Cyprus's company rules: quick facts
- Entity
- Private company limited by shares (Ltd)
- Tax model
- Corporate tax on profit, 15% Source: gov.cy, checked September 29, 2026. Tax Department presentation of the Income Tax (Amendment) Law, Law 244(I)/2025, in force from January 1, 2026 (Greek): 'From 1/1/2026 companies are subject to corporate tax at a rate of 15%' (Second Schedule, Article 25). The rate was 12.5% up to December 31, 2025Headline corporate tax rate
- Tax on $100,000 of profit kept in the company
- 15% Source: gov.cy, checked September 29, 2026. $100,000 profit = EUR 87,889 at EUR 0.878889 per USD (ECB, 2026-09-28). Corporate tax 15% = EUR 13,183. Deemed dividend distribution no longer applies to profits from 2026, so retained 2026 profit bears nothing more in Cyprus
- Tax on $100,000 of profit paid out to a non-resident owner
- 15% Source: gov.cy, checked September 29, 2026. EUR 13,183 corporate tax, then the EUR 74,706 left is paid as a dividend to an individual owner who is not tax resident in Cyprus. Special Defence Contribution on dividends falls on Cyprus-resident, Cyprus-domiciled individuals (5% from 2026) and on non-resident companies in low-tax (5%) or EU non-cooperative (17%) jurisdictions; a non-resident individual pays none. Total 15% of profit in Cyprus. The owner's own country usually taxes the dividend
- Dividend withholding for a non-resident owner
- 0% to 17% Source: gov.cy, checked September 29, 2026. Tax Department presentation on the Special Defence Contribution (Amendment) (No. 4) Law of 2025, in force January 1, 2026: the dividend charge applies to resident individuals (5%, down from 17%) and, under Article 3(1)(d), to non-resident companies at 5% if resident in a low-tax jurisdiction or 17% if resident in an EU non-cooperative jurisdiction. Nothing is withheld on a dividend to a non-resident individual
- Formed without visiting
- Yes
- Stripe available
- Yes Source: stripe.com, checked September 29, 2026
- Bank or EMI account
- Workable
- Audit required
- Yes
- EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions
- Not listed Source: taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu, checked September 29, 2026
- FATF grey list
- Not listed Source: taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu, checked September 29, 2026
- Economic substance rules
- No
Cyprus Ltd: the company a non-resident forms
The vehicle is a private company limited by shares, the Cyprus Ltd. Shareholders and directors can be foreign and need not live in Cyprus, but the company needs at least 1 director, a company secretary and a registered office on the island, and the incorporation itself has to go through a Cyprus lawyer.
The name must end in Limited or Ltd and is approved before anything else is filed. The Registrar charges €10 (about $11) per proposed name, or €20 (about $23) more per name to speed it up. It refuses names too close to an existing company or to a well-known international brand, and restricted words need the consent of the relevant authority.
How a Cyprus company is taxed in 2026
Corporate tax is 15% from January 1, 2026, up from 12.5% through 2025. On $100,000 of profit, which is €87,889 at the ECB rate of September 28, 2026, that is €13,183 (about $15,000).
Paying the rest out costs nothing more in Cyprus for an owner who lives abroad. The Special Defence Contribution on dividends falls on individuals who are both resident and domiciled in Cyprus, at 5% from 2026, and on companies resident in low-tax or EU-blacklisted jurisdictions; an individual shareholder abroad has nothing withheld. The deemed dividend rule no longer applies to 2026 profits, so profit you leave in the company is not taxed as if it had been paid out.
Residence is the rule that decides the rest. From 2026 a Cyprus-incorporated company is Cyprus tax resident unless a tax treaty says otherwise, and any company managed and controlled in Cyprus is resident too. Run it from your home in a country that has a treaty with Cyprus, and that treaty's tie-breaker can hand the company's residence to your country.
VAT registration becomes compulsory once taxable supplies pass €15,600 (about $17,700) in 12 months. Services sold to business customers abroad are generally not charged Cyprus VAT: EU customers account for it under the reverse charge, and sales outside the EU are out of scope.
David's note
I would form a Cyprus company only if you are moving to Cyprus, or already have directors there who really run it. For a founder who stays abroad, the audit and local upkeep cost thousands a year to buy a 15% rate that your home country can override the moment it decides the company is managed from your kitchen table. Moving there is what turns the same company into one of the cheapest EU setups a founder can hold.
Cost and timeline to set up in Cyprus
Official fees come from the government or registry schedule. Market ranges cover formation and yearly upkeep through a provider, including a registered agent and filings. Timeline: Filed with the Registrar of Companies online or by post, with documents signed by the Cyprus lawyer handling the incorporation, so the founder does not need to travel. The Registrar publishes no standard time; the accelerated procedure costs EUR 100 more, and law firms quote 5 to 7 business days on that route.
How to register a Cyprus company from abroad
You do not travel for the company itself. The Registrar takes the application through its e-filing system or by post, with a statutory declaration (form HE1) sworn before a Cyprus court by the lawyer handling the incorporation, so the lawyer is the one who appears in person. The bank account is the step most likely to need you in the room.
Forming a Cyprus Ltd as a non-resident
- Appoint a Cyprus lawyer and settle the basics: the name, the registered office address, the director and company secretary, the shareholders and share capital, and the objects of the company.
- Get the name approved by the Registrar after a search of its register and, ideally, of registered trademarks; nothing else can be filed until the name clears.
- Sign the memorandum and articles of association, drafted in Greek. Your signature is witnessed, and the witness's solemn declaration goes in with the lawyer's sworn form HE1.
- File the incorporation online or by post and pay the Registrar fee, adding the accelerated fee if you want it faster; the certificate of incorporation follows.
- Register with the Tax Department within 60 days of incorporation, which every new company must do to get its tax number, and file for VAT at the same time if the threshold applies.
- Record the beneficial owners in the Registrar's register of beneficial owners, and update it whenever the owners change.
- Open the business account with the certificate of incorporation, the memorandum and articles, your passport, proof of your address and an account of where the money will come from.
Cyprus company annual filings and deadlines
A Cyprus company answers to 2 offices every year: the Registrar for the company record and the Tax Department for the tax. Both want the same audited accounts, so the auditor's timetable sets yours.
Yearly filings for a Cyprus Ltd with a calendar tax year
| Filing | Filed with | Deadline | Cost of missing it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provisional tax: an estimate of the year's profit, paid in 2 equal installments | Tax Department | July 31 and December 31 of the same year | Tax Department penalties and interest on the unpaid tax |
| Final corporate tax, self-assessed and paid | Tax Department | August 1 of the following year | Tax Department penalties and interest on the unpaid tax |
| Company income tax return (TD4) with the audited accounts | Tax Department | 15 months after the year end; 2024 returns were extended to November 30, 2026 | Tax Department penalties |
| Annual return (HE32) with the financial statements, €20 (about $23) | Registrar of Companies | 28 days after the annual return date; the first date falls 18 months after incorporation | €20 more plus a late fee of €50, then €1 a day up to €150 (about $171), and strike-off if returns never arrive |
| Your own tax return, with the dividends on it | The tax authority where you live | Your country's deadline | Your country's penalties and the tax itself |
Opening a bank account for a Cyprus company
Cyprus banks run heavy checks on foreign-owned new companies and usually want local substance: an office, a director on the island, or clients and suppliers with a Cyprus link. A founder with none of those usually opens the first account with an EU fintech or electronic money institution, which onboards online with the company documents and your ID.
Expect questions about where you live, who pays the company, where the first money comes from and why the company sits in Cyprus at all. Owners who live in countries under EU sanctions, or on the FATF list of high-risk jurisdictions, should expect refusals from Cyprus banks and fintechs alike.
Every account opening also asks where the company is tax resident and where you are. When the honest answer is that the company is run from your apartment in another country, the bank form is where the residence question gets asked first, before any tax authority asks it.
Where a Cyprus company's profit is really taxed
The 15% is the Cyprus bill, and it is final only for an owner whose own country has no claim. At $100,000 of profit, this is where the tax lands in the 4 situations owners actually end up in.
Tax on $100,000 of profit in a Cyprus Ltd by owner situation (Cyprus column from the Tax Department rules above)
| Owner situation | Tax in Cyprus | Where else the profit is taxed |
|---|---|---|
| Lives in Cyprus as a non-dom and runs the company there | 15% corporate tax, then only the 2.65% GHS health contribution on the dividend: about 17.25% in all | Nowhere else, as long as no other country treats you as resident |
| Lives in a treaty country and runs the company from home | 15%, unless the treaty tie-breaker moves the company's residence to your country | Your country, as company profit at its corporate rate, and again when the dividend reaches you |
| Lives abroad while a real board manages the company in Cyprus | 15%, and nothing withheld on the dividend | Your country taxes the dividend, and its CFC rules can tax the profit before it is paid out |
| Has no tax residence anywhere | 15%, and nothing withheld on the dividend | No country claims the dividend on paper, and bank forms asking where you live become the problem |
The version that holds up is living in Cyprus as a non-dom with your own Cyprus company, where a non-domiciled resident pays no defence contribution on the dividend. It takes less time on the island than a full move: Cyprus tax residence can start with 60 days a year when you direct a Cyprus-resident company, keep a home there and spend no more than 183 days in any other single country.
Running it from home can mean paying twice
Since 2026 a Cyprus-incorporated company stays Cyprus resident unless a treaty says otherwise, so a founder who lives and works in another country can end up with a company both countries call resident, or with a permanent establishment at home. Until the treaty tie-breaker is applied, the same profit can face Cyprus's 15% and your home country's corporate tax. A nominee director in Limassol who signs whatever you send does not move the management back to Cyprus.
A non-resident's Cyprus company, set up right and wrong
Works
You move to Cyprus, rent a home, direct the company from there, claim non-dom status, take profit as dividends and file the audited accounts, the TD4 and the annual return on time.
Fails
You live in Munich, sign every contract from your apartment, pay a nominee director to sign board minutes in Limassol, report the dividends nowhere and assume Cyprus's 15% is all you owe.
