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We work as per your goals and keep supporting you when you want to dissolve your liaison office in Türkiye.

Roadmap for liaison office closure process is as follows:

• A board decision regarding the closure of the liaison office shall be taken by the main company abroad.
• Certain tax offices do not request a board decision. Therefore, this requirement should be confirmed in the registered tax office beforehand.
• Board decision is to be presented to the relevant tax office as translated, notarized and, apostilled, along with a closure petition.
• Tax officers will visit your office in Türkiye in order to verify that it is actually closed. Therefore, it should be ensured that the office is empty, and activities of the liaison office are ceased.
• A closure letter will be received from the tax office within 15 days, and afterwards, the Ministry of Industry and Technology shall be notified.
• Another closure letter will be received from the Ministry. Bank accounts are to be closed upon receiving Ministry's closure letter.
• It is also necessary to make sure that all the outstanding payables are processed before closing the local bank accounts.
• In case the sanitation tax liability was activated earlier, it is required to be closed at the registered municipality.
• Once the termination of the employees is completed, deregistration at the Social Security Institution shall be made.

Contact IstanbulCPA to learn about the liabilities of your liaison office in Türkiye under the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law.

Turkish Data Protection Legislation, Law no. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (the "Law") came into force on April 7, 2016. Personal data of natural persons resident in Türkiye, which were formerly secured by the Turkish Constitution, started to be protected under this legislation. The framework of personal data, liabilities of natural persons and legal entities, and other issues related to personal data have been outlined in this Law.

Within this context, one of the obligations the data controllers have is to register with the Data Controllers' Registry Information System ("VERBIS") and to notify the registry as per Article 16 of the Law.

The Law defines a data controller as "the natural person or legal entity who determines the purposes and means of personal data processing and is responsible for the establishment and management of the data recording system". A data controller can be a legal person resident in Türkiye or in abroad. Türkiye resident data controllers may also conduct their activities under headquarters abroad.

Turkish data protection legislation, Law no: 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (the "Law") came into force on April 7, 2016. Personal data of natural persons resident in Türkiye, which were formerly secured by the Turkish Constitution, started to be protected with this legislation. The framework of personal data, liabilities of natural persons and legal entities and other issues related to personal data has been outlined with this Law.

While the law protects the data of natural persons, it also imposes liabilities on legal entities in this context. Although the persons whose data are protected are required to be resident of Türkiye, there is no requirement for the entities who have an obligation to be a resident/citizen of Türkiye. In other words, who processes the data of persons who meet the conditions of residency, is responsible under the Law and must fulfill the obligations stipulated in the Law.

Contact IstanbulCPA for everything you want to know about the regulations governing the liaison (representative) offices in Türkiye.

The recent foreign investment laws and regulations in Türkiye have made it easy for foreign companies to set up representative (liaison) offices in Türkiye. Even though liaison offices are not allowed to engage in commercial activities and dealings in Türkiye, they are nevertheless an attractive option for companies who would like to gain regional expertise, develop local networks, and even promote their goods and services to the Turkish market while benefiting from tax exemptions.