I. What is Liaison Office in Turkey?
A liaison office is a non-commercial workplace that can be established for the purposes of representing and hosting a trading company operating abroad, supplier auditing, technical support, communication and information transfer, and establishing a regional management center.
Liaison offices cannot operate commercially as a company or branch. Liaison offices can only be established for specified activities;
- Representation and hospitality
Representing the foreign company before sectoral organizations and related organizations, coordination and organization of business contacts of foreign company officials in Turkey, meeting the office usage needs of these people
- Controlling, auditing and supplying suppliers in terms of quality and standard of suppliers in Turkey
Inspection of the companies that produce on behalf of the foreign company within the framework of the quality standards of the foreign company, supplying the product and manufacturer demands of the foreign company
- Technical support
Providing training or technical support to distributors, providing support to supplier manufacturers to increase their quality standards
- Communication and information transfer
Market developments, consumer trends, sales status of competitor companies and distributors, performance of the distributor company, etc. Gathering and transferring information on topics
- Regional administrative center
For the units of the foreign company in other countries; related to activities such as creation of investment and management strategies, planning, promotion, sales, after-sales services, brand management, financial management, technical support, R&D, outsourcing, testing of newly developed products, laboratory services, research and analysis, training of employees. providing coordination and management services
II. Liaison Office Opening
The company that wants to open a liaison office must be opened in accordance with the laws of the country in which it operates.
Documents required for the opening;
- Application form,
- Commitment statement, (The liaison office must give a commitment regarding the scope of the work to be carried out and that the office will not carry out commercial activities.)
- Activity certificate, (It must belong to the foreign company and be approved by the relevant Turkish Consulate or apostilled.)
- Annual report or balance sheet or income statement,
- Authorization document or power of attorney to be given to the person who will carry out the activities of the liaison office,
- Rental agreement of the liaison office,
- The documents are submitted to the General Directorate of Incentive Implementation and Foreign Capital. It is evaluated and decided within 15 days.
A maximum of 3 years is allowed on the first application. An extension may be requested for the extension of the activity period. Extension requests; The previous year’s activities of the office can be extended in accordance with the nature of the activity to be carried out by evaluating the foreign company’s future business plan and targets in Turkey, the current and anticipated expenditure amount and the number of personnel employed. The activity period of the liaison office will not be extended for the purpose of market research or promoting the products or services of the foreign company.
After obtaining the opening permit, a copy of the tax office registration document and a copy of the lease agreement must be submitted to the General Directorate within 1 month at the latest.
In case of a change in the address of the liaison office, the office representative or officials or the title changes of the foreign company, the change must be notified to the General Directorate within 1 month at the latest.
III. Activities of the Liaison Office
It is essential that the activities of the liaison office are carried out in accordance with the legislation. The office should not engage in commercial activity but should only operate in accordance with the purpose of its opening. For this purpose, the ministry may audit the activities of the liaison office.
Every year, by the end of May at the latest, the “Information Form on the Activities of Liaison Offices” regarding the previous year’s activities of the liaison office should be sent to the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Otherwise, the time extension requests of the liaison office will not be considered.
Although the Liaison Office can open a bank account after tax opening, it cannot carry out any commercial activity with the said bank account.
BAL Law Firm; provides legal support for the opening and activities of liaison offices of foreign companies in Turkey.
Send Mail : info@ballawyer.com
Call Us : +90 212 909 86 34
