Gold Trading: Which Document from Which Authority?
Businesses about to enter gold trading usually go looking for the names of documents. What blocks the file, though, is not names but addresses: which document comes from which authority, and after which other document.
Below we have divided the process into four links. Each link takes the output of the link before it as its input. At the fourth link sits a question peculiar to this branch: where the duty of customer identification actually comes from.
The question put properly
The right question is not “which documents are needed” but “which door opens after which”. Where the order is unknown, the same authority is visited three times, and each visit loses a week.
On the gold side there is one further difference. Where three links suffice in other retail branches, here a fourth comes into play: the market and supervisory authorities.
The four-link table of authorities
The table shows which heading is settled at which door. The detail can vary from province to province and from activity to activity.
| Link | Authority | What comes out of it |
|---|---|---|
| First | Tax office | Commencement, the visit and the tax certificate |
| Second | Tradesmen’s chamber or trade chamber | Chamber registration document |
| Third | Licensing unit of the district municipality | Workplace opening and operating licence |
| Fourth | Market and supervisory authorities | Fineness, hallmarking and the duty arrangement |
Skipping a link is not possible. The desk at the third link asks for the output of the second, and the fourth link carries on after trading has begun.
The first link: the tax office
Once the address is settled, the commencement notice goes to the tax office. The visit is made, the tax certificate is issued, and the business begins to exist officially.
One decision falls due at this link: sole trader or company. If you are thinking of wholesale supply, corporate buyers and export, a company structure makes the later links easier.
The second link: chamber registration
Sole traders register with the tradesmen’s and craftsmen’s chamber, companies with the trade chamber. The chamber registration document that comes out of it is a required input for the third link.
This link runs mechanically and usually takes days. The cost of a delay here is not its own length but the way it pushes the licence application back.
The third link: the district municipality
The workplace opening and operating licence is taken at this door. Gold trading, under a purely commercial arrangement, is an activity typically assessed towards a sanitary establishment.
Should melting, casting or repair be carried out on the premises, the assessment can change. Declare the scope of your activity in writing and ask for the opinion in writing; do not begin alterations on the strength of a spoken answer.
The papers that go into the folder at the third link
At this door the following items are typically asked for. The final list always appears on the municipality’s own form.
- Application form and statement of activity
- Lease agreement or title deed
- Occupancy permit
- Information on the zoning status
- Tax certificate and chamber registration document
- Identity document and photograph
- Condominium consent in a residential building
- A mastership or vocational qualification certificate (MYK) according to the trade
- A fire brigade report according to the premises and the activity
The list is not an undertaking; it is a frame for beginning to build the folder. Because each district’s form reflects its own practice, further papers may be asked for.
The fourth link: market and supervisory authorities
This link is not a single event like the other three. It carries on as long as trading does, and it has three separate parties to deal with.
The Turkish State Mint and the authorised assay offices attend to fineness and hallmarking. The precious metals exchange stands for the order of the market and the infrastructure of dealing. MASAK, Türkiye’s financial crimes investigation board, runs the duty side concerning the prevention of financial crime.
Where the customer identification duty comes from
The answer to this question does not lie with the municipality. Customer identification does not arise as a condition of the licence; it arises because certain businesses count as obliged parties within the arrangement for preventing financial crime.
Businesses that buy and sell precious metal are treated as obliged parties within that arrangement. In practice it comes to three things: identifying the customer, recording certain transactions and reporting any transaction seen as suspicious. Amount thresholds and the reporting procedure are set by the MASAK rules and are renewed over time; for your own business, take confirmation from the legislation in force and from your accountant.
Where the heading of the intermediary institution sits
This heading is often confused. A retail business selling gold in its window and an authorised institution acting as intermediary in exchange dealings are not the same thing.
Becoming an intermediary institution is subject to an authorisation arrangement of its own, and it is not gained with a retail licence. If you are thinking of moving to that side, confirm the terms and the current procedure directly from the market legislation.
A separate record discipline in buying scrap gold
Buying scrap gold from the public is the liveliest side of this branch, and the side that asks for the most care. A record showing where the goods came from protects the business and the customer alike.
- Keep a record of the date and time of every purchase
- Identify the customer and enter the details in the record
- Write down the weight, the fineness and the description of the goods taken in
- Tie the method and the amount of payment to the record
- Keep the record traceable backwards, in a ledger or in a system
All five serve one purpose: that the answer is ready when the question comes. Without that discipline, the risk of goods of unclear origin rests squarely on the business.
How to build the order properly
Three of the four links can be run in parallel; one cannot. The municipal application has to wait on the output of the first two links.
So work at hastening the first two links, and put the security and record arrangements in place during that time. To see the general order of the authorities look at the business licence roadmap.
Where to begin
The starting point is not an authority but a decision: what will you sell, and will you buy scrap. Those two answers shape all four links.
If you will concentrate on fineness and assay work, read our assay and hallmarking service article; if you are entering the gemstone trade, our gemstone trading article. Our jewellery and accessories sector page holds the capital and margin bands.
In Short
- What blocks the file is not the names of documents but the order of the authorities
- The process runs in four links, and each asks for the output of the one before
- The first link is the tax office, the second chamber registration
- The third link is the licensing unit of the district municipality
- Under a purely commercial arrangement it is typically assessed towards a sanitary establishment
- The fourth link is not a single event: it carries on as long as trading does
- Fineness and hallmarking concern the Mint and the authorised assay offices
- Customer identification is not a licence condition but arises from the duty arrangement
- Thresholds and the reporting procedure are renewed under the MASAK rules
- Becoming an intermediary institution is not gained with a retail licence
- A five-item record discipline in buying scrap protects the business
Quick Glossary
Precious metals exchange: the structure within which dealings in precious metal are carried on inside an ordered market. Precious metals intermediary institution: a body separately authorised to deal in that market. Obliged party: the side carrying the responsibility for customer identification and reporting within the arrangement for preventing financial crime. Assay examination: the operation of establishing an article’s fineness and quality by measurement.
Next Step
Let us set the four links against your own timetable and settle which door you begin at: consultation request form.
Frequently Asked Questions
Updated: September 2026
Sık Sorulan Sorular
The basic document is the workplace opening and operating licence. Before it come the tax certificate and the chamber registration document; after it, the duty side takes over.
The tax office. Without the commencement notice the later links do not open.
It is not. The fineness, hallmarking and duty headings on the precious metal side run separately.
Not from the licence but from the arrangement for preventing financial crime. Businesses buying and selling precious metal count as obliged parties within it.
A record is expected for transactions above a certain amount. Confirm the current threshold from the MASAK rules and from your accountant.
Not for retail buying and selling. Acting as intermediary in exchange dealings is subject to a separate authorisation arrangement.
The Turkish State Mint and the authorised assay offices. If you buy ready-made goods, take care to source hallmarked articles.
The date, the identity details, the weight, the fineness, the description of the goods and the payment details. The record must be traceable backwards.
The first two are measured in days, and the third takes weeks if the papers are complete. The fourth carries on throughout the life of the business.