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An investment incentive certificate records the characteristics of an investment accepted by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and allows the supports printed on it to be used if the stated conditions are met. Issuing the certificate does not remove every tax, and it does not mean that every machine bought from China automatically qualifies.
Last content check: 13 October 2026. Rates, ceilings and call dates can change. Read the official notice and the current rules before applying.
The basis is the Decision on State Aids for Investments, put into effect by Presidential Decision 9903 of 29 May 2025, and implementing Communiqué 2025/1. The Ministry of Industry and Technology, through the General Directorate of Incentive Implementation and Foreign Investment, handles the work in the electronic system E-TUYS.
Communiqué 2025/1 states that the certificate does not replace permits and licences required from other public authorities. Environmental impact decisions, workplace opening, zoning, product safety, TAREKS and used-goods import rules continue under their own legislation.
The communiqué lists real persons, ordinary partnerships, capital companies, cooperatives, unions, joint ventures, specified public bodies, professional organisations with public-institution status, associations, foundations and Turkish branches of foreign companies. An application in the name of a legal person whose incorporation is not complete is not assessed.
Investors commonly distinguish a new investment, a capacity increase and a modernisation. The Decision does not fold these into one support package. For a complete new investment and for other investment types, the employment calculation used for the employer’s social-security support is built differently. Integration, product diversification and relocation are also defined separately. Eligibility depends on the province, the sector, the investment amount and the programme attached to the certificate. The programmes include the Technology Move, the Local Development Move, the Strategic Move, Priority Investments and Target Investments. Their minimum amounts, review committees and support elements are not the same.
If a producer in Türkiye wants a CNC machining centre or a packaging line from China for an existing workshop, the process does not start with the machine price. Supplier research, a technical specification, a proforma invoice, the delivery term and the payment schedule come first. Then the HS code, whether the machine is new or used, its origin and whether it can enter the domestic or imported machinery list on the certificate are reviewed. The list is built from unit price, quantity and technical description. A missing specification, or one copied from a catalogue, complicates both the customs declaration and a later revision of the certificate.
Article 13 of the Decision regulates the customs-duty exemption for investment-good machinery and equipment covered by the certificate. That means the customs-duty rate under the current import regime can be applied at zero. Some machines listed in Annex 4 may be imported without the exemption and still be included in the fixed-investment amount. Additional customs duty, trade-policy measures, surveillance and product-safety checks are not an automatic result of that article. Article 14 says that imported and domestic deliveries of machinery and equipment covered by the certificate, and sales or leases of software and intangible rights, may be exempted from VAT under the VAT Code. “May” does not mean that every supply and every tax disappears by itself.
Minimum fixed-investment amounts differ by region and programme, and the lira amounts are updated with the revaluation rate. The Ministry has separately announced the amounts effective from 1 January 2026. No figure on this page should be used as a fixed entitlement until the next communiqué. Interest or profit-share support, tax reduction, the employer’s social-security contribution and machinery support are not written onto every certificate by themselves. Machinery support and interest or profit-share support, for example, are not applied together on the same investment. The duration of the social-security support depends on the region and the investment type.
The application is made by completing the defined fields in E-TUYS and uploading the documents listed in the communiqué. A qualified electronic certificate for the user and a registered electronic-mail account for the investor are required under the authorisation communiqué. Authorisation is established with the information and documents sent to the General Directorate’s registered electronic-mail address for the person named by the investor. Frequent risks are paying for the machine or starting shipment before the certificate is issued, a mismatch between the proforma and the technical list, choosing an HS code that does not match the machine’s real function, declaring a used machine as new, and leaving the investment location and capacity calculation undocumented. The Decision also defines a limited route, with an opinion from the Ministry of Trade and a guarantee, for an import that is not yet tied to a certificate. That is not permission to start spending freely. The guarantee period, its release and the risk that it is forfeited must be followed separately.
After the certificate is issued, the import depends on the customs declaration matching the item on the list. A customs broker makes that match; China Desk TR is not the customs authority. Transport, installation and commissioning are part of the file that leads to the completion visa. An investment that is not finished in time, or that departs from the conditions on the certificate, can lose the support in part or in full, and support already received in excess can be reclaimed.
China Desk TR keeps supplier research in China, the consistency of the proforma and the technical list, and inspection and shipment coordination on the same table as the investment file. A preliminary review helps to see whether the machine is a candidate for the certificate. It does not issue the certificate for the Ministry, apply a tax exemption, or say that the investment will be accepted.
No. The customs-duty exemption and the VAT exemption depend on the certificate and the conditions of the relevant article. Income tax, every VAT transaction or additional customs duty is not removed automatically.
No. Function, HS code, whether it is new or used, and the programme’s machinery list are reviewed separately. An item in Annex 4 can remain outside the exemption.
Payment and shipment before the certificate and the list are clear carry the risk that the exemption never arises. Import under guarantee is exceptional and time-limited.
This article is for general information. Taxes, import conditions, product-safety duties and incentive programmes can change by product and current rules. For a specific transaction, rely on the competent authority and a qualified specialist.