Tax treatysaves most on dividendsChecked 2026-08-21Türkiye incentive programme

The Türkiye and Switzerland tax treaty: what leaving profit costs

Switzerland has the lowest shareholding threshold of any treaty that reaches 5%. Where Germany, Finland and Austria all require 25%, Switzerland asks for 20%, and its interest cap of 5% to 10% is among the kindest in the network.

By Tom HuseynzadeCo-founder, CyberScope Solutions

5%Dividends leaving Türkiye15% without the treaty

5%Interest leaving Türkiye10% without the treaty

10%Royalties leaving Türkiye20% without the treaty

10% lowerThe treaty's biggest cut, on dividends

Türkiye refunds half of what a software company or game studio spends on advertising, app store commissions and hosting when it sells to customers abroad, and up to 70% when those customers are in one of twenty target markets. It is paid in cash, against invoices you have already settled. Try it with your own numbers.

What you spend a year on ads and platform fees $

Paid back in Türkiye $350,000 a year, in cash, at the 50% to 70% rate

See the full breakdown

01How much is the shareholding threshold worth in Switzerland?

A parent in Switzerland that clears the shareholding test pays 5% on dividends leaving Türkiye, and one that misses it pays 15%. On $500,000 that is $50,000 decided by the share register. The 20% holding is settled when the Turkish company is formed.

Dividend leaving Türkiye$500,000
Withheld with the 20% holding, at 5%$25,000
Withheld below it, at 15%$75,000
What the holding is worth$50,000

02What does Türkiye withhold on payments to Switzerland?

Payment leaving Türkiye	What you actually pay	Türkiye's rate with no treaty	The ceiling this treaty sets	Conditions
Dividends	treaty helps5%	15%	5% to 15%	5% where the parent holds at least 20%, otherwise 15%source checked 2026-08-21
Interest	treaty helps5%	10%	5% to 10%	source checked 2026-08-21
Royalties	treaty helps10%	20%	10%	Türkiye's domestic royalty rate is 20%source checked 2026-08-21

03How does the Switzerland treaty compare with Türkiye's others?

No treaty in this atlas beats the 5% interest rate Switzerland gets, and Austria and Finland match it.

Switzerland against every other Türkiye treaty in this atlas, by interest rate. The number under each stop is how many treaties sit on it.

5%3
7.5%1
10%16

Six of Türkiye's treaties reach 5% on dividends, and Switzerland is the only one that grants it at a 20% holding rather than 25%. For a group that will hold a fifth of the Turkish company but not a quarter, it is the single best position available.

04What happens to the money once it lands in Switzerland?

In Switzerland	Rate
Corporate tax on ordinary profit	Between 11.66% and 20.54% effective, depending on the cantonsource checked 2026-08-21
Withholding tax on dividends to a foreign parent	35%Recovered afterwards by refund or by a reporting procedure, rather than reduced at source.source checked 2026-08-21

Türkiye against Switzerland, measure by measure.

05What catches out groups based in Switzerland?

The 20% threshold is the detail that distinguishes this treaty. It is easier to satisfy than the 25% most low-rate treaties demand.
Swiss corporate tax varies by canton, with an effective rate between roughly 11.66% and 20.54%, so the arriving dividend is taxed differently depending on where the parent sits.
Interest ranges from 5% to 10%, so the funding structure decides the figure.

06How does this sit alongside what Türkiye pays Switzerland groups back?

A Swiss holding pays 5% on dividends and the Turkish operating company below it claims back half its advertising bill in cash. Neither one depends on the other, and the claim can start as soon as the invoices exist.

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.

Ads and player acquisition $ App store and platform commissions $ Hosting and servers $ Most of my customers are in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan or another of the twenty target-list countries, so the rate is 70% instead of 50%.

Back in cash, every year $0

Have us check this figure Open the full calculator, all 16 items

07Questions we get asked

Why does the 20% threshold matter?

Because shareholding is often decided by commercial factors rather than tax. A group holding 20% qualifies here and would not under the German, Finnish or Austrian treaties.

Which canton should the parent sit in?

That is a Swiss question rather than a Turkish one. The effective rate ranges from about 11.66% to 20.54% depending on canton and commune.

Who is telling you this

CyberScope Solutions is an Istanbul consultancy that manages Türkiye's IT export incentive claims for software companies and game studios. Treaty rates decide what a group pays to move profit, and they come up in almost every first conversation, so we keep them written down rather than looked up each time.

Every figure is sourced. Each number links to the page it came from and carries the date we last checked 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.
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.

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

08Where these numbers come from

https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/turkey/corporate/withholding-taxes checked 2026-08-21
https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/quick-charts/corporate-income-tax-cit-rates checked 2026-08-21
https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/switzerland/corporate/withholding-taxes checked 2026-08-21

About this page

This is general information about public funding and tax rules. It is not tax, legal or financial advice, and nothing here is an offer or a guarantee of any outcome. The figures come from the sources listed above and were correct on the dates shown beside them.

Rules change often and every company's position is different, so take advice from a qualified professional in the relevant country before acting on anything here. Support under any programme depends on eligibility and on approval by the authority that runs it. CyberScope Solutions accepts no liability for decisions taken on the basis of this page. The named author writes for the company in a professional capacity and carries no personal liability for its contents.

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