Yes — you can send your profits abroad, and the tax cost is predictable. Türkiye does not impose general exchange controls that block the transfer of legitimately earned, tax-paid profit to a foreign shareholder. The two taxes that shape your net return are corporate income tax on the company's profit and a withholding tax when that profit is distributed as a dividend.
The sequence works like this. The company first pays corporate income tax at 25% on its taxable profit. When the after-tax profit is distributed to shareholders, a dividend withholding tax of 15% is applied to the amount distributed. This 15% rate has been in force since late December 2024, replacing the previous 10%.
A simple illustration makes the combined burden clear. On TRY 100 of profit, the company pays TRY 25 in corporate tax, leaving TRY 75. Distributing that TRY 75 triggers 15% withholding — TRY 11.25 — so the shareholder receives TRY 63.75 before any treaty relief. The effective combined rate on distributed profit is therefore around 36%, though it is lower if you retain rather than distribute, and lower still where a treaty reduces the withholding.
Double-taxation treaties are the main lever for foreign owners. Türkiye has around eighty such treaties, and many cap the dividend withholding rate below the domestic 15% — frequently in the 5%–15% range depending on the country and the size of the shareholding. To claim the treaty rate you generally need a certificate of tax residence from your home country and supporting documentation; your advisor files these so the reduced rate is applied.
Repatriation itself is a banking and documentation exercise rather than a legal hurdle. To transfer a foreign shareholder's dividend abroad, the bank will typically want to see the corporate tax return, the financial statements, the tax payment receipts and the shareholders' resolution approving the profit distribution. With these in order, the funds can be remitted in foreign currency.
You are not obliged to distribute at all. Profit can be retained in the company and reinvested, which defers the dividend withholding tax until a later distribution. Some owners leave earnings in the business to fund growth, take a salary as a working director instead, or plan distributions around treaty timing — each has different tax consequences that are worth modelling in advance.
There is also a choice between taking money out as salary or as dividends, and the two are taxed very differently. A working director's salary is deductible for the company and taxed as employment income with social-security contributions, while dividends are paid out of after-tax profit and carry the withholding described above. The most efficient mix depends on your treaty, your other income and how much you need to draw — exactly the kind of calculation worth running before the year-end rather than after it.
When you eventually sell the business or wind it up, returning the original capital you invested is generally straightforward, and any gain is taxed under separate rules that a treaty may again affect. The practical message for non-resident owners is reassuring: profits are movable and the tax outcome is knowable in advance — but getting the treaty relief and the paperwork right is what protects your net return, and that is where planning pays for itself.