Free zones in Turkey and tax aplications: A study on the Bursa free zone

Free zones are the places outside the customs zone in terms of the tariff and foreign exchange laws while they are included in political borders of country. Free zones serve the purposes of increasing foreign trade, making foreign investment inflow easier and increasing foreign exchange reserves. Free zones founded as a result of the economic growth based on foreign trade in 1980s provide several facilities to all local and foreign firms. Tax-related facilities are the most efficient factor for the firms in head towards free zones. Before the change made in Free Zones Law with the law no: 5084 on Amendments to Some Other Laws on Investment and Employment Encouragement, tax, foreign exchange and customs rules provisions weren?t applied and the revenue obtained from the firms? operations were tax free. But after this law entered into force, tax-related radical changes have been made in free zones and tax laws have been applied. In this study, tax applications made in free zones have been discussed and the impacts of tax applications on investment decisions of the firms operating in free zones have been tried to be determined. Survey studies have been made by the negotiations with the managers working in Bursa Free Zone and the importance of tax applications on investment decisions have been measured. Key Words: Customs Area, Free Zones, Free Zones in Turkey, Tax, Taxation in Free Zones, Investment Desicions.BursaFree Zone.