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Jurisdiction Monitor / Middle East / Turkey

Turkey [TR]

Corporate tax, FATF status, sanctions exposure, data-protection law and arbitration enforceability for Turkey — the facts a founder or counsel checks before incorporating or signing cross-border. Jurisdiction table checked 2026-08-14.

Corporate tax rate
25%
FATF status
compliant
Sanctions exposure
No
EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions
Annex II — commitments given
Data-protection law
KVKK (Law 6698)
New York Convention
Yes
Apostille Convention (1961)
Yes
Foreign ownership
Yes
Local director requirement
No

What has changed here

Tracked since 2026-08-03

No changes recorded for this jurisdiction since tracking began. Every review pass so far has confirmed the figures above.

All changes across the dataset →

Corporate tax rate in Turkey

The headline corporate income tax rate in Turkey is 25%. Free zones, small-business reliefs and participation exemptions can change the effective rate — treat this as the starting point.

What is this? Corporate tax rate →

FATF status in Turkey

Turkey is FATF-compliant and not on the grey list, which generally means smoother bank onboarding.

What is this? FATF status →
Source: FATF — High-risk and other monitored jurisdictions

Sanctions exposure in Turkey

Turkey is not subject to broad sectoral sanctions programs in our dataset.

What is this? Sanctions exposure →
Sources: OFAC — sanctions programs by country (United States) · European Commission — sanctions and restrictive measures · The UK Sanctions List (single source since 28 January 2026) · UN Security Council — Consolidated List

EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in Turkey

Turkey is in Annex II: not listed, but it has given commitments the EU is tracking. Annex II is where substance and transparency undertakings are recorded — a state of play, not a sanction.

Data-protection law in Turkey

The applicable data-protection statute is KVKK (Law 6698) (in force since 2016). If you process EU/UK personal data you also need a valid transfer mechanism into Turkey.

What is this? Data-protection law →

New York Convention in Turkey

Turkey is a party to the 1958 New York Convention, so a foreign arbitral award can generally be enforced by local courts — the single most important box to tick before agreeing to arbitration with a counterparty here.

What is this? New York Convention →
Source: UNCITRAL — status of the 1958 New York Convention

Apostille Convention (1961) in Turkey

Turkey is a party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. Public documents — corporate certificates, powers of attorney, notarised papers — need only a single apostille to be recognised in other member states, with no consular legalisation. This materially speeds up cross-border paperwork.

What is this? Apostille Convention (1961) →
Source: HCCH — status table, 1961 Apostille Convention

Foreign ownership in Turkey

Foreigners may generally own 100% of a local company in Turkey.

What is this? Foreign ownership →

Local director requirement in Turkey

Turkey does not mandate a resident local director.

What is this? Local director requirement →

Company forms available here

4 forms

The entity types actually used in cross-border practice, with the name each one carries in its own register.

  • Limited liability company (Ltd. Şti.)
    Limited şirket
  • Joint stock company (A.Ş.)
    Anonim şirket
  • Sole proprietorship
    Şahıs işletmesi
  • Branch of a foreign company
    Yabancı şirket şubesi

Names are given as the register uses them and are deliberately not translated — a form is called what it is called. The list covers what is commonly used, not everything the statute allows, and availability to a foreign founder can depend on activity, licensing and residency.

Calculators for this jurisdiction

3

Free, no sign-up, computed in your browser.

  • Apostille or full consular legalisation
    →
  • Structure screen: what the joints cost
    →
  • What the paying country withholds
    →
Non-financial professions: what FATF assessed

Lawyers, accountants, corporate and trust providers, real-estate agents, dealers in precious metals and casinos carry anti-money-laundering duties of their own. FATF rates how well a country's law meets three of its recommendations on them.

R.22 — customer due diligence by these professions
LC — largely compliant
R.23 — other AML duties on them
C — compliant
R.28 — their regulation and supervision
LC — largely compliant
Assessed by: FATF · report of 2023-07 (MER+FUR(s)) · methodology 2013

This rates the quality of the legislation, not whether you personally must run these checks, and not how the law is enforced in practice — FATF measures enforcement on a separate scale that is not in this dataset.

Reports from 2025 onwards use the 2022 methodology; everything earlier uses the 2013 one. Ratings from the two are not directly comparable, which is why the methodology is always shown.

Primary source · tables updated: 24 August 2026 / 14 August 2026
Draft a contract under Turkey law

forma. generates NDAs, service, supply and corporate documents wired to this jurisdiction — from lawyer-built templates, processed privately on your device.

About forma. →
Structure your business in Turkey

Ignito Advisory designs cross-border holdings, IP routing, banking onboarding and regulatory strategy. First assessment is free.

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