Customs Registration in Turkey for Importers and Exporters

Forming a Turkish company gives you a trade registry record, a MERSİS number and a tax number. It does not, on its own, let you clear a single container. Before the first import or export, the company also has to exist in the customs systems, decide who will make its customs declarations, and, if it exports, join the right exporters’ association.

For an ordinary trading company, the work is a short chain of registrations and authorisations. Most delays come from doing them in the wrong order: a shipment arrives before the broker’s authority is recorded, or an export declaration waits for an association membership nobody applied for.

This guide follows the order in which we prepare a new company’s customs file as an SMMM office. For the formation itself, start with our guide to Turkish LLC registration.

The Short Answer

• A company that will make customs declarations electronically, or have them made on its behalf, must be registered in the Ministry of Trade’s Obligor Registration and Tracking System (YKTS). Without an approved YKTS record, no electronic declaration is accepted for it.
• The YKTS record is entered online with a BİLGE user code, signed with an electronic signature and approved by a customs office after it checks the company’s trade registry documents.
• A customs broker (gümrük müşaviri) can act for the company, but the broker’s authority, including the date and number of the power of attorney, must also be recorded in YKTS.
• Exporters must be members of the exporters’ association for the sector of the goods they export. One membership is enough to export goods that belong to other associations’ sectors.
• Micro exports by post or express courier can use higher limits since early 2026: 600 kg gross weight and EUR 30,000 in value (previously 300 kg and EUR 15,000).
• Customs registration does not replace product controls. Goods covered by import-inspection rules still go through TAREKS or the relevant agency.

What the Company Already Has, and What Customs Adds

From formation, the company holds a tax number, a MERSİS number and a trade registry record. The Ministry of Trade’s export brochure says that persons with a tax number can become exporters on condition that they join the exporters’ association relevant to the product. So the legal identity is already in place.

What customs adds is operational:

1. YKTS registration of the company itself;
2. BİLGE credentials, the user code and password for the Ministry’s customs declaration software;
3. representation records for each person or broker who will act for the company;
4. exporters’ association membership, for exports only; and
5. product-level permits, inspections and conformity documents where the goods require them.

Plan these before the first purchase order. A container that waits at the port while records are completed runs up storage and demurrage charges.

Step 1: Classify the Goods First

Every product is listed in the Turkish Customs Tariff under a 12-digit tariff statistical position (GTİP), and the GTİP must be declared on the customs declaration. Classification drives the duty rate, the import VAT base, any permit or inspection requirement and, for exports, sometimes the association you join.

Prepare a technical description, composition, intended use, catalogue pages, the country of origin and the supplier’s own tariff code. A freight forwarder’s quotation is not a classification opinion. If the goods are high-value or regulated, settle the GTİP before you sign the purchase contract. Our import duty guide explains how classification feeds into the cost of an import.

The export brochure also notes that many export permits and conformity letters from other agencies are processed through the Single Window System (TPS), so they do not need to be attached to the declaration on paper. Ask early whether your product needs one.

Step 2: Decide Who Will Handle the Formalities

According to the Ministry’s export brochure, a business can carry out its customs formalities itself or have them carried out through customs brokers. The YKTS rules cover both routes: the company itself and the persons authorised to act for it by direct or indirect representation.

Many new foreign-owned companies appoint a licensed customs broker, at least for the first shipments. Classification, valuation, permits, guarantees and inspections are specialist work, and a broker already has the systems and staff. Acting directly makes more sense for a company with an experienced in-house customs team and steady volumes.

Whichever route you choose, decide internally:

• who approves the GTİP, customs value and origin before a declaration is filed;
• who may give instructions to the broker, and in writing;
• where the final declarations and supporting documents are filed in the company’s records; and
• how the broker’s advances for duties and fees are reconciled each month.

Step 3: Register the Company in YKTS

YKTS is governed by the Customs General Communiqué (Obligor Registration and Tracking System) Serial No. 1, published in the Official Gazette on 20 December 2014. The Communiqué states that it is based on Articles 5, 10, 62, 225 and 226 of Customs Law No. 4458. Its main rules for a company are these:

• Who must register (Art. 4). Anyone who will declare electronically, or on whose behalf a declaration will be made electronically, must be registered. Electronic declarations are not allowed for persons without an approved record.
• How (Art. 3). The company or its representative logs in to YKTS through the link on the Ministry’s website with a BİLGE user code and password. The data is signed with an electronic signature. For a company it includes the tax number, trade name, address, e-mail, landline and mobile numbers, MERSİS number, trade registry office and, if any, the registered electronic mail (KEP) address.
• Documents (Art. 5). For first registration, the company applies to any customs office with the current Trade Registry Gazette, as the original or a notarised copy, or a copy certified by the Trade Registry Gazette Directorate or an authorised chamber.
• Decision (Art. 6). The customs office examines the application within two working days of logging it and approves or rejects it. A rejection is recorded in the system with its reason.

The Ministry’s export brochure says the BİLGE user code and password are requested by applying to a customs directorate. Plan who will hold the electronic signature used for YKTS. If the only manager lives abroad, settle this before the first shipment, not when the goods are already at the border.

Step 4: Record the Customs Broker’s Authority

Appointing a broker is not complete when the power of attorney is signed. Under Article 3 of the YKTS Communiqué, the record for each representative includes their Turkish identity number, e-mail, the start and end dates of the authority, the type of representation, the date and number of the power of attorney and, where relevant, the broker company’s tax number and trade name. For approval, the Communiqué requires the documents evidencing the authority listed in Article 561 of the Customs Regulation.

The Communiqué also sets maintenance duties that matter after day one:

• changes in the company’s general information must be entered within ten working days and sent for approval (Art. 7(2));
• extending an authority or appointing a new representative must be entered and sent for approval without delay (Art. 7(3));
• when an authority is withdrawn, the company or the representative must cancel it in the system immediately; cancellation needs no approval (Art. 7(4)); and
• failing to update general information or to cancel a withdrawn authority is penalised under Article 241(1) of the Customs Law (Art. 8).

Draft the power of attorney with care. Name the customs acts covered and give it an end date. Our power of attorney guide covers notarisation and apostille for documents signed abroad. Keep internal approval limits for high-risk acts such as guarantees, refunds, settlements, abandonment of goods and appeals, even if the external document is broad.

Step 5: Join the Right Exporters’ Association

Exporters’ associations operate under Law No. 5910 and the Regulation on the Establishment and Duties of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) and Exporters’ Associations. Article 6 of the Regulation, in its consolidated text, says:

• persons who will export must join the association that operates in the sector of the goods they export and is nearest to their head-office or branch address registered in the trade registry, and must make the payments set by the Law;
• a member of one association can also export goods in other associations’ fields without a further membership, but it uses only its own association’s services and general assembly;
• members pay an entry fee on joining and an annual fee for each year in which they export or use the association’s services; and
• members must keep their contact details in the association’s database up to date, and they may leave by written application.

The membership has a direct operational effect. According to the Ministry’s export brochure, an export declaration must be approved by the exporter’s association before the customs office processes it. Fees are set by the associations and change, so ask the association’s general secretariat for the current schedule rather than relying on a published figure.

Import-only businesses do not need this membership. The obligation in the Regulation applies to persons who will export.

Step 6: Product Permits and Import Inspections

Customs registration says who the company is. It says nothing about whether a product may enter Turkey. Certain products are covered by the Ministry of Trade’s import-inspection communiqués. For those, the inspection runs through TAREKS, which the Ministry describes as a web-based application for carrying out import and export inspections electronically on a risk basis. Its framework is the Communiqué on the Risk-Based Control System in Foreign Trade (Product Safety and Inspection: 2025/28).

Food, agricultural, health, chemical and other regulated goods can need approvals from other authorities. Check the requirements for each GTİP before you buy stock, not after it arrives.

Micro Exports by Post or Express Courier

Small export consignments can leave through the postal operator or an express courier, which files a simplified customs declaration (BGB) for the exporter. A Ministry of Trade circular amending Circular 2022/9 raised the limits for this export route from 300 kg to 600 kg gross weight and from EUR 15,000 to EUR 30,000 in value, in force from 6 February 2026. Shipments above those limits fall outside this simplified route.

The simplified route does not lift product restrictions or the evidence needed for the VAT export exemption. Our e-commerce company guide explains how micro exports fit a Turkish online business, and why the 50% micro-export income deduction is available to individuals, not to companies.

Keep Customs and Accounting in Step

Customs documents are also accounting documents. Each month, reconcile:

• import declarations with supplier invoices, landed cost, duty and import VAT payments, and inventory;
• the broker’s statements with the advances you paid and the duties actually assessed;
• export declarations with export invoices, proof of exit and incoming foreign payments; and
• the VAT return with the export exemption evidence and any refund file.

Mismatches here are among the first things a tax inspector or a VAT refund review will question. Our tax advisory for importers covers the tax side of import transactions.

Official Sources Used for This Review

• Ministry of Trade: Customs General Communiqué (YKTS) Serial No. 1 (Official Gazette 20 December 2014, No. 29211)
• Ministry of Trade, Directorate General of Customs: export information brochure
• Ministry of Trade: 2026 circular amending Circular 2022/9 on postal and express shipments (micro-export limits)
• Ministry of Trade: TAREKS
• İMMİB (an exporters’ associations general secretariat): consolidated TİM and Exporters’ Associations Regulation (Article 6, Membership)

Customs Readiness and Accounting Support

Celikel CPA prepares the company-side file for foreign-owned importers and exporters: the formation documents, YKTS registration support, coordination with your licensed customs broker, and the monthly reconciliation of customs, VAT and inventory records. We do not act as a customs broker; declarations are filed by the company or its licensed broker. We work with clients of every nationality. Consultations, correspondence and reports are in English (or Turkish, if preferred); official applications are made in Turkish.

Contact Celikel CPA with your product list and planned first shipment date before you place the order.

Reviewed against official sources available on 19 October 2026. Customs procedures, system screens and association fees change, so confirm the current position before acting.