Ask a provider what they are not allowed to do.
It is the fastest way to find out whether they have read the law. Several parts of a Türkiye operation are closed to anyone without a licence, and no contract can open them. This page sets out which parts, who performs them, and what we are answerable for when something goes wrong.
yobiT runs your Türkiye operation and is answerable to you for the result under one contract. Work that Turkish law reserves to a licensed profession is carried out by the licensed firms entitled to perform it, in their own name.
You get a single point of contact and a single invoice. What you do not get is a claim that we personally hold every licence involved — because nobody does, and the first filing would show it.
Three professions you cannot buy around.
Turkish law reserves specific acts to specific licence holders. These are not certifications a provider can acquire by being large or well known. They are statutory monopolies, and the licence sits with a named individual or firm on a public register.
Sworn-in fiscal advice
Annual tax certification, VAT refund attestation and the other certification acts reserved to sworn-in advisers. A sworn-in adviser signs in their own name and carries the professional consequence of that signature.
Law No. 3568Customs declarations
The declaration to customs is filed under a permit issued to the broker, in the broker's name, with the broker's own liability attached. No service contract transfers that act to someone else.
Law No. 4458Representation before the courts
Litigation and the acts reserved to advocates. Commercial and contractual advice is broader, but the reserved acts belong to the bar and are performed by licensed counsel.
Law No. 1136Legal basisLaw No. 3568 on certified public accountancy and sworn-in fiscal advice · Customs Law No. 4458, Resmî Gazete of 4 November 1999, No. 23866 · Advocacy Law No. 1136. Licence holders appear on the registers kept by their respective professional chambers, which are public.
So the honest description of what we sell is coordination with accountability, not a bundle of licences. That distinction is worth insisting on, because the alternative — implying otherwise — falls apart on the first declaration a client sees.
What we answer for.
And what we don't.
A provider who accepts responsibility for everything has accepted it for nothing, because the promise cannot be enforced. Ours is written down before work starts.
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Selecting and briefing the specialist
Choosing the right licensed firm for the matter, briefing them against the facts, and being answerable if the wrong one was chosen or briefed badly.
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Holding the timetable and the documents
Deadlines, filings, renewals and the document trail behind them. If a deadline is missed on our watch, that is ours.
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Telling you when something has gone wrong
Within a defined response time, in writing, with what we propose to do about it. Including when the fault is ours.
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Another profession's statutory liability
A licensed professional carries professional liability for their own act. That cannot be contracted away, by us or by anyone else.
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Outcomes that depend on an authority's discretion
We can make an application complete, correct and well argued. We cannot guarantee that a ministry grants it, or when.
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Decisions you make against our written advice
You are free to overrule us, and sometimes you should. But the advice and the departure from it both go in writing, so neither side reconstructs the conversation later.
Named, or not named at all.
We publish a partner's name only where that firm has agreed in writing to how it is described, including any professional network it belongs to. Those names carry brand rules that belong to the partner, not to us.
Sworn-in fiscal advice, statutory audit and tax certification are provided through an established Istanbul practice that is part of a global alliance of independent accounting firms. Its partners include two sworn-in fiscal advisers and former senior officials of the tax administration, and the practice holds international audit capability under IFRS, US GAAP and UK GAAP.
Customs declarations are filed by licensed customs brokers. Reserved legal acts are performed by licensed counsel.
We will name these firms here once the wording has been agreed with them. Until then we describe the capability rather than the brand — which is the accurate version anyway, and the one that does not need rewriting each time a contract is renewed.
Work we decline.
Turkish authorities assess substance over form. An arrangement that does not survive that test damages the client first and the provider second, which is why we look at it before signing rather than after.
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Arrangements designed to present employment as something else
Where the commercial reality is that a person works under your direction, in your organisation, on your instructions, the arrangement has to reflect that. Dressing it as a service contract does not change what an inspection will find.
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Structures whose purpose is to obscure who performs the work
If the point of a structure is that nobody can tell who is actually carrying out the activity, it will not hold — and we would be the ones holding it.
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Engagements that depend on us performing a licensed act
If what you need is a customs declaration signed by us, or a certification signed by us, the answer is that it will be signed by the licence holder. If that does not work for you, we are not the right provider.
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Clients we cannot verify
Ownership, control and source of funds are checked before onboarding. Banks and customs will ask the same questions later; it is cheaper for everyone if they are answered first.
Four things we will not do.
Asking a provider what they are not allowed to do is the fastest way to find out whether they have read the law. Here is our answer, published in advance rather than discovered in an engagement letter afterwards.
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Claim licences we do not hold
Customs declarations, sworn financial certification and reserved legal acts are performed by the licence holders, in their own name. You would see it on the first filing anyway.
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Publish numbers we cannot keep current
No clearance timelines that ignore your product, no employer-cost multipliers that go stale. Where we do not know, the page says so.
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Build arrangements that will not survive an inspection
Employment presented as a service, or a structure whose purpose is to obscure who performs the work. Turkish authorities assess substance over form.
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Make leaving difficult
Your data is exported in usable formats and the operation is handed over as a planned project. A client who outgrows us is the outcome we design for.
The questions worth asking any provider.
Including us. If a provider cannot answer these in writing, that is the answer.
Are you a law firm, an accountancy firm or a customs broker?
None of the three. yobiT coordinates a Türkiye operation and is answerable to you for the result under one contract. Work that Turkish law reserves to a licensed profession is carried out by the firms and individuals licensed to do it — a sworn-in fiscal adviser for tax certification, a licensed customs broker for declarations, a member of the bar for matters before the courts.
This is not a limitation we are apologising for. It is how every serious provider in this market operates, including the international firms. The difference is that we say so on the website rather than in the small print of an engagement letter.
Then what exactly do you do?
We decide what needs to happen, in what order, with which specialist — and then we make sure it happens. We hold the deadlines, the documents, the filings and the consequences. You have one contract, one invoice and one person to call.
The alternative is what most foreign companies end up doing: appointing four or five providers separately and building an internal function in their own head office to coordinate them.
If a licensed partner makes a mistake, who is liable?
The licensed professional carries professional liability for their own act — that is a matter of law and cannot be contracted away. What our engagement terms set out is what yobiT is answerable for: selecting the specialist, briefing them correctly, monitoring the work against the plan we agreed, and telling you when something has gone wrong.
We cannot absorb another profession's statutory liability, and any provider who implies they can has not read the law. What we can do is make sure the mistake is caught early and that you are not the last to hear about it.
Do you publish who your partners are?
Yes, where the partner has agreed in writing to how they are described. We do not publish a partner's name or their network memberships without that agreement, because those names carry brand rules that belong to the partner, not to us.
Where an agreement is still being finalised we describe the capability rather than the firm. It is the honest version, and it is also the version that does not change every time a contract does.
Is there work you turn down?
Yes. We decline engagements where the commercial reality and the contract would not match — for example an arrangement designed to present employment as a service, or a structure whose only purpose is to obscure who is actually carrying out the work. We also decline where the client's expectation depends on us performing a licensed act we are not licensed for.
This is not caution for its own sake. Turkish authorities assess substance over form, and an arrangement that does not survive that test damages the client first.
How do we raise a concern about your conduct?
Through a channel that does not pass through the person you are concerned about. Our speak-up route accepts reports from clients, employees and suppliers, including anonymously. Reports are logged, and the person handling them is not part of the delivery team for the engagement in question.
Legislation named on this page: Law No. 3568 on sworn-in fiscal advisership, Customs Law No. 4458 and Advocacy Law No. 1136. The Official Gazette date and issue for each is on the key figures page, read at source rather than restated here — a citation does not change, but a copy of the law goes stale.
Twelve capabilities
The chain from the decision to enter through to handover or closure.
Customs & Foreign Trade
How the split between coordination and licensed filing works on a real declaration.
Tell us what you want to do
Including the question this page is built around: what are you not allowed to do?