 years. We have also been working with reputable Turkish lawyers and financial consultants operating in various large cities of Turkey for many years.
We can help you in setting up your business in Turkey on completely legitimate grounds. Moreover, you will not be required to pay for additional translation services to arrange your verbal communication with officials in Turkey, since our English-speaking manager will be accompanying you.
At the same time, if you want to hire a certified Turkish translator yourself, you are free to do so. However, here you need to understand that you may end up with several thousand US dollars in expenses.
For your company you will definitely need an office to serve as the legal address of the company. In most of our service packages, this option is included in the list of services and will be offered to you Offshore Pro Group managers.
Note: In the event that the costs of the translator services for translating the passport and other documents are not indicated in the Turnkey package, the costs are borne by the client. The amount of such costs may depend on the number of pages in foreign-language documents that are required to be translated.
By incorporating a company in Turkey by using our Turnkey services you are guaranteed to get a high-quality and comprehensive service at an affordable price. Depending on the profile of your activity, we can accordingly amend and adjust your Articles of Incorporation. It is important to note that the price of our services is absolutely transparent and is presented to you with a breakdown of activities which we are going to undertake.
We would like to specifically emphasize that after having signed a contract with our company for the provision of Turnkey services for incorporating a company in Turkey, the cost of our servies is not subject to any subsequent modification under any circumstances.
In case you may wish to use additional services that are not included in our Turnkey the package, we will discuss your needs at the preliminary stage of our negotiations to reflect in your package all services which you require. Such additional services, for example, may include obtaining various business permits, licenses, insurance, as well as other services.
As you know, additional services will automatically increase the cost of the standard Turnkey package. After having agreed with you the entire scope of services, we will then calculate the final cost, which will not be subject to any upward adjustment once we have signed off the contract for our services.
Meanwhile, many Turkish consulting companies it is a common practice when the final price initially agreed, may unexpectedly increase in the process of providing the services. Often, such an increase will be accounted for by dishonest companies as higher state duties or “contingent expenses” which never existed, but which the client does not know anything about, and was not warned at all.
In addition to registering a company or opening a bank account in Turkey, we can also help you obtain a residence permit or Turkish citizenship for real estate investments, as well as provide a number of other services.
Note: Opening a bank account is not included in the turnkey package of our services for incorporating a company. The Turkish bank individually checks the identity of each foreign founder, and it is at their discretion to approve or reject opening a bank account.
We can offer you our Turnkey services to register a Turkish company within a short period of time. You will need to determine the city of incorporation, select your future company’s legal type and structure for the business, and contact us at [email protected]. We guarantee confidentiality of all information provided to you, and we will make every effort to provide professional services with highest level of responsibility for the services provided.
In the meantime, you are also encouraged to share with us your thoughts about the topics which you would like to read more about on our website, and we will be happy to accommodate your needs.