Ongoing Support for Your Turkish Company: Corporate Law, Contracts and Compliance in Day-to-Day Business

Your company in Türkiye has been incorporated, and day-to-day operations bring corporate, employment and data protection obligations that are tied to fixed deadlines and formal requirements. We provide continuous support to subsidiaries and branches of international companies on these matters, from the annual general assembly and registry changes to contracts, employment law and data protection.

Key Facts

  • Annual general assembly: The ordinary general assembly must be held within three months after the end of the financial year; it approves the financial statements, releases the management and resolves on the appropriation of profits.
  • Corporate books: The share ledger, the resolution book and the general assembly minutes book are mandatory; opening and closing certifications are subject to fixed deadlines, and missing them may result in administrative fines and evidentiary disadvantages.
  • Registrable changes: A change of managing director, a relocation of the registered office, a capital increase or a share transfer must be registered with the trade registry in time; unregistered changes generally cannot be asserted against third parties.
  • Capital protection: If losses consume half of the share capital and statutory reserves, the management is obliged to act (Art. 376 TCC); in practice, this frequently arises for subsidiaries in their start-up phase.
  • Intra-group financing: Shareholders are in principle prohibited from borrowing from the company (Art. 358 TCC), so loans and settlements within the group should be structured in advance from both a legal and a tax perspective.
  • Employment and data protection: General protection against dismissal applies from 30 employees; transfers of data to the foreign parent company are subject to specific requirements under the KVKK.

→ Still planning the incorporation? Read about our advice on company formation in Türkiye »

Our Services at a Glance

  1. Annual corporate housekeeping — preparation and minutes of the ordinary general assembly, resolutions of the managing directors or the board of directors, keeping and certification of the corporate books.
  2. Structural changes — change of managing directors, powers of attorney and commercial representation, capital increases and decreases, share transfers, relocation and branches, through to liquidation and an orderly exit from Türkiye.
  3. Day-to-day contracts — review and drafting of supply, distribution, lease and service agreements as well as intra-group agreements under Turkish law, bilingual on request.
  4. Employment law — employment contracts and workplace regulations, warnings and terminations, work and residence permits, and representation in employment court proceedings.
  5. Data protection (KVKK) — privacy notices and consents, VERBİS registration and standard contractual clauses for transfers abroad.
  6. Local point of contact — communication with the trade registry, notaries, authorities and banks, and assessment of official letters and notifications.

Support can be provided on a case-by-case basis or under an annual mandate covering the recurring corporate work and a predictable contingent of hours.

→ In case of a dispute: read about our representation in commercial disputes and debt recovery »

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Our accounting is already outsourced. Do we still need legal support? In Türkiye, financial advisors handle bookkeeping, tax returns and tax filings. Shareholder resolutions, registry filings, contracts and employment matters, however, fall outside their remit, and experience shows that deadlines and formal requirements are most often overlooked at exactly this interface.

Can general assemblies be held without travelling to Türkiye? Yes. Shareholders may be represented by proxy. In a limited company (Limited Şirketi), resolutions may also be adopted in writing unless a shareholder requests a meeting; in a joint stock company (Anonim Şirketi), participation via the electronic general assembly system is possible if the articles of association provide for it.

What applies if our subsidiary is making losses? If losses consume half of the share capital and statutory reserves, the management must promptly convene a general assembly and propose remedial measures; with further losses, the obligations become stricter, up to notification of the court. In practice, capital injections, subordination of shareholder claims or a capital reduction are the most common measures.

How are data transfers to the parent company secured? Since the 2024 amendment of the KVKK, transfers abroad are generally based on the standard contractual clauses published by the Data Protection Authority. The signed contract must be notified to the Authority within five business days.

What happens if registrable changes are not filed? Besides administrative fines, the main consequences are practical: a new managing director who has not been registered generally cannot act effectively towards banks and authorities, and the change generally cannot be asserted against third parties.

How We Work

We advise in English, German and Turkish, including communication with authorities, notaries and banks. On tax and accounting matters, we work in coordination with GEMS Serbest Muhasebeci Mali Müşavirlik A.Ş., so that legal and tax aspects are dealt with in an aligned manner. As the Turkish member of the Schindhelm Alliance, we coordinate cross-border matters with the network's country offices.

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Last updated: November 2026. This page is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.