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Turkish banks - anyone has experience?

#61
@Milky Moon
First of all, there is no place with zero-risk. I have a bank account in Turkey and anyone can put money in Turkey without safety issues. Their army power top 10 in the world, safe and powerful country. Yes, they experienced serious attacks in the last few years but got zero damage.
 
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#62
rowena said:
@Milky Moon
First of all, there is no place with zero-risk. I have a bank account in Turkey and anyone can put money in Turkey without safety issues. Their army power top 10 in the world, safe and powerful country. Yes, they experienced serious attacks in the last few years but got zero damage.
Click to expand...

Zero-risk = Zero-reward.

In life it is all about risk appetite: are you willing to accept a higher risk and what reward would you expect to receive in order to warrant that risk. It's like dancing on a Vulcano, a dormand one is relatively save, an active one is considerably less save.

With Turkey, as stated previously, Erdogan is running it to the ground. He atributes everything to "a foreign plot". Just read: Turkish currency and debt crisis, 2018 - Wikipedia specially read the line: "13 September – Erdoğan published an executive decree requiring all contracts between two Turkish entities to be made in lira. The measure took effect immediately and requires existing contracts to be reindexed to the lira within 30 days."

1) the lira is a weak currency, so -if- you bank in Turkey bank in a 'strong' currency.
2) given the above, Erdogan will NOT hesitate to forcefully exchange your 'strong' dollar/euro into weak lira.

So every non Turkish and thus sane thinking individual that has a knowledge of the renaissance will skip putting money into Turkish banks. Only barbarians who fall into the lower left slope of a bellcurve, IQ-wise, will irrationally defend the indefensable. (hi Calvin)

another worthwile resource to read: Overview
 
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#63
@Milky Moon
Yes, inflation of TRY is high but all banks in Turkey in good condition. Let me give you some recent news. Just 2 months ago, one of the biggest bank in the world(ICBC), purchased a huge skyscraper for 600 Million USD in Istanbul, to start a business in Turkey.

https://www.dailysabah.com/real-est...igious-istanbul-tower-project-for-594-million
Please stop slander Turkey for your personal reasons and share real, correct advices. I am using a Turkish bank for 10 years with zero issues.
 
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#64
You seem to be unable to understand the finer point I made. (If you are Turkish and live in Turkey, banking in lira is fine, however this not a Bozkurtlar forum, so for the overall majority of the visitors of this forum, banking in Turkey should be considered very bad advise).
 
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#66
Well, as a guy who studied finance, living in Turkey as an opposition to Erdogan policy, and cant deny some of the problems that Milky Moon pointed, can tell that his results are totally irrelevant. Nobody will change your euro into lira, or freeze your assets just because a politician wake up in a bad mood.

Its not because Erdogan is a great man and great leader - he is not- , its because Turkish finance system has very strong ties with the global finance system.

BBVA
ICBC
ING
UNICREDIT
BNP PARIBAS
QNB
Sberbank
Emirates NBD

are all banking here , they are not afraid being partners to bank here, Emirates NBD not afraid to tie up 3 billion dollars to buy a bank here, but you should be afraid of putting 10k dollars to their bank, because Milky Moon tells you Erdogan will turn your 10k dollars to lira :) I mean, yeah why not :)

For the banks mentioned, Ziraat build in 1863, they live in 2 world wars , Ottoman Empire collapse, tons of economic crises. 25.000 workers now, Their yearly income is around 20 billion dollars , all state activites run through them- salaries etc- , but you should be afraid because lira lost %20 of his value in 2 years? Man , they face up at least 20 serious economic crises in their life , they did not freeze your funds , or turn your dollars to liras in previous 160 years. So, you telling to pick up some island bank instead , because they are more safe. Yeah, great idea.

Yapı kredi build in 1944, currently partnership of Koc Group - the biggest Turkish holding- with Unicredit. So, Unicredit not afraid to buy %31 of the shares, but again you afraid to put 10k, because of some political s**t. Yeah sir, smart idea.

As a result, both banks are more than solid with great background. Many more banks are too. If BBVA or ICBC can do it, you can do it too :)


But whats the problem ? Turkish banking system is not offshore banking legally. You can not open a bank account in any of those, without building a company here, or a branch of your company . Means you need to have a tax id here. You can not do it legally without a tax id. I dont know if theres some extremely illegal ways, but even if there is any, I can guarantee you that you gonna be caught and kicked in first inspection, which is in every 6 months.

What if you go get a tax id? s**t starts there, Turkey is one of the countries with the highest tax rates , VAT+Income tax. Although tax rate differs, for a company or branch who creates 40-50k in dollars, should give around %30-35 to state as tax, which means they are always a partner to you. If you are good to give %35 to any state, stay in your country, no need to go offshore :)

So , to combine all

1. Turkish banks are way very strong than Milky Moon or any other explaining to you
2. They are not offshore, you can not open an account legally without entering into taxation. And taxes are seriously unfair.
 
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#67
Btw there are lawyers claiming they can get TAX ID for your foreign company and then apply for a bank account in Turkey. I guess it is doable and I haven't given up on the idea. However, I'm wondering if I'm the stupid one who's trying to open a Turkish bank account for his (Turkish national) offshore company -- like reporting yourself to the Authorities.

While I'm not a Turkish Tax resident, it still scares me off (Turkey don't have universal tax liability like USA does, you're not responsible to pay for foreign incomes if you stay less than 180 days in a calendar year in Turkey)
 
#69
noticojaru said:
you mean, a biz account?
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Yes a business bank account. It seems foreign businesses can also register for Tax ID and then they can apply for a bank account with noterized/translated company documents and perhaps a personal visit?

As long as foreign company is not doing business in Turkey (no office, employees, income) it means that Foreign business is not tax liable (despite TAX ID)
 
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#70
Are you sure that they accept foreign companies today for bank account opening? For some years, maybe 5 years ago I asked an attorney in Turkey if they were able to help open an account there, he told us that it was only possible if we setup a company in Turkey.

Maybe things have changed over the years to the better.
 
#71
Admin said:
Are you sure that they accept foreign companies today for bank account opening? For some years, maybe 5 years ago I asked an attorney in Turkey if they were able to help open an account there, he told us that it was only possible if we setup a company in Turkey.

Maybe things have changed over the years to the better.
Click to expand...
It seems they made it easy since we host 5-7 million refugees in Turkey...
Getting TAX ID is easy, not every bank may want to do business with foreign companies though. Language barrier is another thing. They also want a contact phone and address in Turkey (virtual office should work)
 
#72
getting tax ID, either personal or for a compnay, -- doable
opening a personal account with that tax id -- doable
opening a biz account for a foreign company, with that tax id -- doable, but more difficult

right?
 
#73
noticojaru said:
getting tax ID, either personal or for a compnay, -- doable
opening a personal account with that tax id -- doable
opening a biz account for a foreign company, with that tax id -- doable, but more difficult

right?
Click to expand...
Correct. You still need to show some address in Turkey and a phone number (Turkish mobile sim card) though.
Some banks like BNP Paribas (TEB) are not keen opening individual accounts for foreigners, but other banks should be fine.
 
#75
Need to highly disagree with Zeytin. Asked my experts , they also highly disagree :)

For personal accounts, thats more easier to do. Especially in state owned banks, or banks with no foreign partner. My people told, Ziraat, Yapi Kredi and Halk Bankasi are doing it. Kind of easier to do than it waa 5 years ago because of the refugee topic that I guess you already know. No remote openin though.

Business accounts are way problematic. Need to repeat, not legally possible to get it without a tax id. To get a tax id, you should open a company here, or a branch of your company, which are basically the same thing. As opposed to zeytin, I can tell foreign business is not tax liable. When you build a branch, get a tax id and open an account, you get into the taxation system. And, your money in a business account in Turkey is counted as produced by the branch, and taxed. If government is not giving you tax advantages - you should have 100 workers at least, and producing something- you are taxed heavily. They dont care where you produced the money. They tell " If its in a Turkish account, then your Turkish entitiy produced it" . And taxed around %35 yearly.

Turkish banks are not offshore. You can build companies or branches as non residents, and can open company accounts if you follow the rules. But again, will heavily taxed. If you like Turkey at all to pay that taxes, welcome , I will buy you a beer :) Otherwise look for another location.
 
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#76
Guys, please keep your political- & religiuos opinions out of the posts and threads on OffshoreCorpTalk - it isn't the place to discuss such and we don't want it here.

Otherwise this thread has developed into something useful thu&¤#
 
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#78
Thanks
Admin said:
Guys, please keep your political- & religiuos opinions out of the posts and threads on OffshoreCorpTalk - it isn't the place to discuss such and we don't want it here.

Otherwise this thread has developed into something useful thu&¤#
Click to expand...

Yeah,this is all we want here.
We are here to talk about business ,just business.
Thanks for reminding this again!


To conclude, Turkey is not an islan country nor an offshore place like Cyprus.
This is a solid country with HIGH taxes.So the topic owner should be very careful with this agent offering banking services in Turkey.
 
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