B2B software in Türkiye: incentives built for enterprise sales

Most of what is written about Türkiye's incentive programme, including our own post on mobile studios, is written for games. That is reasonable, since games are where the biggest numbers sit, but it leaves B2B software companies reading about store commissions they do not pay and user acquisition budgets they do not run.

The programme fits a SaaS company just as well. The items that carry the value are simply different ones.

Where a B2B company's claim actually comes from

Figures below are caps on support paid, set in Turkish lira, at roughly 47.7 TRY to the dollar. Article numbers refer to Decision No. 10962; the implementing circular numbers them differently.

Sales and marketing salaries (Article 19). Gross salary support at 50% for newly hired business development, sales consultant and marketing roles employed for international promotion. Up to 5 people in Türkiye, capped at 90,000 TL per person per month, about $1,890. A further 5 people in your overseas units are covered at up to 250,000 TL per person per month, about $5,240, and those people can be employed either by the Turkish company or by an overseas company you own at 51% or more.

Two conditions decide whether this works: the staff have to be newly hired within the six months before your first claim, and company partners and administrative roles do not qualify. For a company planning to build an outbound team, the sequencing of hiring against programme entry is a conversation to have before the offers go out.

Certification and accreditation (Article 7). Certificates, standards, licences and accreditations obtained for overseas markets, at 50%, capped at 4,000,000 TL, about $84,000. This includes renewals and surveillance audits.

For anyone selling to large companies, this item is worth more than it looks. SOC 2, ISO 27001 and the sector-specific accreditations that enterprise procurement demands are all substantial recurring costs incurred specifically to sell abroad. The filing deadline for this item runs from the certificate's issue, renewal or surveillance date rather than from the payment date, so it needs a separate reminder from everything else.

Digital product promotion (Article 17) and brand advertising (Article 11). Advertising a specific software product falls under product promotion, at 50% rising to 70% for target countries, with a per-product cap of 15,000,000 TL, about $314,000. Advertising the company rather than a product falls under brand advertising, also 50% or 70%, capped at 25,000,000 TL, about $524,000.

Two rules matter here in practice. Social media spending has to be sponsored or boosted to qualify, so paid LinkedIn and X campaigns count and organic community work does not. Sponsorship is supported up to 30% of the annual cap. Most oversized one-off campaigns need pre-approval filed at least a month ahead, while routine advertising does not.

Overseas trade fairs and conferences (Article 13). Stand rental and construction, registration fees, promotion at the event, and economy travel and accommodation for up to two representatives. 50%, rising to 70% for events in target countries, capped at 1,500,000 TL per event, about $31,000. That cap doubles for events on the Ministry's prestigious events list, for up to three such events a year. File within six months of the event's end date rather than the payment date.

Analyst reports and database subscriptions (Article 23). Reports on foreign markets, regulation, competitors or customer behaviour, plus memberships of databases on the Ministry's supported list. 50%, capped at 2,500,000 TL, about $52,000. Reports need pre-approval before you pay. This is where companies lose money: a Gartner or Forrester report bought without that step cannot be claimed at all. Database memberships are claimed after the membership period instead.

Software licences (Article 31). Purchased or rented software licences used by the business, at 50%, capped at 2,500,000 TL, about $52,000. Your own tooling stack, in other words.

Agent and distributor commissions (Article 6). Commissions to overseas sales or distribution agents, at 50%, capped at 6,000,000 TL, about $126,000. The agent has to appear on the Ministry's approved Agents List, and an agent can be added by application.

Hosting (Article 16) works the same way it does for a game studio, at 50% and capped at 5,000,000 TL. There is a separate post on cloud costs.

Worked example: a $4M ARR B2B SaaS company

A company selling into the US, UK and Germany, all target countries, with a small Istanbul team and one salesperson in the US.

Only one line hits a ceiling, which is product advertising, where the $350,000 the rate would otherwise produce is held to the per-product cap of about $314,000. Everything else falls comfortably inside its cap.

From the second year onward, annual payouts are checked against one third of prior-year service exports plus foreign-sourced revenue. At $4M ARR that ceiling is around $1.33M, so this claim fits with room to spare. The first year is unrestricted.

What a SaaS company should do differently

Split advertising at the point of buying. Product campaigns and company campaigns land under different articles with different caps, and separating them in the ad account is far easier than reconstructing the split from a year of invoices.

Put the certification calendar into the filing calendar. It is the one item where the deadline runs from a certificate date rather than a payment date, and surveillance audits recur annually.

Get pre-approval before buying analyst reports. It is a short step and it is the difference between a claimable $40,000 report and an unclaimable one.

Plan hiring around programme entry. Salary support only reaches people hired in the six months before your first claim, so a team built out over the eighteen months before you join is largely outside it.

Check which card pays for your tooling. The same rule that catches game studios catches SaaS companies, usually on software subscriptions rather than ad accounts. There is a whole post on the payment trail.

The calculator covers every item above if you want to run your own numbers.