A Turkish company that has stopped trading is not closed. Until it is deleted from the trade registry it must still file monthly VAT and withholding returns, quarterly advance tax returns and an annual corporate tax return, keep statutory books and pay an accountant. Every missed return attracts a fixed penalty, and the tax office can assess estimated tax. Unpaid amounts are collected from the directors and, in a limited liability company, the shareholders. The only way to stop this is to liquidate or sell the company.
Every year foreign shareholders leave Turkey with a company that is “finished” — the project ended, the office was given up, the last invoice was paid. The company was not closed; it was left. Turkish law does not recognise the difference. A company exists until the trade registry deletes it, and while it exists it keeps every obligation it had on its busiest day.
None of this stops because there is no activity. “No activity” is itself something the company must report, on time, every month.
The direct cost is the accountant. A dormant company still needs a certified accountant to file the returns, and the fee is charged whether the figures are zero or not. The larger cost is what happens when the filings stop.
Each return that is not filed on time is an irregularity under the Tax Procedure Law, penalised with a fixed amount per return that is revised upward every year. With a monthly VAT return, a monthly withholding return and quarterly advance tax, a company that has been silent for a year has typically missed well over twenty filings. The tax office does not need the company's cooperation to act: it can assess tax on an estimated basis (re'sen tarhiyat) and add late-payment interest, and the assessment is served to the company's registered address — an address the shareholders abroad no longer read.
The registry adds its own layer. A company whose address, directors or share capital records are out of date is a company in breach of its registration duties, and a company with an unpaid lease or an unreturned deposit is a defendant in a case it never hears about.
The company, first — but a dormant company has no money, which is why the liability rules matter. Taxes, penalties and social security premiums that cannot be collected from the company are collected from the people behind it:
These claims do not lapse because the shareholder has left Turkey. They attach to the person, appear in Turkish tax records, and surface when that person next needs anything from a Turkish authority — a residence permit, a title deed transfer, a new company, or simply a clean tax certificate.
A liquidation has a known cost and a known end. Silence has neither: the penalties compound monthly, the accountant's arrears grow, and the eventual closure still has to be done — after the arrears are settled. In practice a company left alone for three years costs more to close than it would have cost to liquidate on the day it stopped trading. If the company is already in arrears, we start with a tax clearance review so that the liquidation does not stall at the tax office.
Yes. Monthly VAT and withholding returns, quarterly advance tax returns and the annual corporate tax return remain due until the company is deleted from the trade registry. Zero-activity returns are still returns, and each missed one is penalised.
There is no automatic strike-off for an ordinary company that stops filing. It remains registered, the obligations continue and the debts grow. Deletion requires a liquidation or a court decision.
If the debts cannot be collected from the company, the legal representatives are liable for their periods in office, and in a limited liability company the shareholders are liable in proportion to their shares. Leaving Turkey does not end this liability.
A Turkish lawyer holding a power of attorney can obtain the company's tax account statement from the tax office and its social security status, together with a current registry extract, without you travelling.
No. The missing returns are filed, penalties and interest are settled or negotiated, and the company is then liquidated in the ordinary way. It costs more than a timely closure, but far less than continued silence.
