Registering a company in Turkey, 2026: what it costs, what it gives you, and what it does not.

Start here, because most guides get this wrong

The most damaging claim in circulation is that registering a company in Turkey leads to residence — usually sold in the seductive form of "a renewable one-year permit, and permanent residence after five years."

Both halves are false.

Registering a company creates no residence right whatsoever. A company is a legal person; a residence permit is permission granted to a natural person to live in the country. They are issued by different authorities under different laws, and one has never implied the other.

You can own one hundred per cent of a Turkish company and be its sole registered director while having no right to remain in Turkey beyond your tourist visa.

What a foreign shareholder may do without any permit is hold shares and receive dividends. What you may not do without a work permit (Çalışma İzni) is manage the business or work in it. If you are a managing partner (müdür) of a limited company, or a working board member of a joint-stock company, a work permit is legally unavoidable.

That boundary is where most of the financial damage and disappointment happens.

Which company type fits your purpose

• Limited şirket (Ltd. Şti.) — the standard choice. Simpler governance, a lower capital floor, and it can be formed with a single shareholder. This is what the large majority of foreign founders want.

• Anonim şirket (A.Ş.) — a joint-stock company. Chosen where shares need to transfer without notarisation and registration, where share transfers carry tax advantages, or where outside investors will be brought in later. It requires more capital and more corporate formality.

• Some regulated sectors — banking, insurance, financial leasing and factoring — cannot be operated through a limited company at all and must be formed as joint-stock companies.

The minimum capital, and the figure still quoted wrongly

A Presidential Decision published in the Official Gazette on 25 November 2023 raised the statutory minimum capital with effect from 1 January 2024.

• Limited şirket (Ltd. Şti.): from 10,000 lira to 50,000 lira.

• Anonim şirket (A.Ş.): from 50,000 lira to 250,000 lira.

• Non-public A.Ş. under the registered capital system: 500,000 lira.

Any guide still citing 10,000 lira was written before 2024 and has sat untouched since.

One urgent obligation. Every company formed before 2024 whose capital sits below the new floors must raise it by 31 December 2027 (extended from 31 December 2026 on 17 October 2026) or be deemed dissolved automatically by operation of law. We have written about that separately, because it affects thousands of existing foreign-owned companies and the consequence is losing the company rather than paying a fine.

When the capital actually has to be paid

Many applicants assume large sums must be blocked in a bank on day one. Under the Turkish Commercial Code:

Limited şirket: nothing is deposited or blocked before registration. The old requirement to pay in and block a quarter of the capital in advance was abolished for limited companies in March 2018. The full subscribed capital must be paid within 24 months of registration, but nothing needs to be blocked to incorporate.

Anonim şirket: 25 per cent must be paid before registration. At least a quarter of the subscribed cash capital goes into a blocked account opened in the name of the company in formation, and the bank's letter is submitted to the trade registry (Ticaret Sicil). The block is released after registration, and the remaining 75 per cent follows within 24 months. On a 250,000 lira A.Ş. that is 62,500 lira up front.

Competition Authority share (Rekabet Kurumu Payı). 0.04 per cent of the capital is collected at registration — 20 lira on a 50,000 lira company, 100 lira on a 250,000 lira one.

A serious warning: some unofficial advisers suggest declaring capital on paper without ever contributing it. That is a false declaration to the trade registry, and no reputable legal adviser will put their name to it.

The process and the real timeline

Most of it now runs through the Ministry of Trade's MERSİS system.

1. Obtain a potential tax identification number for each foreign shareholder.

2. Draft the articles of association in MERSİS.

3. Give signature declarations at a notary or before the trade registry officer — and for a joint-stock company, pay the 25 per cent and obtain the bank letter.

4. Register and publish at the relevant Trade Registry Directorate and chamber of commerce.

5. Register with the tax office and pass the address inspection (yoklama) — an officer attends the premises in person to confirm the company genuinely exists there.

6. Certify and seal the statutory books.

7. Set up the electronic infrastructure: e-signature for authorised persons and a financial seal (Mali Mühür) in the company's name.

8. Open the corporate bank account, releasing the blocked capital for a joint-stock company.

9. Register the workplace with the Social Security Institution (SGK) if you intend to employ anyone.

The real timeline. Old guides promise five working days. The filings themselves are quick, but the full sequence realistically takes one to three weeks. The bottlenecks for foreign shareholders are predictable: sworn translations and apostille or consular certification, matching the tax file, waiting for the address inspection, and above all opening the bank account.

Documents, and whether you have to be there

For each foreign founder: passport with a notarised Turkish translation (apostilled or certified by a Turkish consulate if executed abroad), a potential tax number, a passport photograph and a signature specimen.

You do not need to be physically present in Turkey. The whole registration can be completed by a lawyer holding a power of attorney (vekaletname). A power of attorney executed abroad must be certified by a Turkish consulate or carry a valid apostille together with a notarised translation. The ease of acting by proxy applies at the registry. Where it stops applying is at the banks.

Opening the corporate bank account, without euphemism

For founders and shareholders — Iranian passport holders in particular — this is the step that determines whether the company can actually function.

Every foreign-owned company goes through compliance and sanctions screening. For Iranian nationals the screening is considerably more stringent: direct transfers from the Iranian banking system are blocked, internationally owned banks generally will not open accounts for these applicants at all, and if activity diverges from what was declared at account opening there is a real risk of funds being frozen.

None of this makes the work impossible. A real company with transparent commercial activity can hold an active bank account. It requires preparation:

• Document the source of funds precisely. Assemble the financial paperwork before you approach the bank, not after the compliance officer asks.

• Make the data match exactly. The spelling of your name, your date of birth and your address must be identical across passport, registry filings and tax file — not one character different.

• Ask the branch first. Policy on foreign clients varies from branch to branch within the same bank. A conversation beforehand saves weeks.

• Never run company money through a personal account. This is the fastest and most common route to a frozen account and a report to the regulator.

Allow extra time for this stage, and always have more than one bank in the plan.

The work permit, and the criteria that actually apply

If you intend to act as a director of your own company or work in it, a work permit is mandatory. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security (ÇSGB) assessment criteria are precise.

• Company financial adequacy. For a newly formed company — one that has not yet completed a financial year and produced a year-end balance sheet — there is only one route: paid-in capital of at least 500,000 lira. The alternatives of at least 8,000,000 lira in net sales or at least 150,000 dollars in exports apply only to a company that has been operating for a full year and has produced a year-end balance sheet. If you are incorporating now, the capital figure is the only one available to you.

• The five-to-one employment rule. At least five Turkish citizens must be employed and insured for each foreign employee. For a foreign founding partner this is waived for the first six months; from the seventh month it is monitored every month, and the permit will not be renewed without it. Each additional foreign employee requires another five Turkish employees.

• The foreign partner's shareholding. The applicant partner's capital must be at least 500,000 lira and at least 20 per cent of the company.

• The 100,000 dollar exemption. Where the foreign partner's paid-in share is 100,000 dollars or more, neither the five-employee condition nor the company financial adequacy criteria are applied to that file.

• An exemption for those already resident in Turkey, effective 3 August 2026. A foreign national who has spent at least one year of the past three legally in Turkey — on a work permit, on a residence permit, or under international protection — is exempt from both the employment criterion and the financial adequacy criterion, provided the application is made from inside Turkey. The exemption covers up to three such foreign nationals per workplace. If you already hold a Turkish residence permit, the hardest part of the work permit test does not apply to you.

• A full exemption for long residence, also effective 3 August 2026. A foreign national who has spent at least eight years in Turkey holding a work permit, or a short-term, family, student, long-term or humanitarian residence permit, is exempt from the employment, financial adequacy and wage criteria entirely.

These points should govern the decision at formation. If a work permit is the objective, incorporating at 500,000 lira of paid-in capital from the start — or structuring the foreign stake above 100,000 dollars — spares you a capital increase and its costs later. Registering at the 50,000 lira minimum in the hope of solving the work permit afterwards is a textbook case of paying twice.

Correcting the residence assumptions: long-term residence requires eight years of continuous legal residence, not five. Five years on a work permit makes you eligible to apply for citizenship by the general route — a discretionary process involving a Turkish language interview, an assessment of social integration and security checks. It is never an automatic grant.

What the tax actually looks like

The claim that Turkish tax is negligible compared with Europe and the West is no longer true.

• Corporate income tax (Kurumlar Vergisi): 25 per cent generally, and 30 per cent for banks and financial institutions. Exporters receive a 5-point reduction on export earnings, and manufacturers holding an industrial registry certificate a 1-point reduction on production earnings.

• Minimum corporate tax: from the 2025 accounting period a minimum corporate tax of 10 per cent applies, calculated on earnings before exemptions and deductions; you pay whichever of the two calculations is higher. Newly formed companies are exempt for their first three accounting periods.

• VAT (KDV): 20 per cent as standard, with reduced rates of 10 and 1 per cent on certain goods and services.

• Dividend withholding (Stopaj): 15 per cent, raised from 10 per cent in December 2024. For non-resident shareholders this is usually the final tax, subject to any double taxation treaty.

• Free zones (Serbest Bölgeler): substantial exemptions for manufacturers who export, but sales of manufactured goods into the Turkish domestic market fall outside the exemption.

Turkey remains attractive for market access and operating costs, but it is not a low-tax jurisdiction.

What it costs to keep the company alive

The biggest surprise for foreign founders is what a company costs before it has traded a single lira.

Whether or not it earns anything, a Turkish company carries continuing obligations: monthly VAT and withholding returns, quarterly provisional tax returns, an annual corporate tax return, annual certification of the statutory books, and annual chamber of commerce dues. Engaging a certified public accountant (SMMM) is effectively mandatory, and the fee follows a binding statutory tariff which for 2026 puts accounting alone at at least 96,000 lira a year for a limited or joint-stock company on the balance-sheet basis.

That tariff is a legally binding floor, not a market rate. Istanbul carries a regional coefficient, and e-Fatura and e-Defter obligations and each employee add further on top. Treat 96,000 lira as the lowest possible figure, not the expected one.

Adding social security contributions for working directors (Bağ-Kur), software costs and the financial seal, keeping a completely dormant company compliant costs upward of 100,000 lira a year.

Three obligations that older sources never mention:

• Electronic notification (e-Tebligat). Mandatory for every company, with enrolment required within 15 days of formation. All official notices and decisions are served to that inbox, and not looking at it does not prevent service being effective.

• Electronic invoicing (e-Fatura / e-Arşiv). Mandatory above 3,000,000 lira in gross sales, with a lower 500,000 lira threshold for e-commerce, real estate and vehicle sales. From 1 January 2026, taxpayers on the balance-sheet basis may no longer issue paper invoices at all. Activating these systems requires a financial seal.

• Company ledgers in the Ministry of Trade's electronic system. Companies registered from 1 January 2026 must keep their share ledger and general assembly minute book in the Ministry's electronic system rather than on paper.

If you no longer need the company

Abandoning a Turkish company does not close it. Tax debts, accounting fees and social security contributions keep accruing automatically, and for public debts the personal assets of the company's directors can be pursued.

Closing it requires formal liquidation (tasfiye) and strike-off from the trade registry. The process usually takes between six months and a year and involves publishing statutory notices calling on creditors and observing the legal waiting period. If you intend to close a company, start early — December is not the month to begin a long procedure.

What we would advise

1. Decide what you want before you choose a structure. Real trading, holding property through a corporate structure, or a platform to support a work permit? The answer changes the capital, the structure and the costs entirely.

2. If the work permit is the goal, set the capital accordingly from the start — 500,000 lira paid in, or a foreign stake above 100,000 dollars, with a plan to have five Turkish employees in place by the seventh month.

3. Prepare the banking file before you incorporate, not after.

4. Budget the annual running cost, not just the day-one formation cost.

5. Verify the figures and thresholds on the day you sign. Turkish registration and administrative rules have changed continuously in recent years.

Where we stand

PERGAS is a property and asset management firm. Company formation and maintenance sit inside our asset management work because clients hold Turkish property and commercial assets through Turkish structures — and because getting the structure wrong is expensive. PERGAS is not a law firm, not a tax practice and not an immigration agency.

Registration is filed by licensed Turkish accountants. Work permit and residence files are handled exclusively by licensed Turkish lawyers, engaged independently and under separate contract.

What we do is tell you plainly whether registering a company is the right instrument for what you are actually trying to achieve — and say so directly when it is not. A company registered without a sound economic purpose is an annual administrative cost carrying no real asset behind it.