The six-month filing window: the one deadline every studio must know
Most Decision 10962 claims need no pre-approval, but every payment has a six-month clock. How the window works, what starts it, and how to run a filing cadence that never misses it.
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How claiming works
The most common misconception we hear about Türkiye's IT export incentives is that you must get everything approved before you spend. For the items studios actually use, that is not how Decision No. 10962 works. Hosting, app store commissions, per-title advertising, brand marketing, overseas offices and sales staff are all claimed after payment, with no pre-approval step.
What replaces the pre-approval gate is a deadline. Article 98 of the implementing circular gives you six months to file, and the clock starts at a slightly different moment depending on the item.
What starts the clock
| Item type | Clock starts on |
|---|---|
| Hosting, commissions, advertising, software licences, memberships, staff and most other items | the payment document date |
| Trade fairs and events (domestic or overseas) | the event's end date |
| Certifications and accreditations | the certificate's issue, renewal or surveillance date |
| Trademark and patent registration | the overseas registration date (Standard) or the application date (Branding) |
For a long-running activity with several payments, each payment carries its own six-month window and later payments are filed with a reference to the earlier claim.
Why this is good news
A deadline sounds like a restriction; in practice it is the reason the programme is so accessible. Because there is no gate in front of the spend, a studio can join today and file for everything paid in the last six months. Store commissions you have been paying every month, the ad campaign that ran in spring, the AWS bill: all of it is in scope from your first claim, as long as it was paid from the company account and the six months have not run out.
It also means the programme does not slow you down. You run your business exactly as before; the paperwork happens behind you.
What a filing cadence looks like
Our clients run on a fixed rhythm so that no payment ever gets close to the edge of its window:
- Monthly reconciliation. Every payment from the company account is tagged to a support item on the day it clears, and the invoice, contract and payment record are stored together.
- Quarterly filing. Claims go into DYS every quarter, which leaves at least three months of buffer inside every six-month window.
- Salaries in three-month batches. The circular requires employment claims to cover at least three months, so payroll rides the same quarterly cycle.
- Completion requests handled inside the window. If HİB, the examining body, asks for anything, the circular gives three months to supply it, extendable by three more. That time is separate from the original six months and does not cost you the claim.
The one thing that does close a claim
The only way to lose a claim entirely is to let its six-month window pass without filing. Nothing else in the process is fatal: missing documents can be completed, and payments made from a wrong account can usually be corrected going forward. So the single most valuable habit is a filing calendar with hard reminders, which is exactly what we run for every client.
If you want to see what a quarter's worth of your spend turns into, the calculator gives an itemised estimate in seconds.
Frequently asked
Does the six months count from the invoice date or the payment date?
From the payment document date (bank statement, SWIFT or card statement). Where a document shows both a transaction date and a value date, the value date counts.
What if the reviewer asks for something I don't have?
You get three months from the notification to supply it, extendable by another three months if new items are requested. Only what is still missing after that is left out of the decision.
Do salaries follow the same rule?
Salary claims are filed for periods of at least three months after the employment has taken place, and the six-month rule applies to each period's payments.
Sources
https://cyberscope.solutions/blog/six-month-filing-window/ · Updated March 24, 2026 · CyberScope Solutions