Türkiye vs Romania for a software or game company
Romania is the closest match to Türkiye on cost of anywhere in this comparison: living costs within about 2%, rents about 11% lower, purchasing power within 1%. Corporate tax is 16% where Türkiye charges 25%, research spend carries an extra 50% deduction, and a company doing only research and innovation pays no profit tax for its first ten years. Dividends leave at 16%.
The short verdict
01A close one, 3 measures to 4
Where Türkiye wins
- Advertising, hosting and platform fees, reimbursed at 50% to 70% where Romania reimburses nothing.
- Income from customers abroad, untaxed under the export regime, against Romania's ordinary 16%.
- Dividends at 15%, marginally under Romania's 16%.
- A market and a development workforce several times the size of Romania's.
Where Romania wins
- A 16% corporate rate, nine points under Türkiye's headline.
- An extra 50% deduction on qualifying research spend, on top of the ordinary deduction.
- Ten years with no profit tax for a company doing only research and innovation.
- European Union membership on a cost base within about 2% of Türkiye's, which no other member here comes close to.
02How do Türkiye and Romania compare, line by line?
Of 9 measures, Türkiye takes 3 and Romania takes 4, with 2 level. Romania is strongest on what it costs to live there, so that group comes first. Every figure links to its source and carries the date we last checked it.
What it costs to live there
| Measure | Türkiye | Romania |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of living index | 40.2Numbeo index, mid-2026.source | better for the company39.5, 2% lower than Türkiyesource |
| Rent index | 12.3source | better for the company11.0, 11% lower than Türkiyesource |
| Local purchasing power index | 71.8Salaries buy less locally, which is the other side of a low cost base.source | 72.7, 1% higher than Türkiyesource |
Public money
| Measure | Türkiye | Romania |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Yes, 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 | better for the companyAn extra 50% deduction on qualifying research spend, and no profit tax for ten years for companies doing only research and innovationsource |
Tax
| Measure | Türkiye | Romania |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate tax on ordinary profit | 25%source | better for the company16%source |
| Tax on income from software sold abroad | better for the company0% under the IT export regimeApplies to income earned from customers outside Türkiye.source | Taxed the same as any other profitsource |
| VAT or equivalent, standard rate | 20%Exported services are outside the scope, so this matters less to an exporter than the headline suggests.source | 21%source |
| Withholding tax on dividends to a foreign parent | better for the company15%A double tax treaty can reduce it.source | 16%source |
03What is it like to run a company in Romania?
Bucharest keeps the same clock as Istanbul and is about an hour and a half away by plane. Romania built one of the larger development workforces in Europe on outsourcing and has kept a good deal of it, and it is the one EU country in this comparison whose cost base looks like Türkiye's. What it does not do is pay anything back on the commercial side of a games 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
Is Romania as cheap as Türkiye?
Close enough that the difference is noise: 39.5 against 40.2 on cost of living, and rents about 11% lower. It is the only European Union member in this comparison where that is true.
Who gets the ten year exemption?
Companies whose activity is exclusively innovation and research. A studio that also publishes and sells games is not in that category, which is why it reaches research spin-outs rather than operating studios.
What is the case for Türkiye over Romania?
The 16% rate is real and so is the research deduction, and neither touches marketing. A studio spending on user acquisition, app store commissions and hosting gets half to seventy percent of that back in Türkiye and nothing in Romania, and for most studios that line is larger than the tax line.
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/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://taxsummaries.pwc.com/romania/corporate/tax-credits-and-incentives checked 2026-08-21
- https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp checked 2026-08-21