R&D centre status under Law 5746, and the headcount it needs
Certified R&D centres deduct their qualifying R&D spend twice over and pay a fraction of the usual payroll tax on the staff doing it. The price of entry is headcount: at least fifteen full-time R&D personnel, and thirty in certain manufacturing sectors.
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.
01What does R&D centre status pay?
| R&D deduction | 100% deduction for eligible innovation and R&D expenditure in a certified R&D centresource |
|---|---|
| Headcount threshold | A minimum of 15 full-time R&D personnel, and 30 for specified manufacturing sectorssource |
| Salary exemptions | 95% for doctoral or supported master's staff, 90% for master's or supported undergraduate programmes and 80% for other personnel, capped at 40 times the gross minimum wagesource |
| Enhanced deduction | An additional 50% deduction where the centre raises patent filings, international projects or graduate staff ratios by at least 20% year on yearsource |
| Social security | The state covers 50% of the employer premium for R&D staff, with support staff capped at 10% of personnelsource |
02Who qualifies for R&D centre status?
- Companies able to employ at least fifteen full-time R&D personnel in one place.
- Work that is genuinely research and development rather than routine production.
- Companies of any ownership, including foreign-owned ones.
- Companies willing to run the reporting that certification requires.
03What catches people out with R&D centre status?
- Fifteen full-time R&D staff is a real threshold, and it is the reason most small studios use teknopark status instead.
- The deduction is worth the tax rate times the amount, so it only converts to cash if there is taxable profit to shelter.
- Certification comes with ongoing reporting obligations rather than a one-off application.
- The 3% venture capital obligation applies once deductions or exemptions pass 2 million lira a year.
04How does R&D centre status fit with the export incentive?
R&D centre status and the export incentive work on different halves of the business, so a company doing both deducts its research spend and gets its commercial spend reimbursed. For a company under fifteen R&D staff, teknopark status is usually the more realistic route to similar benefits.
| 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 |
Rates and caps here come from the same file as our calculator, so the two can never disagree. The caps are revalued upward every calendar year.
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
Teknopark or R&D centre?
Headcount usually decides it. Below fifteen full-time R&D staff the centre route is closed, and teknopark status delivers a comparable outcome without the threshold.
Does a games team count as R&D?
Parts of it can. Engine work, tooling and technical systems have a better claim than content production, and the certification process examines exactly that.
Is the deduction useful without profit?
Less so. A deduction reduces taxable income, so a loss-making company carries it forward rather than receiving cash, which is the main difference from the export incentive.
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. We set up the entity, file the claims in the ministry's system and deal with the reviewer when the questions come back. These programmes are what we work in every week.
- We do the filing. Claims run through DYS, the ministry's own system, and we handle the evidence pack, the deadlines and the follow-up questions.
- 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
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/tax-credits-and-incentives checked 2026-08-20