Türkiye vs Cyprus, Estonia, UAE and Georgia for a game studio

Studios that come to us have usually made a shortlist already, and it is nearly always Cyprus, Estonia, the UAE and Georgia. Then they compare the five on tax rate.

That comparison ends in a tie. On money earned from customers abroad, all five get you to zero or close to it. Türkiye matches the best of them. So if tax is the only thing on your list, pick whichever you like and move on.

The interesting question is what else you get, and this is where the five stop looking alike.

The comparison

Rates in every column have changed in the last few years and will change again, so check them before you decide.

The column that only has one answer

Four of these countries offer you the same thing in different wrapping: keep more of the profit you make. That counts for something, and if you are already profitable the differences between them are real.

Türkiye gives you that too, and then adds a second system on top. The state pays back 50% of what you spend growing abroad, and 70% when you are aiming at one of 20 countries on the Ministry's list, including the US, UK, Germany, Japan and South Korea. It covers ads, store commissions, hosting, events, overseas offices and sales salaries. The money lands in your company bank account as cash.

Put a number on it. A studio putting $800,000 a year into buying players in the US and Japan gets about $560,000 back in Türkiye. In the other four it gets nothing, because none of them reimburse marketing spend at all. A difference of that size is not something a corporate tax rate makes up.

The timing is the part studios appreciate most. A lower tax rate only helps once you are making money. This pays out while you are still spending, which is when it is hardest to find. And when you do become profitable, the 0% on export income is waiting for you anyway, so you are not trading one for the other.

Hiring, which the tax comparison ignores completely

Türkiye has a real games and software industry, with studios, publishers and thousands of experienced developers, artists and producers. You can build a team of twenty locally without relocating anyone.

Cyprus, Estonia and Georgia are small countries with small talent pools. In the UAE you are mostly importing people and paying to keep them there. If you are building a studio with people in it, that difference matters more day to day than the corporate tax rate does.

What you give up

Two points you will find on your own anyway.

Dividends. If your plan is to take profit out to shareholders every year, Cyprus and the UAE treat that more kindly than Türkiye does. Worth weighing if that is your plan. Most studios we work with are reinvesting rather than distributing, which is why the cash-back side matters more to them.

Paperwork. Getting the money back means invoices, contracts and bank records that match, spending paid from the company's own account, and claims filed within six months of paying. Estonia asks less of you. But Estonia is not paying you either, and the monthly routine here is bookkeeping you would be doing anyway, plus filing. We run it for clients precisely so it stays a routine.

Which one for which studio

• Spending on ads, servers or events. Türkiye, comfortably. You get the same 0% on export income as anywhere else, plus half to seventy percent of that spending back.
• Building a team. Türkiye, for the talent pool alone.
• Selling into the US, UK, Germany, Japan or Korea. Türkiye, because those are on the target list and your spend comes back at 70% rather than 50%.
• Profitable, spending almost nothing, paying money out every year. This is the case where the others compete properly. Look at Cyprus and the UAE.
• One developer with tiny costs. Georgia and Estonia are lighter to run. Come back to Türkiye when there is real spending to claim.

The short version

On tax, all five are good and Türkiye is as good as any of them. On everything after tax, Türkiye is the only one that pays you for growing and the only one with an industry to hire from.

So the question is not which country has the best rate. It is whether you are going to spend money growing over the next few years. If you are, put your numbers in the calculator and see what that spending is worth here before you decide anywhere else.