Turkey Relocation Services for Companies

Relocating employees to Turkey: what the company controls

Two permissions, not one. A residence permit gives the right to stay. A work permit gives the right to work, and it is applied for by the employer through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security rather than by the employee. A residence permit on its own does not let anyone work.

Work permit fees are charged per permit and are considerably higher than residence permit fees, so a group move is a budget line rather than an afterthought.

Turkey residence permit for employees, person by person

• Each person is a separate application with a separate accrual and a separate card fee.
• Each person needs health insurance covering their whole permit period.
• Each address has to be registrable, which is checked before leases are signed rather than after.
• Family members apply under the family route, with the employee as sponsor, and that route has its own income test per family member.

The part most moves get wrong

Tax. Anyone who stays in Turkey more than six months in a calendar year becomes a Turkish tax resident, whatever their permit says. For an employee on a Turkish payroll that is expected. For a transferring founder or a partner with foreign dividends it is the moment the Article 20/D exemption becomes worth more than the whole relocation budget, and it has a deadline: the certificate must be applied for by the end of that first calendar year.

Salary for work done in Turkey stays taxable at 15% to 40% in every case. The exemption reaches income that arises outside Turkey.

Turkey relocation services for companies: what we do and what we do not

We prepare and file the residence permits, handle the tax numbers and address registrations, and take the Article 20/D certificate through for the people it applies to. Employment contracts, payroll and corporate structuring belong to a Turkish lawyer and accountant, and we say so at the start rather than when it becomes a problem.