What does the incentive certificate provide?
The investment incentive certificate gathers a range of reliefs into a single instrument: VAT and customs duty exemption on purchases of machinery and equipment, reduced corporate income tax on earnings, employer’s insurance premium support and, depending on the region, interest or profit-share support and the allocation of an investment site. Under Decision No. 9903 on State Aid in Investments (Official Gazette 30/5/2025, No. 32915), the intensity of support is graded according to the programme the investment falls under (the Türkiye Century Development Drive or the Sectoral Incentive System), its sector and its region. The general incentive scheme has been abolished, and only the sectors listed in the annexes to the Decision are supported.
Practical guidance
Changes to the machinery list (brand, quantity, origin) require a certificate revision; deviations without a revision cause problems at the completion-visa stage.
Let us model your incentives together
We match your investment plan with the support elements and manage the application and commitment process end to end.
Application: via E-TUYS
Applications are made by an authorised user through E-TUYS, the electronic system of the Ministry of Industry and Technology. The file turns on the investment information form, the machinery and equipment lists and the financing plan. The assessment looks at whether the investment meets the minimum-amount requirement and whether it fits the support class claimed.
Timing: the rule that decides everything
Timing governs the whole exercise: as a rule, expenditure incurred before the date of the certificate falls outside the scope of support. The ordering and payment plan must be aligned with the certificate timeline. Where an urgent purchase cannot commercially wait for the certificate, the decision to proceed should be taken with the risk understood.
Common mistakes
The mistakes that most often put a certificate at risk are these: expenditure items that do not match the lists; overlooking the origin and second-hand rules for imported machinery; letting the investment period run out without a revision; failing to monitor employment commitments; and transferring incentivised machinery without authorisation. A “commitment monitoring” regime put in place once the certificate is issued prevents most of them.
Completion visa
The process does not end when the investment is finished: the completion visa records that the expenditure and the commitments have in fact been met. Until the visa is obtained the support is not final, and any shortfall can turn into a repayment and penalty exposure.
Types of incentive: which window for which investment?
The system is not one-size-fits-all. Regional incentives set the intensity of support by the tier of the province in which the investment sits; the further east the province, the longer the periods of tax reduction and premium support. The Sectoral Incentive System (priority and target investments) and the Türkiye Century Development Drive programmes (Technology Drive, Local Development Drive, Strategic Drive) open strong windows regardless of region. Project-based support offers a bespoke package by Presidential decision for large-scale, technology-intensive investments. R&D and design centres and technopark regimes operate under separate legislation and can be structured alongside the incentive certificate. Foreign investors have access to all of these windows on the same terms as domestic investors, under the equal-treatment principle of Law No. 4875 (Türkiye’s Foreign Direct Investment Law).
Planning the incentive together with the transaction
The incentive plan cannot be separated from the legal structuring of the investment: the company’s incorporation structure and capital plan, the ownership and financing model for the incentivised machinery (including leasing), the fit between employment commitments and the employment law framework, and the transfer of the certificate in an acquisition. A share transfer or merger before the investment is completed may affect the terms of the certificate — in due diligence, incentive commitments are a review item in their own right. Combined with the advantages of the double taxation treaties, the incentive architecture becomes one of the variables that determine the real return on the investment.
The Köksal approach
Our Tax, Investment Incentives and State Aid focus area places incentive modelling inside the legal structuring of the investment, working with our tax compliance and accounting team. We run commitment monitoring on a single timeline, from application through to the completion visa.
Conclusion
The investment incentive certificate is a question of financial architecture, not of filling in a form: the right class, the right timing and disciplined commitment monitoring. Build that architecture into the investment plan and the incentive stops being a rate on paper and becomes a real cash advantage.
