Setting Up a Company in Türkiye: The Capital, the Tax, and the Trap

Minimum capital to form a Turkish limited liability company is TRY 50,000. Minimum capital to sponsor one work permit is TRY 500,000. Form at the minimum and you cannot put your own manager on the ground — and that gap is the most common cause of work-permit rejection.

Nobody writes that down, which is most of the reason this post exists. Here is the rest of the arithmetic.

The numbers

Two consequences worth planning around. First, the LLC's deferred capital is a real advantage if you are testing the market: the entity exists and can contract while the capital is still being paid in. Second, if any part of your plan involves a Polish manager physically running the Turkish operation, the TRY 500,000 threshold is your actual capital requirement, not the TRY 50,000 on the formation checklist. Deciding that at the start costs nothing. Discovering it after a permit refusal costs a quarter.

The incentive you will be told about, and what it is worth today

In April 2026 a fiscal incentive package was announced at a presidential event in Istanbul, including a headline 20-year 0% tax on foreign income. As at the time of writing it had not passed the Grand National Assembly and had not appeared in the Official Gazette.

Announced is not law. We give this the same treatment our Polish grants table gives a programme that has been trailed but not opened: it is worth knowing about, it is not worth modelling on, and anybody presenting it to you as an existing benefit has not checked. Re-check its status before it influences a decision.

LLC or joint-stock?

For most Polish companies entering Türkiye, the limited liability company is the right default: a fifth of the capital, deferred payment, and a structure every Turkish accountant handles daily. The joint-stock company earns its extra cost when you need share classes, expect outside investors, or are in a regulated activity that requires it. Do not choose it for the prestige of the name.

What this actually gets you

A Turkish entity is what turns a sourcing relationship into an operation you control. It can hold contracts, employ people, register for VAT, own the quality-control function and — the part most Polish buyers underrate — invoice in Türkiye, which changes how your suppliers treat you. A buyer with a local company is a customer. A buyer emailing from abroad is an enquiry.

And if what you are weighing is manufacturing rather than buying, the customs-union position means a Turkish plant serves both the EU and the region from one place — see Enter Türkiye.

Where we fit, and where we do not

We are not Turkish lawyers or accountants and we do not file your incorporation. What we do is the part before and after: deciding whether the entity is the right instrument at all, and building the commercial operation once it exists. See business development.

What we have and have not done: every case study we own runs the other way — Turkish brands entering Poland. In this direction we have the expertise and an office in İzmir, and no client story to point at yet. We would rather say so than imply otherwise.

Tell us what you are trying to control in Türkiye and we will tell you whether a company is the way to do it.

Figures checked September 2026. Capital thresholds and tax rates move — confirm against the Turkish Trade Registry before you file.