Closing a Turkish company takes months, not weeks. Here is why.
This is the part of the Türkiye conversation almost nobody publishes, and the part companies most often get wrong. The floor is statutory, the closing filing can bring a tax review, and whoever is appointed to run it carries personal exposure for what surfaces.
A Turkish company is closed through statutory liquidation. A three-month waiting period must run after three creditor announcements made a week apart, which puts the realistic floor at five to six months and the ordinary range at six months to a year.
Two things decide how it actually goes. The closing filing can bring a tax review that begins within three months and runs without interruption once started. And the liquidator is personally liable for taxes and penalties that surface afterwards — which makes the appointment a decision, not a formality.
What has to happen, in order.
Each stage below carries how long it takes and whose job it is. The useful thing to notice is how much of the clock belongs to nobody.
-
Week 0
Decision and appointment
Shareholders resolve to dissolve. A liquidator is appointed and registered — and from this point that person carries the exposure described in section 02.
Shareholders -
Weeks 1–3
Three announcements to creditors
Made one week apart. The clock in the next stage does not begin until the last of them is published, so a delay here moves everything after it.
Liquidator -
+3 months
Statutory waiting period
Three months must run after the announcements. It cannot be shortened by paying anyone, by filing faster, or by having a clean set of accounts.
Nobody — this time belongs to no one -
Realisation and settlement
Assets converted, creditors paid, final accounts drawn up. This runs alongside the waiting period rather than after it — which is why starting it late is what pushes a case past a year.
Liquidator · accounting -
The trigger
Closing tax filing
Final returns submitted. Most companies treat this as the end of their obligations. It is closer to an invitation to examine every year that came before it.
Sworn-in fiscal adviser — Law No. 3568 -
Within 3 months
Tax review
On request, begins within three months at the latest and runs without interruption once started. How long it takes depends on what the earlier years look like, not on anything decided now.
The tax authority -
Finally
De-registration
Liquidation closed and the company struck from the registry. Only at this point do the filing obligations actually stop.
Trade registry
Statutory basis for each stage, with the date each figure was last checked: key figures, section 02 — principally Law No. 6102, Articles 541 and 543/2 and Corporate Income Tax Law, Article 17. The three-month wait was reduced from six months in 2021 by Law No. 7341, Article 17, so guides written before that date overstate the floor; guides quoting a few weeks describe a route that no longer exists — see section 03. Nothing here is a substitute for advice on your own company, and a specific entity's tax position is settled with a sworn-in fiscal adviser under Law No. 3568. Legislation named on this page: Law No. 3568 on sworn-in fiscal advisership, Turkish Commercial Code, Law No. 6102 and Law No. 7341. 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.
The closing filing is not the end. It is the trigger.
Most companies treat closure as an administrative tidy-up. It is the moment every earlier year becomes examinable at once.
- 01
The review looks backwards, not at the closure
What is examined is the years you traded, not the paperwork you just filed. A company with four clean certified years and a company with four years of unreviewed filings reach this point in completely different positions, and nothing can be done about it at this stage.
- 02
Once it starts, it runs without interruption
Under the Corporate Income Tax Law, Article 17, a review begins within three months at the latest and then continues. It is not something that can be deferred to a quieter quarter or paused while somebody is on leave.
- 03
The liability lands on a person
The liquidator is personally liable for taxes and penalties that surface afterwards. The company no longer exists to carry them. Anyone accepting the appointment is accepting exposure for periods they may have had no involvement in whatsoever.
- 04
Missing records are the real cost driver
Professional fees for the liquidation itself are predictable. Reconstructing accounting periods that were never properly closed is not, and it is where closure budgets are actually lost.
Both of these are still circulating.
We meet them often enough to put them here rather than wait to be asked.
- 01
“There is a simplified procedure”
There was. The simplified route under the transitional provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code has expired, so the ordinary procedure is now the only procedure. Any timeline that assumes a fast track is describing something that is no longer available — if a provider quotes weeks rather than months, ask which legal basis they are relying on.
- 02
“We can stop filing and let it lapse”
An entity that stops filing does not quietly disappear. The obligations continue, penalties accrue against it, and personal exposure grows rather than fades. Companies abandoned three or four years ago are consistently harder and more expensive to close than companies closed deliberately, because the accrued position has to be reconstructed and settled before the liquidation can even begin.
How your exit goes
was settled in year one.
Whether the years were certified. Statutory tax certification — tam tasdik — by a sworn-in fiscal adviser under Law No. 3568 means errors were found and corrected while correcting them was cheap. Arriving at a closing review with certified years is a completely different conversation from arriving without them.
Which structure was chosen. A company closes through statutory liquidation. A branch de-registers. A liaison office is the fastest of the three to close. That difference is decided on the day you register, not on the day you leave.
Whether anyone can actually run it. The role has to be performed by someone in Türkiye, able to sign, attend and respond throughout, and willing to accept personal exposure. Groups discover at the end that nobody in their structure meets that description.
Three things we will not state yet.
Each is either genuinely case-specific or with counsel. They appear here when they can be sourced.
- 01
A cost figure
It is driven by how many open years have to be settled and what the review raises, neither of which is knowable at the start. A published number here would be a guess dressed as guidance.
- 02
The exact rule on who may be liquidator
The practical constraint is residency and the ability to act throughout. The precise statutory position on nationality and residence is a written question with counsel, and it will be published here with its source rather than from memory.
With counsel - 03
Whether accumulated VAT can be recovered on exit
Entities that stopped trading often sit on an accumulated VAT position. Whether and how it is recoverable at closure is a question for a sworn-in fiscal adviser on the specific file, not a general rule.
About closing a company.
Including the one everybody asks fourth, and should ask first.
How long does it take to close a Turkish company?
Five to six months at the absolute minimum, and six months to a year is the ordinary range. The floor is statutory rather than administrative: a three-month waiting period must run after the creditors' announcements, and that period cannot be shortened by paying anyone or filing anything faster.
What pushes a case past a year is almost never the registry. It is unresolved tax years, missing records from earlier periods, a bank account nobody can close, or a liquidator who was appointed without the standing to act.
Does closing a company trigger a tax audit?
It can, and you should plan on it. Under the Corporate Income Tax Law, Article 17, a review may be requested and then begins within three months at the latest and runs without interruption once started.
This is the single most misunderstood part of closing. People treat the closing filing as the end of their obligations. It is closer to an invitation to examine everything that came before it.
Who is personally liable for tax that surfaces after closure?
The liquidator, under the Corporate Income Tax Law, Article 17 — personally, for taxes and penalties that come to light afterwards. Not the company, which no longer exists, and not necessarily the shareholder who benefited.
This is why the appointment is not a formality to be handed to whoever is available. Anyone taking it on is accepting exposure for years they may have had nothing to do with.
Can we just stop filing and let the company lapse?
No, and this is the most expensive mistake in this area. An entity that stops filing does not disappear: the filing obligations continue, penalties accrue against it, and the directors' and liquidator's exposure grows rather than fades.
Companies that were abandoned three or four years ago are harder and more costly to close than companies closed deliberately, because the accrued position has to be reconstructed and settled before anything else can proceed.
Is there a fast-track or simplified liquidation?
Not any more. The simplified route under the transitional provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code has expired, so the ordinary procedure is the only procedure.
Figures and timelines circulating online that assume the simplified route are out of date. If a provider quotes you a closure in a few weeks, ask which legal basis they are relying on.
What does it cost?
We do not publish a figure, and we would be sceptical of anyone who does for this. The cost is driven by how many open tax years have to be settled, whether the records exist, and what the review finds — none of which is known at the start.
What can be said is where the money goes: professional fees for the liquidation itself, the cost of settling whatever the review raises, and the accounting work to reconstruct periods that were not properly closed. The third item is the one that varies by an order of magnitude.
Can a foreign director act as liquidator?
The practical constraint is residency: the role has to be performed by someone who is actually in Türkiye and able to deal with the authorities, sign, attend and respond throughout. A director in another country cannot discharge that in practice even where a document names them.
The precise statutory requirement on nationality and residence is a question we have put to counsel in writing rather than stated from memory. We will publish the answer here with its source when it comes back.
Handover or closure
The two ways an operation ends, and why almost nobody in this market describes either.
Structure selector
The three structures close at very different speeds. Five questions on which one fits.
Tell us where it stands
How many open years, whether records exist, who is in Türkiye. We will tell you what the route looks like.