Türkiye vs Georgia for a software or game company
Georgia is the only country in this comparison that costs less to live in than Türkiye, about 13% below, and its Virtual Zone status exempts profit on technology supplied outside Georgia, which matches Türkiye's 0% on export income. It taxes profit only when it is distributed, at 15%, and withholds 5% on dividends. It reimburses none of the advertising, hosting and platform spend that Türkiye pays back at 50% to 70% in cash.
The short verdict
01A close one, 3 measures to 4
Where Türkiye wins
- Advertising, hosting and platform fees, reimbursed at 50% to 70% where Georgia reimburses nothing.
- Local purchasing power 40% above Georgia's, so salaries reach further for the people earning them.
- A development workforce of tens of thousands, where Georgia's runs to a few thousand.
- Treaty coverage and banking relationships built for companies selling into the United States and western Europe.
Where Georgia wins
- A cost base about 13% below Türkiye's, the only country here that manages it.
- Dividends at 5%, a third of Türkiye's 15%.
- Profit taxed only when distributed, so money left in the company is not taxed at all.
- Virtual Zone status, which takes technology supplied outside Georgia to 0%.
02How do Türkiye and Georgia compare, line by line?
Of 9 measures, Türkiye takes 3 and Georgia takes 4, with 2 level. Georgia is strongest on tax, so that group comes first. Every figure links to its source and carries the date we last checked it.
Tax
| Measure | Türkiye | Georgia |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate tax on ordinary profit | 25%source | better for the company15%, charged only when profit is distributedsource |
| Tax on income from software sold abroad | 0% under the IT export regimeApplies to income earned from customers outside Türkiye.source | 0% for a Virtual Zone Person on technology supplied outside Georgiasource |
| VAT or equivalent, standard rate | 20%Exported services are outside the scope, so this matters less to an exporter than the headline suggests.source | 18%source |
| Withholding tax on dividends to a foreign parent | 15%A double tax treaty can reduce it.source | better for the company5%source |
What it costs to live there
| Measure | Türkiye | Georgia |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of living index | 40.2Numbeo index, mid-2026.source | better for the company34.9, 13% lower than Türkiyesource |
| Rent index | 12.3source | better for the company11.5, 7% lower than Türkiyesource |
| Local purchasing power index | better for staff71.8Salaries buy less locally, which is the other side of a low cost base.source | 43.2, 40% lower than Türkiyesource |
Public money
| Measure | Türkiye | Georgia |
|---|---|---|
| Cash back on ads, hosting and platform fees | better for the company50% of what you spend, rising to 70% when the customers you are targeting are in one of the twenty countries on Türkiye's target listsource | Nothing comparablesource |
| Support for development costs | better for the companyYes, through two separate programmes: TÜBİTAK, which funds defined research projects, and teknopark status, which removes corporate tax on software developed inside a technology parkBoth are applied for separately from the export refund, and a company can hold them at the same time.source | No development funding scheme, with the benefit delivered through the Virtual Zone and International Company regimes insteadsource |
03What is it like to run a company in Georgia?
Tbilisi keeps the same clock as Istanbul and is under two hours away by plane, which makes it the easiest country here to run alongside a Turkish company. The tax position is genuinely light and the constraint is scale: the local talent pool is small, purchasing power is 40% below Türkiye's, and a studio hiring more than a handful of people tends to run out of candidates before it runs out of budget.
04What does the Turkish programme pay back, and what are the limits?
| What you spend it on | Programme item | Paid back | Annual cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ads and player acquisition | Digital product promotion: ads & marketing (up to 10 products/yr) | 50% to 70% | 50 000 000 ₺ ≈ $1,043,841 |
| App store and platform commissions | App store & platform commissions (up to 10 products/yr) | 50% | 20 000 000 ₺ ≈ $417,537 |
| Hosting and servers | Hosting costs | 50% | 5 000 000 ₺ ≈ $104,384 |
What Türkiye would pay back on your spending
Türkiye runs a government programme that refunds part of what a software company or game studio spends on reaching customers abroad. It covers advertising, app store and platform commissions, and hosting. The refund is paid in cash against invoices the company has already settled, so it does not depend on the company making a profit. The standard rate is 50%, and it rises to 70% when the customers being targeted are in one of the twenty countries on the Turkish Ministry of Trade's target list.
Put your own yearly figures in below. The rates and the annual caps come from the same file as our full calculator, and the total updates as you type.
05Questions we get asked
What does Virtual Zone status actually exempt?
Profit from information technology created in Georgia and supplied to customers outside it. The status has to be granted, and the work has to be done in Georgia, which is the part companies underestimate when they set up a shell there.
Is a distribution-based tax better?
It suits a company reinvesting everything, because retained profit carries no tax at all. It matters less to a company that pays its owners regularly, and Türkiye's export regime already takes income from foreign customers to zero.
Why choose Türkiye over somewhere cheaper?
The reimbursement. Georgia leaves a company to carry its own user acquisition, app store commissions and hosting, while Türkiye pays back half to seventy percent of exactly those invoices, and that gap grows with every marketing pound spent.
Where this comparison comes from
CyberScope Solutions is an Istanbul consultancy that manages Türkiye's IT export incentive claims for software companies and game studios. We build these comparisons because clients ask for them before deciding, and we keep the rows where the other country wins because a comparison nobody believes is worth nothing.
- Every figure is sourced. Each number links to the page it came from and carries the date we last checked it.
- These pages get rebuilt, not left. Rates and caps come from the same file as our calculator, so when one changes the page changes with it.
- You find out early if it is not for you. The first call is thirty minutes and we will say plainly if your spend pattern does not suit the programme.
Turn that number into money
Send us the rough shape of your spend. You get back what it is worth, what setting it up involves, and how fast the first claim can go in. Companies already operating here treat this as routine, and the six month window means the clock is running on invoices you have already paid.
- A reply from a person within one working day
- No mailing list, no drip sequence
- Thirty minutes, and you keep the numbers either way
Got it.
We will read it properly and reply within a working day. If you would rather get it over with now, pick a time that suits you.
Book a 30 minute call06Where these numbers come from
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/turkey/corporate/taxes-on-corporate-income checked 2026-08-21
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/quick-charts/corporate-income-tax-cit-rates checked 2026-08-21
- https://cyberscope.solutions/blog/zero-percent-tax-on-it-exports/ checked 2026-08-21
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/georgia/corporate/tax-credits-and-incentives checked 2026-08-21
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/quick-charts/value-added-tax-vat-rates checked 2026-08-21
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/turkey/corporate/withholding-taxes checked 2026-08-21
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/quick-charts/withholding-tax-wht-rates checked 2026-08-21
- https://cyberscope.solutions/guides/ checked 2026-08-21
- https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp checked 2026-08-21