Setting Up a Company in Turkey as a Foreigner: What You Need to Know
Turkey is open to foreign business ownership with few restrictions. But the process has specific requirements most foreign founders don't know about until they're already in it.
Turkey allows 100% foreign ownership of companies with very few sectoral restrictions. No local partner is legally required. No minimum local shareholding applies in most industries. In terms of the legal framework, Turkey is one of the more accessible countries in the region for foreign company formation.
The practical reality is more nuanced. The process involves specific documentation, notarization requirements, tax registrations, and bureaucratic steps that are easy to navigate with the right guidance and surprisingly slow without it. This guide covers what foreign founders and companies actually encounter when setting up in Turkey.
Choosing Your Legal Structure
Most foreign companies establishing a Turkish presence choose between four structures:
Limited Şirketi (Ltd. Şti.) is the most common choice for foreign-owned operations. Requires at least one shareholder (individual or corporate, any nationality), minimum capital of 10,000 Turkish lira, and at least one director. The director must have a Turkish tax ID number, which foreign nationals can obtain. Day-to-day administration is simpler than an A.Ş., and liability is limited to the capital contribution.
Anonim Şirketi (A.Ş.) is appropriate for larger operations, companies that anticipate needing more complex share structures, or companies planning to take on Turkish institutional investment. Minimum capital is 50,000 TL. Requires a board of directors and annual general meetings. More administrative overhead than an Ltd. Şti. but provides more flexibility at scale.
Branch Office lets a foreign company operate in Turkey as an extension of the parent entity rather than a separate legal entity. No separate incorporation is required, but the parent company bears full liability for the branch's activities. Useful for companies that want market presence without creating a fully independent Turkish entity.
Liaison Office can only conduct market research and information-gathering — no commercial activities and no revenue generation. Requires annual renewal. Appropriate only during a pre-market-entry research phase.
The Documentation You'll Need
For a foreign individual forming a Turkish company, the typical documentation includes: a valid passport, a Turkish tax identification number (vergi numarası — obtainable from any Turkish tax office with a passport), a company articles of association prepared in Turkish, notarized signature declarations, and a registered company address in Turkey.
For a foreign company forming a Turkish subsidiary, additional documentation is required from the parent company: certificate of incorporation, articles of association, a board resolution authorizing the Turkish subsidiary, and details of the authorized signatory. These documents typically need to be apostilled in the country of origin and then translated by a certified Turkish translator.
The apostille requirement is often where foreign founders lose time. Documents issued in a country that is party to the Hague Convention (which includes most of Europe, the US, and the UK) can be apostilled at the relevant government authority. Documents from non-Hague countries require full consular legalization, which takes longer.
The Registration Process
Company registration in Turkey goes through the Trade Registry (Ticaret Sicili Müdürlüğü). In practice, most company formations in Istanbul are handled through the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, which operates the trade registry and has streamlined the process significantly over the past decade.
The typical steps: prepare and notarize the articles of association, open a bank account in the company name and deposit the minimum capital, register with the trade registry (which also triggers registration with the tax authority), and obtain a tax identification number for the company.
With proper documentation, the registration itself can be completed in 3–5 business days. The preparation phase — gathering and apostilling documents from the foreign country, preparing the articles of association, obtaining personal tax IDs — typically takes 2–4 weeks depending on how quickly documents can be obtained from the origin country.
Banking
Opening a Turkish corporate bank account has become more complex for foreign-owned entities over the past few years, reflecting global compliance requirements (KYC, AML) that Turkish banks apply particularly carefully to foreign-controlled companies. Expect a more detailed due diligence process than you might be used to in your home country.
Banks typically require the full set of incorporation documents, identification of all beneficial owners, proof of business address, and a description of the company's planned activities. Some banks also require an in-person meeting with the beneficial owner(s). The process takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on the bank and the complexity of the ownership structure.
International banks with Turkish operations (HSBC, Citibank, ING) tend to have more experience processing foreign-owned entity accounts and often have English-speaking relationship managers, which simplifies the process for non-Turkish speakers.
Tax Registration and Ongoing Compliance
Upon trade registry registration, companies are automatically registered with the Turkish tax authority (Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı) and assigned a corporate tax number. VAT registration is required for companies conducting taxable activities in Turkey.
Turkey's corporate income tax rate is 25% (as of 2024). VAT is generally 20% on goods and services, with reduced rates for certain categories. Monthly VAT declarations, quarterly advance corporate tax payments, and an annual corporate tax return are the core compliance obligations. A local accountant is not optional — the declaration system requires Turkish-language filings and knowledge of Turkish tax law that most foreign companies don't have in-house.
What Foreign Founders Consistently Underestimate
The legal and registration process is manageable. What foreign founders consistently underestimate is the time and relationship investment required to actually operate once incorporated.
Finding reliable local staff, establishing banking relationships, navigating bureaucratic processes (which can be slow and opaque), and building the network of relationships that makes business move in Turkey — these are the real challenges of Turkish market entry, and they take longer than the incorporation paperwork.
The foreign companies that succeed in Turkey are the ones that treat market entry as a multi-year commitment, not a quarter's project. They invest in building real relationships with local partners, clients, and officials. They stay long enough to learn how things actually work, not just how they're supposed to work on paper.
I've built and operated companies in Turkey and help foreign companies navigate this process — from the initial structure decision through the first year of operations. If you're at that stage, here's how we can work together.