The precondition for foreigners to invest in Turkey is to establish a company, and the establishment of companies by foreigners and their commercial activities are regulated by the Foreign Direct Investment Law No. 4875. The Turkish Commercial Code includes various types of companies. It should be noted that, according to the principle of equality laid down by Law No. 4875, foreigners can establish any type of company that Turks can establish in Turkey.
The necessary steps for foreigners to establish a company in Turkey must be completed. These are as follows:
- First, the type of company should be determined, and a main contract should be prepared according to the type of the company.
- After entering the required information into MERSIS (Central Registration System), the application created through the system and the main contract prepared for the company should be sent to the Trade Registry.
- Documents should be arranged and notarized. If there are documents issued outside of Turkey, these documents must be apostilled and approved by consulates or notaries.
- A potential tax number for the company should be obtained from the relevant tax office. This is required for non-Turkish citizen partners and non-Turkish citizen board members of the company to be established.
- A certain portion of the company’s total capital must be deposited into the Competition Authority’s account through payment at the Directorate of Trade Registry.
- A certain portion of the capital must be deposited into the company’s bank account, and a bank blockage letter must be documented.
- After obtaining the necessary documents, an appointment should be made with the Trade Registry Office through MERSIS for registration procedures, followed by the application.
- Some legal books related to the company need to be certified.
- A tax officer assigned by the tax office will come to the company’s headquarters to prepare an inspection report.
- After the company is registered, the signature circulars authorized to represent and bind the company towards third parties must be arranged by the authorized signatories.
- Depending on the situation, three documents: the activity information form, the capital information form, and the share transfer information form, must be transferred to the e-TUYS System for direct foreign investments.
There is no requirement for foreign natural or legal persons to personally carry out the application procedures for establishing a company in Turkey. They can establish a company in Turkey through a lawyer to whom they have given the necessary powers of attorney for the company establishment.
