E-Commerce Company Formation in Turkey for Foreign Founders

A foreign founder can set up a Turkish company to sell online: on Turkish marketplaces, through its own web shop, or by exporting small parcels to customers abroad. The company is an ordinary limited liability company (LLC, limited şirket) or joint stock company. Turkish law has no separate “e-commerce company” form.

What changes the compliance file is the sales model. Who is the seller of record? Where is the stock held, and who imports it? Which channel takes the order, and who collects the money? A marketplace seller, a web-shop operator and a micro-exporter register with different systems and reconcile different reports, even though all three start with the same LLC.

This guide follows the order in which we review an e-commerce file as an SMMM office: model first, then formation, then the channel-specific registrations, invoicing, payments and exports. For the general incorporation route, start with our company formation in Turkey guide.

The Short Answer

• Foreign individuals and companies can own a Turkish e-commerce LLC, including as its only shareholder. The Ministry of Trade states that foreigners forming a company follow the same rules as domestic investors. Regulated products are reviewed separately.
• The statutory minimum capital of an LLC is TRY 50,000. Stock, advertising, returns and payment-provider reserves usually need far more cash than that.
• Selling only through a marketplace established in Turkey does not trigger ETBİS registration. Running your own web shop does.
• Marketplaces withhold 1% income or corporate tax from their payments to sellers. It is a prepayment credited against the seller’s own tax, not a final tax on turnover.
• Since 1 January 2026, a company outside the e-Archive system must issue its invoices as e-Archive invoices regardless of the amount. e-Invoice (e-Fatura) becomes mandatory for online sellers once annual gross sales reach TRY 500,000.

Step 1: Choose the Sales Model Before You Incorporate

One business can run several models at once. What must not happen is a mismatch between the party shown to the customer, the party issuing the invoice and the party receiving the money. It is one of the first things a bank, payment provider or tax inspector will question.

When a Turkish company may not be the first step

A foreign merchant that ships to Turkish customers from abroad deals first with customs, import VAT, product and platform rules. If it also keeps staff, a warehouse or a dependent agent in Turkey, a taxable presence becomes a real question.

A Turkish LLC becomes the practical choice when you want to hold stock in Turkey, sell on Turkish marketplaces as a local seller or export from Turkey.

Step 2: Formation Decisions Specific to E-Commerce

Legal form and capital

This guide assumes an LLC. The Ministry of Trade states the minimum capital as TRY 50,000 for an LLC and TRY 250,000 for a joint stock company.

Treat capital as a legal floor, not a launch budget. Inventory, advertising, returns, marketplace settlement cycles, payment-provider holdbacks, customs and VAT pre-financing all need cash before the first profitable month. If the founder also plans to work in Turkey, note that the Ministry of Labour’s work-permit criteria use capital thresholds well above the legal minimum.

Activity codes

The registered activities must cover the real business: online retail, wholesale, own-brand manufacturing, warehousing, or software and services sold alongside the goods. Turkey’s classification is updated over time, so pick codes from the current official list rather than copying a code from an older company.

Registered address and stock location

A virtual or serviced office can work as the registered address when customers do not visit and no stock is kept there. The stock itself must sit at a lawful, documented location: your own warehouse, a fulfilment provider or the marketplace’s logistics service. Sector permits can require a physical facility. Our registered address guide explains the tax-office verification side.

Managers and digital access

Decide early who signs marketplace contracts, payment-provider forms and bank documents. ETBİS access runs through the authorised representative recorded in MERSİS, who logs in through e-Devlet; the ETBİS portal also offers a login route for foreign-national authorised persons and lets the representative appoint sub-users. A manager who lives abroad needs a clear plan for signatures, e-Devlet access and powers of attorney before launch.

For the registration sequence itself, see our step-by-step LLC setup guide.

Step 3: Selling on Turkish Marketplaces

Onboarding is a commercial approval

Trendyol, Hepsiburada, Amazon Türkiye and other platforms set their own merchant criteria and document lists. Expect to provide company, tax, signatory and bank details, but the exact list is the platform’s own. Formation does not oblige any platform to accept a new or foreign-owned seller.

Before incorporating, confirm with the target platform:

• whether it accepts the planned legal form and foreign ownership;
• category approvals and product-document requirements;
• barcode, trademark or distribution-authority evidence;
• commission, payment cycle, reserve and return terms;
• which bank accounts and settlement currencies it supports; and
• who bears storage, delivery, cancellation and customer-service duties.

The 1% marketplace withholding

Since 1 January 2025, intermediary service providers and e-commerce intermediary service providers under Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce must withhold tax from their payments to sellers. For a company seller, the legal basis is Corporate Tax Law (KVK) Article 15/1-(h). Presidential Decision No. 9284 set the rate at 1%.

The Revenue Administration’s Income Tax General Communiqué No. 330 explains how it works in practice:

• The base is the VAT-exclusive sale price of the goods or services, plus any bonus or premium the platform pays the seller.
• Commissions, cargo charges and bank fees netted off in the settlement do not reduce the base.
• The seller credits the withheld tax against its provisional and annual corporate tax. An amount that cannot be credited can be refunded under the applicable procedure.
• If a customer returns goods after the platform has already declared the withholding, the platform does not correct its return; the seller credits the tax in its own returns.

Because the withholding is calculated on gross sales while the bank receives a net payout, settlement reports, invoices, withholding records and bank receipts must be reconciled every month. Booking only the net deposit understates both revenue and expenses.

ETBİS is not required for marketplace-only sellers

The Ministry of Trade’s ETBİS FAQ is explicit: sellers that sell through intermediaries established in Turkey have no ETBİS registration or notification obligation for those sales. The marketplace itself is registered.

Step 4: Running Your Own Web Shop

ETBİS registration

ETBİS is the Ministry of Trade’s electronic commerce information system. According to the Ministry, three groups must register:

1. service providers operating in their own electronic commerce environment, such as a company web shop or app;
2. intermediary service providers (marketplaces); and
3. providers established in Turkey that do not sell domestically online but take orders or conclude contracts through an intermediary established abroad.

Two details often missed in older guides. First, the ETBİS QR code was discontinued in August 2025 and new codes can no longer be created, so do not plan a “trust badge” around it. Second, a provider selling only through foreign sites must register and report its cross-border transactions annually by the end of March.

Distance-sales rules for consumer sales

Consumer sales are governed by Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 and the Distance Contracts Regulation. The Ministry of Trade’s consumer guidance summarises the core duties:

• give the consumer the pre-contract information before the contract is concluded and before any payment, in writing or on a durable medium;
• the consumer may withdraw within 14 days without giving a reason or paying a penalty; the period starts on delivery for goods and on conclusion of the contract for services;
• after a withdrawal notice, the seller refunds all payments, including delivery costs, within 14 days;
• the consumer returns the goods within 14 days of the notice;
• if no delivery time was promised, the seller must ship within 30 days at the latest; and
• some contracts are excluded from withdrawal, such as custom-made or perishable goods and instantly delivered digital content.

Build these rules into the checkout flow, terms of sale, refund workflow and accounting. Refunds need matching return documentation and the related VAT correction in the books.

Personal data and product rules

Customer, cookie, marketing, payment and logistics data fall under Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK). A privacy notice alone does not settle consent, cross-border transfers or processor agreements; that review belongs with a data-protection specialist.

Product rules depend on what is sold. Cosmetics, food, supplements, medical devices, electronics and children’s products can carry registration, labelling or conformity duties. Marketplace acceptance does not replace regulatory approval.

Step 5: Payments and Bank Accounts

A Turkish company can apply to a bank or to a payment or e-money institution for a virtual POS or collection service. The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye publishes the lists of payment and e-money institutions authorised under Law No. 6493, so check a provider there before signing.

Approval is not automatic. Providers review beneficial owners, the website, terms of sale, product risk, expected volume, chargebacks and source of funds, and they may hold back part of the settlement as a reserve.

Step 6: e-Archive and e-Invoice From Day One

The invoicing rules are in the Revenue Administration’s consolidated VUK General Communiqué No. 509:

• e-Archive for everyone else. Since 1 January 2026, a company that is not in the e-Archive system must still issue its invoices as e-Archive invoices, through the GİB portal or an authorised private integrator, regardless of the amount. A new LLC should not plan on paper invoices.
• e-Invoice for online sellers. Taxpayers that sell goods or services on their own websites or through intermediaries must move to e-Invoice and e-Archive once their gross sales reach TRY 500,000 for 2022 or a later year. The deadline is the start of the seventh month after that year ends.
• General threshold. For all taxpayers, the general e-Invoice threshold is TRY 3 million of gross sales for 2022 and later years.
• Marketplace operators. A business that itself operates a marketplace must join within three months of starting that activity.

Voluntary registration is also possible, and joining early can keep B2B and B2C invoicing in one system. Our e-invoice and e-ledger guide covers registration, certificates and integrators.

Step 7: Exporting From Turkey

Micro exports by courier or post

Micro exports are sales shipped abroad by post or express courier and declared on a simplified customs declaration, which the postal operator or express courier files as authorised indirect representative. A Ministry of Trade customs circular in force since 6 February 2026 sets the limits for this route at 600 kg gross weight and EUR 30,000 in value (previously 300 kg and EUR 15,000). The law and older guides call the declaration the e-commerce customs declaration (ETGB); current customs guidance uses the term simplified customs declaration (BGB). Data on closed micro-export declarations is passed automatically to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance’s VEDOP system for VAT refund processing. Shipments above the limits fall outside this simplified route.

VAT on exports

VAT Law Article 11/1-(a) exempts export deliveries. Under Article 12, the goods must be delivered to a customer abroad (or a free-zone buyer) and must leave the Turkish customs territory. The exemption needs a clean evidence trail: export invoice, customs declaration, proof of exit and payment. Input VAT on exported goods is recovered through a refund file. Our VAT refund guide explains the process.

The “50% micro-export deduction” is for individuals

This incentive is often advertised to company founders. Income Tax Law (GVK) Article 89/1-(16) gives a 50% deduction on profits from goods exported with an e-commerce customs declaration filed by the Post or an express courier. It applies to fully tax-liable individuals, with conditions on social insurance and, above a revenue level, employment. A Turkish LLC cannot claim it.

A company exporter should look instead at KVK Article 32/7, which reduces the corporate tax rate by five points on income derived exclusively from exports. Whether a given e-export flow and its cost allocation qualify should be tested and documented before the annual return.

A Practical Setup Sequence

1. Fix the seller, stock and logistics model

Name the customer countries, the seller of record, the stock location, the importer and the return address. Check product licensing and labelling before buying inventory.

2. Form the company with the right scope

Register the LLC with real activity codes, a usable address, managers and signature authority. Open the accounting records and beneficial-owner file from the start.

3. Test bank, platform and payment-provider eligibility

Submit the real ownership and business model. Do not promise a launch date until KYC and category approvals are complete.

4. Configure invoicing and tax

Set up e-Archive (and e-Invoice where required), VAT, the marketplace withholding account and the export documentation. Map settlement reports to the chart of accounts.

5. Complete channel-specific registrations

Register with ETBİS if you run your own site or sell through foreign intermediaries. Publish consumer and privacy documents, set the returns process and keep product evidence.

6. Reconcile every channel every month

Gross orders, cancellations, platform commissions, withholding, payment fees, shipping, refunds, VAT, invoices and net bank receipts must agree. This is where most e-commerce tax problems start, and where an SMMM adds the most value.

Official Sources Used for This Review

• Ministry of Trade: company minimum capital FAQ and guide to setting up a company in Türkiye
• Ministry of Trade: ETBİS frequently asked questions
• Ministry of Trade: distance contracts consumer guidance
• Ministry of Trade, Directorate General of Customs: simplified customs declaration guide and 2026 circular amending Circular 2022/9 on postal and express shipments (micro-export limits)
• Revenue Administration: Corporate Tax Law No. 5520, Income Tax Law No. 193 and VAT Law No. 3065
• Revenue Administration: consolidated VUK General Communiqué No. 509
• Revenue Administration: 2026 commercial income guide
• Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye: authorised payment institutions

E-Commerce Accounting and Formation Support

Celikel CPA reviews the sales model, formation file, invoicing set-up, marketplace withholding, VAT and export documentation for foreign-owned e-commerce companies, and keeps the monthly channel reconciliation. Platform contracts, consumer terms and data-protection documents should also be reviewed by Turkish legal counsel. Official applications and filings are made in Turkish; we work with clients in English, Turkish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic.

Contact Celikel CPA with your planned channels and product list before you incorporate.

Reviewed against official sources available on 17 October 2026. Rates, thresholds and platform rules change, so confirm the current position before filing or signing.