Türkiye vs the United Kingdom for a software or game company
The UK gives you a deeper hiring market, a familiar legal system and no tax on dividends leaving the country. Türkiye gives you a lower cost base, capped employer social security, and a programme that pays back half to seventy percent of what you spend on ads, hosting and platform fees. Most studios that move do it for the second one.
The short verdict
01Where each one wins, 7 measures to 4
Where Türkiye wins
- Payroll. The employer charge is capped, so a senior team costs far less than the same team in London.
- Anything you spend to grow. Ads, hosting, app store fees, trade shows and certification all come back at 50% to 70%.
- The cost base generally. Rent is a fraction of the UK number and salaries follow the local market.
- Income from customers abroad, which is not taxed under the IT export regime.
Where United Kingdom wins
- Taking profit out. UK dividends leave without withholding tax, Türkiye takes 15% unless a treaty reduces it.
- Development costs. The 34% games credit and the 20% R&D credit are strong, and neither needs a separate application.
- Hiring depth in English, and a legal system most investors and publishers already understand.
- Small profits. A UK company under £50,000 of profit pays 19%.
02How do Türkiye and United Kingdom compare, line by line?
Of 12 measures, Türkiye takes 7 and United Kingdom takes 4, with 1 level. United Kingdom 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 | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate tax on ordinary profit | 25%source | better for the company25%, or 19% on profits under £50,000Marginal relief applies between £50,000 and £250,000.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, standard rate | 20%source | 20%source |
| Withholding tax on dividends to a foreign parent | 15%A double tax treaty can reduce it. The UK charges nothing on dividends leaving the country.source | better for the company0%source |
Public money
| Measure | Türkiye | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Cash back on ads, hosting and platform fees | better for the company50% of eligible spend, up to 70% when the customers being targeted are in one of the twenty countries on Türkiye's target list, and the UK is on itsource | Nothing comparable. UK support is grants for R&D projects and tax credits on development costssource |
| 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 company34% Video Games Expenditure Credit and a 20% merged R&D credit, both claimed through the tax returnsource |
What it costs to live there
| Measure | Türkiye | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer prices, rent excluded | better for the companyBasesource | 72.8% higher than Türkiyesource |
| Rent | better for the companyBasesource | 145.5% higher than Türkiyesource |
| Local purchasing power | BaseSalaries buy less locally, which is the other side of the low cost base.source | better for the company67.4% higher than Türkiyesource |
The cost of employing people
| Measure | Türkiye | United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Employer social security | better for the company22.75% of salary, or 18.75% with the standard discount20.75% social security plus 2% unemployment insurance.source | 15% on earnings above roughly £5,000 a yearsource |
| Is the employer charge capped? | better for the companyYes, at 297,270 lira of monthly salaryAbove that ceiling the employer pays nothing more, so senior salaries cost far less than the headline rate suggests.source | No. Employer National Insurance runs on the whole salarysource |
| Support toward new sales and marketing salaries | better for the companyPart of the salary of newly hired sales, marketing and business development staff is reimbursedsource | No equivalent schemesource |
03What is it like to run a company in the UK?
Istanbul is three hours ahead of London all year, so a working day overlaps almost completely with the UK and most of Europe, and it still reaches the US west coast in the late afternoon. Direct flights run to London several times a day and take about four hours. The games industry here is real rather than emerging: Peak, Rollic, Gram, Dream and TaleWorlds all came out of it, which means there is a hiring pool of people who have shipped at scale and agencies that know the work. Business runs in Turkish, so you need local help with filings, which is the part we do.
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
Do I have to close the UK company?
No. Most companies keep the UK entity and set up a Turkish one that does the work being claimed for. What matters for the incentive is that the Turkish company holds the contracts and pays the invoices it is claiming on.
Do I have to move there myself?
No. The company needs real activity in Türkiye, meaning people doing actual work, but the founders do not have to relocate. We set this up for studios whose leadership stays where it is.
Does the 15% dividend tax cancel out the gains?
Only if you take everything out as dividends every year. On a company reinvesting in growth, the reimbursements and the payroll saving usually run well ahead of the dividend cost. It is worth doing the arithmetic on your own numbers, which is what the calculator above is for.
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 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/corporation-tax-rates checked 2026-08-20
- https://cyberscope.solutions/blog/zero-percent-tax-on-it-exports/ checked 2026-08-20
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/turkey/corporate/other-taxes checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates checked 2026-08-20
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/turkey/corporate/withholding-taxes checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dividends-and-tax checked 2026-08-20
- https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/turkey/individual/other-taxes checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-rates-letters checked 2026-08-20
- https://cyberscope.solutions/guides/support/sales-and-marketing-staff-in-turkey/ checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support checked 2026-08-20
- https://cyberscope.solutions/guides/ checked 2026-08-20
- https://cyberscope.solutions/blog/ checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claiming-video-games-expenditure-credits-for-corporation-tax checked 2026-08-20
- https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Turkey&country2=United+Kingdom checked 2026-08-20