Disputing a Supplier Invoice: The Eight Day Rule in Turkey

If your business receives an invoice for services and you want to contest it, paragraph two of article 21 of the Turkish Commercial Code (Law No. 6102) sets an eight day period: a person who receives an invoice and does not object to its content within eight days of the date of receipt is deemed to have accepted that content. When a service was only partly delivered, the objection should be written, itemised and sent in a way you can prove, before the period ends. The question matters to advertisers, publishers, small companies and agency clients who buy for business purposes. Purchases made as a consumer are outside this topic. This is not legal advice.

Reading article 21 paragraph by paragraph

Article 21 (Opens in a new tab) of the Commercial Code has three paragraphs, and only two of them carry an eight day period. Keeping them apart avoids counting the wrong clock.

What the text leaves open

The wording is "from the date of receipt". The article does not say how the eighth day is calculated, how the receipt date is fixed for an invoice that travels electronically, or what form an objection must take. Holidays are a separate question. Article 92(1) of the Code of Obligations says that a period set as eight or fifteen days means exactly eight or fifteen days, not one or two weeks, and article 93 moves a performance date or last day that falls on a legal holiday to the next day that is not a holiday, unless the parties agree otherwise. The documentation has no statement on whether either rule applies to the eight days in Commercial Code article 21(2). Practical suggestion: finish the objection early. A buyer who fills these gaps with assumptions carries the risk. The practical answer is to record the receipt date with proof and to finish the objection early.

Whether the clock concerns you

Paragraph two speaks of "a person who receives an invoice" and sets no separate limit on the buyer's status, but the article sits in the commercial provisions and paragraph one describes an invoice requested from a trader acting within the business. The approach here is written for businesses that buy services for commercial activity. Consumer purchases and the periods in consumer legislation are outside this topic, and whether they relate to the eight days is not interpreted.

Decision rule for the buyer

1. The service was bought for your company and the invoice names your company: track the eight days.
2. The purchase was personal: do not apply this approach and look at consumer legislation instead.
3. No invoice has arrived: use the paragraph one right to ask for it and record the date of the request.
4. An invoice and a confirming letter arrived together: run two separate clocks.

When the invoice lands in the wrong inbox

The user of the service and the invoice recipient are not always the same person. A design lead places the order and the invoice goes to an accounts mailbox. The article counts from receipt by the person who receives the invoice, and the text does not say what happens when the document sits unread in a shared mailbox. Ask the supplier to send invoices to both addresses and ask accounts to log the arrival date the day the mail comes in.

Worked scenario: an architecture visualization studio

Example scenario: an architecture visualization studio subcontracts part of a housing project to a freelance rendering team. The order lists exterior stills, interior stills, a walkthrough film and a short handover note describing the scene files. The team sends one invoice covering all four items. The studio's project coordinator opens the invoice the day it arrives and finds that the interior stills and the handover note were never delivered, and that the walkthrough film is a draft.

1. The receipt time is saved from the mail header and the eighth day is entered in the shared calendar.
2. Each invoice line is matched with the order: exterior stills are complete, interior stills are missing, the film is incomplete, the note does not exist.
3. The coordinator decides to object to three lines and to leave the exterior stills out of the objection.
4. The objection goes to the e-mail address named in the order, and the sent message with its attachments is saved.
5. One sentence states that the unobjected line will follow the agreed payment plan.

What matters is that the objection was narrow, written, and sent well inside the period. Objecting to the whole invoice would also have been possible, but the coordinator chose to keep the complete line outside the dispute.

Working backward from the eighth day

Practical suggestion: this schedule is an internal habit, not a rule from the Code. Its only purpose is to keep the final days empty.

What the studio keeps in its file

• The order with line names and delivery formats.
• The invoice file and the proof of receipt.
• Links and files for what was delivered, with dates.
• The correspondence showing the handover note never arrived.
• The objection letter and the dispatch record.

What an objection should say

Article 21 does not describe the form or the headings of an objection. Shaping it is therefore a practical decision, and the aim is simple: a later reader should be able to answer "what was objected to, when, and why" from the paper alone.

Four parts

1. The invoice: date, number, issuing company and total.
2. The lines contested, using the names from the order.
3. The reason for each line, tied to the order or the delivery record.
4. The remedy expected: removal of the line, a corrected document or completion of the delivery.

Keep the reason to a sentence and attach proof. "The interior stills listed in the order were not delivered" can be checked against a document. "The work was poor" cannot. Write the figures exactly as they appear on the order and the invoice, and quote the invoice line rather than recalculating tax treatment yourself.

Table: sections of an objection letter

An excerpt from the studio's letter

Example scenario: "Line 2 of the order, interior stills, was not delivered. Line 3, the walkthrough film, was delivered as a draft and the order describes a final film. Line 4, the handover note, was not delivered. We object to these three lines as to invoice content. Line 1 is not contested and will be handled under the agreed payment plan." Every sentence points at one line and one proof.

Sending the objection so it can be shown

The article names no channel, so choosing one is up to you. Practical suggestion: choose a route from which you can later show what was sent and when.

• If the contract names a notice address or an e-mail address, send it there.
• If there is no contract, use the address on the invoice and the one used for the order.
• Save the sent item with its time, text and attachments.
• Do not count a phone call as the objection. If you spoke, ask for the summary to be confirmed in writing.

The text has no statement on which notification method is legally valid. Your anchor is the notice clause in your contract and your own record keeping. Without a contract, the order form and the exchange of messages are what you have.

Who receives it

Send the objection to the entity that issued the invoice and copy the party that did the work if the two differ. When a studio buys rendering from a reseller who in turn uses a freelance team, the invoice issuer is the first addressee. The order shows who is responsible for what, and the article has no statement about the chain of suppliers.

Partial delivery and a missing report

When part of the work arrived and part did not, there are two routes: object to the whole invoice or object to the missing lines only. The choice depends on the contract and the relationship, but the reason for the choice should be on paper.

Article 23 contains a paragraph on part delivery in sales between traders: if part of the contract is not performed, the buyer may use its rights only for the undelivered part. That paragraph is written for sales and exchange of goods. The article has no statement on applying it to a service contract, so it is not offered here as an analogy.

Shape of a partial objection

Practical suggestion: write two sentences. The first lists the lines contested. The second names the lines not contested and says how they will be paid. The reader sees that the objection is targeted and not a refusal of the entire invoice.

The missing deliverable report

When a report or handover note is part of the service and the contract promises it, a missing report is an incomplete delivery. If the contract does not define the format, date and data source, the objection stands on weaker ground because the missing item is harder to describe.

Table: matching what is missing to proof

Table: proof the studio would want for each line

An invoice that comes before the work

Law No. 3065 on Value Added Tax lists the events that give rise to the tax in article 10 (Opens in a new tab). For performance of a service, it is the performance of the service. Where an invoice is issued before the service is performed, the event is the issue of the invoice, limited to the amount shown on the document. Where services are performed in parts, each part is addressed separately. The article shows that an invoice can precede performance, and it says nothing about the objection period. An advance invoice should still be logged the day it arrives and checked against the order.

Purchases without any document are dealt with in paragraph two of article 9 of the same law: if the purchase of a service without a document is found, the tax lost is sought from the taxpayer who bought it, and the taxpayer is given a period of 10 days from the date of the finding to present the purchase documents. That ten day period belongs to a different situation from the eight days of the Commercial Code.

After the objection: payment, correction and extra time

What happens to payment depends on the contract. If it sets out a payment plan and a step for objections, follow it. If it is silent, paying the lines not contested and holding the contested ones can be considered as practical suggestion. It is not a legal rule.

Keeping the supplier relationship workable

An objection is a statement about the invoice, and a supplier may take it as an accusation. Example scenario: the studio phones the rendering team after sending the letter, says that the exterior stills were good and that the letter exists only to protect the period, and then confirms the same points by e-mail. The call helps the relationship, and the e-mail keeps the record. The call alone would not have done the second job.

A correcting document

The supplier may agree to remove a line. Ask in writing which document will make the correction. Its form and tax detail are outside this topic. As a buyer, avoid paying for the contested line before the correcting document arrives.

Giving time to perform: what the Code of Obligations says

Law No. 6098, the Code of Obligations (Opens in a new tab), says in article 117 that the debtor of a debt that is due falls into default upon the creditor's notice. Article 123 provides that in contracts imposing obligations on both sides, when one party is in default the other may give an appropriate period for performance or ask the judge to give one. Article 124 lists three situations where no period is needed, and article 125 sets out the creditor's choices once the period passes without performance: performance together with damages for delay, giving those up and asking for compensation for non-performance, or withdrawing from the contract.

These provisions do not govern invoice objections. They govern a separate step, which is to demand completion of the missing work. The objection letter protects the eight days, and a second letter handles the demand and the time you give. For the shape of a correction request see the sponsored post correction request guide, and for accept, hold or dispute decisions in part delivery see partial delivery in a backlink package.

Confirmation letters have their own clock

Paragraph three deals with a writing that confirms the content of a contract concluded by phone, by another communication tool or orally. If the studio agrees a revision round by phone and the supplier then sends a summary that adds a fee for source files, silence for eight days after receipt leads to the summary being deemed consistent with the agreement. Log such a summary as its own document even when it arrives with the invoice, and answer it with its own letter if it does not match your records.

The text does not say what form such a writing must take. Whether a chat transcript or an e-mail summary qualifies is not addressed. When in doubt, treat the document as if it starts an eight day count.

Contract wording and internal roles

The easiest way to avoid pressure on the eight days is to settle the objection routine before ordering. Practical suggestion: add to the order form the address to which invoices are sent, the address to which objections are sent, and the date by which the supplier will acknowledge an objection.

Sample clause: "The buyer keeps a record of the date it receives an invoice and sends any objection to the invoice content to the e-mail address named in this contract. The seller confirms receipt of the objection in writing and states its position on the contested lines." This is a sample, not a provision of the Code.

Table: who holds which task

An objection skeleton

1. Subject line: invoice objection, document number and date.
2. Opening sentence: when the invoice was received and which order it belongs to.
3. List of lines contested.
4. One sentence of reason per line, and the list of proofs.
5. Position on lines not contested.
6. The remedy sought and the date by which a reply is requested.
7. Attachments: order, correspondence, links, report if any.

Keep the language plain. A threatening tone makes settlement harder. The aim is to keep the dispute discussable and to keep the period.

Mistakes that cost the objection

Counting from the invoice date and not the receipt date

Paragraph two counts from the date of receipt. An invoice dated on the first of the month and received later should be tracked from the day it arrives, and the arrival must be provable.

Letting finance approve payment automatically

An automatic payment run can approve an invoice before anyone compares it with the order. Put the line check ahead of the approval step.

Objecting to the order instead of the invoice

Complaining about the scope of the project in a general e-mail does not name the invoice and its lines. Name the document and quote the line.

Sending a long angry message

A message that fills three pages with grievances hides the contested lines. One page, one line per sentence.

Trusting a verbal extension

The text has no statement that the eight days may be extended by a phone promise. If the supplier offers extra time, ask for it in writing and still send the objection within the eight days.

Checklist for the day the invoice arrives

• Receipt date and its proof saved.
• Invoice compared line by line with the order.
• Undelivered or different lines marked.
• Proof gathered: links, files, report, correspondence.
• Any confirming letter placed on its own clock.
• Objection sent inside the eight days and the dispatch record saved.
• Plan for uncontested lines settled.
• Correcting document requested in writing.

Splitting the approval into three records

Practical suggestion: record receipt, line check and payment approval as three steps. An invoice that skipped the line check may only reveal that the eight days have passed when it is too late to act.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does article 21 say about objecting to an invoice?

Under paragraph two of article 21 of the Turkish Commercial Code, a person who receives an invoice and does not object to its content within eight days of the date of receipt is deemed to have accepted that content.

Does the eight day period apply to consumers?

The approach here is written for businesses buying for commercial activity. Consumer purchases and consumer legislation are outside this topic.

Is an e-mail enough as an objection?

The article does not describe the form of an objection. Choose a route that leaves a record of what was sent and when, such as an e-mail to the address named in the contract.

What if the invoice comes before the work is done?

Article 10 of the VAT Law lists the issue of an invoice before performance as a tax event for the amount shown on it. The article has no statement on the objection period in that case, so check the invoice against the order on the day you receive it.

Do articles 22 and 23 give me more days?

No. Article 22 concerns a trader debtor's request to reduce a fee or contractual penalty, and article 23 concerns sale and exchange of goods between traders. This is not legal advice.

Can the supplier agree to a longer period?

The text has no statement on extending the period by agreement. Send the written objection inside the eight days and ask for any extra time in writing as well.

Conclusion

For a business buyer, the reference point for contesting an invoice is the eight days in paragraph two of article 21 of the Turkish Commercial Code. On the day the invoice arrives, save the receipt date, compare each line with the order, send a written and itemised objection with proof of dispatch, keep uncontested lines separate, and ask for the correcting document in writing. This is not legal advice.

If you want a recorded routine for backlink or sponsored post orders that arrive incomplete, see the backlink packages page.