Importing from Turkey to Iran: paying the Turkish exporter

Importing from Turkey appeals to many Iranian traders for a simple reason: the distance is short, the range of goods is wide and you can visit the factory or warehouse yourself. But between "signing a contract with a Turkish seller" and "clearing the goods at Iranian customs" sits one link that, if set up badly, stalls the whole chain: the foreign-currency payment. This article is about that link: where payment sits in the import flow, who pays whom, the contract currency and what a business payment request actually needs.

The basics of proforma versus invoice, company versus personal accounts, staged payments and fake-invoice fraud are already covered in paying a Turkish supplier from Iran and are not repeated here. If this is your first deal with a Turkish company, read that article first.

The import flow, seen from the payment side

Follow an ordinary import deal from start to finish and payment appears at a few fixed points:

1. Quotation and negotiation. No payment yet; unit price, delivery terms and payment terms are agreed.
2. Proforma. The seller issues a pre-invoice. From here on the currency, the amount, the payment stages and the official bank details are fixed.
3. Advance. The first payment stage, usually after the proforma arrives and before production or preparation starts.
4. Shipment. The seller prepares and sends the goods; depending on the agreement, the second stage is paid before shipment or once the shipping documents are received.
5. Commercial invoice. The final document with the definitive amount and the invoice number; the import file refers to it.
6. Final settlement. The remaining amount, as the contract says.
7. Customs clearance. The stage that no longer concerns us and runs with your customs broker, but the payment documents from the earlier stages are used there.

In this chain payment is not one event but several, each with its own document. That is why it helps to know from the outset which currency, which account and which document each stage will use.

Who pays whom

The payer is usually one of two: the importing company that signed the contract in its own name, or a sole trader working under their own trade licence. Either way, the receiving party must be the Turkish exporting company, meaning an account opened in that company's registered legal name at its bank.

Several people on the import route are not the payee for the goods, even when they are in every message thread:

• The sales agent or intermediary who brokered the deal. If a commission is due, it is a separate contract and a separate payment, not part of the price of the goods.
• The forwarder and the shipping company, who are paid for transport and insurance; that cost has its own document and account.
• An employee of the seller who writes to you from a personal email or messaging app. Their personal account, even with their consent, is not the right place for the price of the goods.

When this separation is clear from the start, your receipts match the invoice and, in a dispute, proving that the money reached the seller is straightforward.

The contract currency

The Turkish seller prices in lira, dollars or euros, and that choice sets the payment route:

• Lira contract: you pay the toman equivalent in Iran and lira is deposited to the IBAN of the company's lira account. This is the same lira transfer to Turkey route that is used for commercial payments.
• Dollar or euro contract: the deposit must go to the company's foreign-currency account in that same currency. This route is described under SWIFT and SEPA transfers from Turkey; availability for each destination and amount is confirmed after the request is reviewed.

Two rules hold in both cases. First, the deposit currency must match the proforma and the receiving account; lira into a dollar account, or the reverse, either bounces or is converted at the bank's own rate, which pushes the figure away from the invoice. Second, the toman-to-contract-currency rate at each stage is that day's rate and is confirmed together with the fee before execution; the rate of the first stage is not locked for the later ones.

If the seller lets you choose the currency, decide before the proforma is issued. Changing currency after the proforma means a new document and probably a new receiving account.

What a business payment request needs

A commercial payment differs from a personal one in one fundamental way: it must be provable and bookable later. So prepare the following before you open a request:

• The proforma or invoice for the stage you are paying. The amount, currency, document number and payment terms are read from it.
• The exporter's legal name and the IBAN of its account, exactly as they appear on the document and are registered at the bank. If the document lists several accounts for different currencies, specify the one in the contract currency.
• The amount of this stage, not the whole contract; the rate is quoted for this amount.
• The purpose of the payment in one line: advance on order number such-and-such, balance of invoice number such-and-such.
• Your own company documents, if requested: depending on the amount and the type of transaction, registration documents or a trade licence may be asked for. Exactly what is needed is told to you after the request is reviewed, and nothing unnecessary is requested.

The more complete this package, the less back-and-forth before the rate is quoted. Services for companies, including recurring payments to the same seller, are described under business currency services.

Staged payments and proof of payment

An import rarely involves a single payment. The advance, the pre-shipment payment and the final settlement are separate requests, each with its own bank receipt. To make those receipts useful later:

• Give the proforma or invoice number with every request so it is written into the transfer description and the seller can match the payment to your order.
• File the bank receipt (dekont) of every stage the same day: for the seller, for your accountant and for the import file.
• Match the amount on each receipt against the document for that stage. If the seller changed the amount (a change in quantity, for instance), get the corrected document before paying, not after.
• If there is a long gap between stages, do not expect the next stage's rate to equal the previous one; each stage is quoted at its own day's rate.

The sum of the stage receipts should match the final invoice. That simple reconciliation prevents most problems at clearance and audit time.

Where we do not give an opinion

Customs duties, value-added tax, order registration, currency allocation and the rest of Iran's import rules are matters for your customs broker and your accountant. They depend on the product, the origin and the year, and they change; we do not advise on them, and a payment that does not fit your official import route will not solve your problem. Before finalising the contract, settle the official import route and the permitted payment method for your goods with your broker and accountant, then turn to the payment.

EL DÖVİZ's role in this chain is limited and clear: getting the amount of each stage to the seller's company account, with the rate and fee confirmed before execution and a bank receipt afterwards.

If you have your proforma or invoice, enter the currency, the amount of this stage and the type of receiving account in the quote form. After the request is reviewed, the rate, the fee and the documents required are confirmed, and nothing is paid until you approve.