pbeever

How much does it cost to set up and run a company for the purpose to tranferring property. i have had conflicting advice from £1500 per year to next to nothing.
What is the best way of going about this ?

Lynda

Talk to an accountant! or maybe find a Dane who has done this - quite a lot have done so to avoid the complicted purchasing process that they in particular have. I asked my accountant the same question in regards to my sister doing just that, he told me set up 2,000ytl and in non active company- very little in terms of running costs.( very little meaning less than 100ytl per month) My brother in law is here on Tues and we are going to look into it in a lot more in depth. I will let you know what we find out.

andy chapman

Here's a bit of information about starting a business found on the Voices website.

The Under Secretariat for Treasury General Directorate (GDFI) has set up www.investinturkey.gov.tr offering a range of information from starting a business to all aspects of everyday life in Turkey.

Copied from Doing Business's in Turkey Thread

DarrenK

There are roughly three types of company structures for practical purposes- your fixed costs for maintaining the company for a one year period will fall in the range of $3500-5000. There are a lot of costs that are not immediately visible- for example paying accountants to submit VAt returns- etc etc etc

Simple Simon

Strictly speaking its not legal to set-up a company for the sole purpose of buying property, but who the hell cares, right?

The biggest issue with running a company, this applies to EVERY company wether it is inactive or not is that you have declare your companies wealth at certain times of the year. Much like the April Tax year in the UK, there are 3-4 highlighted points during the year to declare certain aspects of your companies performance, even (and this is very important) if your company isn't trading. Meaning that you have to have someone who knows what they are doing governing your company, this can have major implications if not handled properly and most estate agents are very flipant about it, be careful! Possible consiquences range from fines to jail time, so its not something to be glossed over. This as with most thing regarding property purchase in Turkey are made into a light hearted joke, but the fact of the matter remains that Turkey is a beaurocratic country, the government loves ludicrously long winded paper trails to do anything, something that is wholely evident if you've ever visited a state hospital, especially Mugla! Basically my advise, as i'm sure i'll repeat on another thread somewhere is that you wouldn't buy a property in the UK without knowing every single minute detail, yet you would in a foreign country with an alien legal system, where you don't speak the language........ hmmmm??
Get advise from proffesional people, there are lots of them around, a good solicitor is a good start, they can help you from there.

Spike

As a foreigner you may form a company and use that company to purchase property without contravening any laws.

To form the company you need to use an accountant (Serbest Muhasebeci) to set it up and run it for you. You probably need to find someone you trust to translate and help you communicate. You don't need a solicitor, but if you do know of one you can trust then by all means go through him/her. One-off set up cost should be 2,500 YTL or thereabouts and take a couple of days to complete and monthly costs 100 to 200 YTL depending on your bargaining powers. If $3,500 - $5,000 is suggested as a yearly cost, walk away and find someone else. They're having a laugh.

Even for the non-trading company, quite a few submissions and small payments have to be made and after a year your accountant will have a file about 3" thick just for you! The small payments (about 60 YTL each quarter if I remember right) would normally be included in the accountants fee.

Went through the procedure last year and found it quite painless, although we have changed our accountant after he decided to raise his monthly fee by 20%.

Best of luck.

ceemac

This information is all very interesting for me as I formed a company to allow me to purchase. (Andy thanks for your useful link).

Once again though, the information conflicts, especially over costs - this is not a criticism as it's not contributors fault - just shows the inconsistency of the system in Turkey re costing, procedure, legal requirements etc.

Probably all boils down to a proportion of those involved in the property business lining their pockets while they can - it would undoubtedly help if they were forced to follow a set code of pricing, procedure, and most importantly, transparent unambiguous information for buyers.

All of you who are saying we wouldn't do the same transaction in the UK/Ireland are right of course, but some of us have not had the time to remain in Turkey to investigate all the ins and outs of what can be a pretty intricate process, and depend on professionals based in the country to 'look after us'

C