Technology Development Zones (TDZs) are special areas that offer significant tax advantages in order to encourage R&D and software activities in Türkiye. Companies operating in these zones can benefit from both Corporate Tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) exemptions as long as they meet certain conditions. However, a frequently encountered question in practice is:

“Can tax exemption be applied to invoices issued after the software project is completed in the Technopark?”

It would be useful to clarify this question in terms of both legislation and practice.

Project Completed, Invoice Issued Later: Does the Exception Continue? Let's assume that a company has completed a software project it carried out within Teknopark on January 31, 2025 and has issued an invoice for the commercial delivery of the same software on April 30, 2025. What is important here is not whether the invoice was issued after the end of the project, but which activity generated the income.

Corporate Tax Exemption (Law No. 4691 - Temporary Article 2)
According to Law No. 4691, the income obtained from software, R&D and design activities carried out within the TGB are exempt from corporate tax until 31.12.2028.

The following conditions are required for this exemption to be applied:

The income must originate from a software or R&D activity developed within the borders of the TGB,

The activity must be carried out within the scope and content for which the project was approved,

The income must be directly based on the project output.

In this context, even if the project period has ended, the income obtained through the sale or licensing of the software that is the output of the project is still within the scope of the corporate tax exemption.

VAT Exemption (VAT Law Temporary Article 20)
According to temporary article 20 of the VAT Law, the delivery of application software produced within the TGB is exempt from VAT. Here, the basic condition is that the software is actually developed within the Teknopark.
The date of issuance of the invoice is not the sole determinant for the exemption. What is important is the nature of the delivered product.

However, there is a critical point to note:
If services such as maintenance, support, installation, consultancy are also provided together with the software invoice, VAT exemption cannot be applied for the prices of these services and VAT must be calculated by separating these parts.

Things to Consider in Application
Invoice Explanations
The invoice must clearly state that the software was developed within the scope of the Technopark project and that VAT exemption is applied within the scope of temporary Article 20 of the VAT Law.

Documentation
The approval documents, activity reports and technical documentation showing the development process of the project must be archived. These documents play a critical role in a possible tax audit.

Service Separation
If there are services provided together with the software delivery, these should be shown as separate items in the invoice and the exemption should be applied only to the software item.

Conclusion
Regarding software projects developed in Technoparks, tax exemption can also be applied to invoices issued after the project completion date. The main criterion is that the income has arisen from activities within the Technopark.
It is possible to benefit from this advantage safely with the correct accounting and document organization.