earlybird

Hi all,

I for one would be very interested in any advice on all necessary procedures to start a business, I do know that you have to have a residence visa - but how do you even begin to get permission to start a business?

PLEASE - as has been said before, I know a lot of forum members have done this themselves and would know the route to take.

immac

Earlybird - you don't need a Residence Permit to start a business.
Ian

Karyn UK

You don't need a Residents Visa to start a business although obviously if you are planning to be in the country for more than three months at a time then they make life more convenient.

First decide what activities your business wants to undertake....tourism, actvity, import /export, therapeutic, construction, manufacturing etc etc (bearing in mind that foreign business cannot undertake certain activities - this list is limited and unlikely to bother the average business owner). Include areas that you may not want to undertake business in now, but which you may want to in the future, as it expensive to add a category at a later date.

Your accountant will now draw up your Articles of incorporation covering your expected business activities, detailing the share split (you must have a minimum of two people to form an FDI company), naming the person to be the main business contact, detailing the registered business address of the company, etc etc.

The name of the company is registered, it will be in Turkish and will be a unique name chosen after a search of the register of company's in Turkey.

Your articles are then notarised and the details are forwarded to the business register.

Your business premises are sometimes inspected for tax reasons and for the appropriateness of the structure to be used for the business purposes. This does not always happen.

The local Chamber of Commerce is advised of your existence. Sometimes you receive an official membership (I only got my official membership when we opened our second company here, I have no idea why, but now I carry an official Chamber of Commerce card).

At some point during the above process you are given a company tax number in addition to any individual tax numbers you may hold.

Your company details are then published in an official gazette (keep copies of this, it gets asked for all the time! Scan it is best because the newspaper gets old and yellow quickly!) You are now free to trade subject to any permits relevant to your line of business.

These procedures are abbreviated for convenience and relate to a wholly foreign owned company although I would imagine it is very similar if you have a Turkish partner. It is sensible, in any circumstances, to add an addendum to your Articles detailing how asset's will be split and invoices due will be covered and managed in the event of a partnership breaking down.

Karyn

Guz1

Great post, Karen. The main reason I joined the forum (and i'm sure I'm not alone) was to get such straightforward answers to questions.

Maria.

KEN MOFFETT

HI, have to agree great post just what we need on here!

earlybird

Great advice, thank you very much. Problem is I am thinking of starting a 'one-man' business in what I suppose would be classed as beauty/therapeutic trade and would be working from home. Would that involve the same procedures

Ms Who

Excellent post Karen - Straight to the point!

Karyn UK

Hi

You would need to have a second shareholder to establish an FDI company even if they only hold one share. If you want to work yourself in your own company then you would need to apply for a work permit the same as any other foreign employee. If you do not intend to employ any one else in your business and given the nature of your business I doubt if it would be granted. The purpose of the law allowing FDI companies is to encourage inward investment and employment opportunities, it doesnt cover what we would call sole traders in the UK.

Karyn

earlybird

Thank you again Karyn - I'm really glad I asked, although it does mean I will have to go back to the drawing board so to speak, and have a re-think.