How do you relocate your business to Cyprus, and in what order?

Tax registration

A company registers with the Tax Department within 60 days of the earliest of the events the department lists: its incorporation, its registration under any law in force in Cyprus, its registration under the Companies Law if it was formed abroad, the day it becomes resident in Cyprus, or the day it first has income the Income Tax Law taxes. Registration is online only, through the department's Tax For All system, and a company on the Registrar's register logs in with CY Login.

Beneficial owners

A Cyprus company files its beneficial owners in the Register of Beneficial Owners within 90 days of its incorporation or registration, and reports any change within 45 days of learning of it. Branches of foreign companies are among the exempt, as are companies listed on an EU-regulated market. Once a year, between 1 October and 31 December, the company confirms its beneficial owners online.

Missing the 2026 confirmation costs €100 for the first day and €50 for each further day, up to €5,000. A company whose first 90-day deadline falls inside the confirmation period confirms by 31 December as well.

VAT

A business established in Cyprus registers for VAT at the end of any month in which its taxable supplies over the past year have passed €15,600, or as soon as there are reasonable grounds to expect them to pass €15,600 in the next 30 days. The business's capital assets are left out of the count, and the company needs its tax number before it applies.

Every year

A Cyprus company with share capital makes up an annual return once a year and files it with the Registrar within 28 days of the make-up date. A branch files accounts instead, as set out under the way in.

A late return costs €50 plus €1 for each further day, at most €150.

There is no annual company levy any more: it was abolished from 2024, though levies for 2011 to 2023 still apply.

What counts as EU

The conversion rules cover limited companies formed under the law of an EU member state that have their registered office, central administration or principal place of business in the EU. In Cyprus company law "member state" means the EU only, so a company from an EEA country outside the EU, or from Switzerland, falls under the rules for moving a registration, not under conversion. Which legal forms count as limited companies here is set by a list in EU company law.

Who can't use each route

Conversion is closed to public collective investment funds, and to a company in liquidation that has begun distributing its assets, under resolution tools or crisis-prevention measures, or in insolvency, preventive-restructuring or other liquidation proceedings.

For a move of registration, the Registrar must refuse a company whose dissolution, liquidation, insolvency, arrangement, compromise or enforcement proceedings have begun; one with a liquidator, administrator or receiver appointed; one whose creditors' rights an order suspends or restricts; and one facing proceedings for breaking its home country's law.

What a branch files

Within one month of opening, the foreign company files with the Registrar a report of its name, legal form, seat, the branch's address, its objects, its home registry and number, its issued capital and any winding-up, together with a certified copy of its constitution (translated if it is not in English), a list of its directors, secretary and representatives, and the names and addresses of one or more people resident in Cyprus authorised to accept service for it. That authorised person also represents the company in Cyprus.

Every financial year the company files its own financial statements, management report and audit or review report. On top of that it prepares branch accounts and a management report, has them audited or reviewed and files them, unless it prepares, audits and publishes its accounts at home under the EU accounting and audit directives and has filed its own accounts in Cyprus. A company exempt from those duties at home files a certificate of exemption, signed by a director and the secretary, with a statement from its home authority.

Branches of foreign companies are exempt from filing beneficial owners in the Registrar's register.

What carries over

Moving or converting creates no new company. On a move of registration the company's property, pending court cases, debts and liabilities continue, and its rights and obligations are not affected by the move.

On a conversion all assets and liabilities, including contracts, credits, rights and obligations, become the converted company's, employment rights and obligations carry over, and the shareholders stay shareholders, except those who left for cash under the exit rules.

A new company

Forming a company is a subject of its own; at the Registrar it starts with approval of the name.

For an existing foreign company that wants the register, a Cyprus company or a registered branch comes first.

Before you file

Two things must allow the move: your home country's law, and the company's own constitution, which must let it continue under the law of another approved jurisdiction. An approved country or jurisdiction is one whose company law has provisions comparable to Cyprus's. A company covered by the EU conversion rules cannot use this route; it converts instead (inside the EU).

The company's resolution to move is taken, as far as is practicable under your home law, with the formalities of a Cyprus special resolution.

The documents

The application goes in with:

• The company's resolution to continue in Cyprus
• Its revised constitution, meeting Cyprus company law
• A certificate of good standing from the home country
• A director's statutory declarationNames, jurisdiction, date of incorporation, the resolution, proof that the home authority was formally told, and that no proceedings for breaking home-country law have begun.
• The directors' solvency declarationCovering the next twelve months.
• Details of the officers and members
• Proof that your home country's law permits the moveAnd that any consent it requires from shareholders, employees, bondholders or creditors was obtained.
• Any permission the name or the business needsIf it was not already filed with the name approval.

Each document is a true copy from the home country with an apostille or, where the country is not part of the Hague Convention, its competent authority's certification. Filings for the move are in Greek or in certified Greek translation; a translations file costs €160.

A director who makes the solvency declaration without facts to justify it commits an offence, punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine.

When the Registrar must refuse

The Registrar refuses the application if the company's dissolution or liquidation has begun, or insolvency, arrangement, compromise, enforcement or similar proceedings have begun by or against it; if a liquidator, special administrator or receiver has been appointed; if a judgment or order suspends or restricts its creditors' rights; or if proceedings for breaking the law of its home country have begun against it.

Licensed businesses

If the company's business needs a licence both in Cyprus and at home, it files the home licensing authority's formal consent to the move, and in every case it gets the Cyprus licence before it starts work here. A public company also files its latest prospectus and, if it is listed, the stock exchange's consent.

The two certificates

When the filing meets the law, the Registrar registers the company provisionally as continuing in Cyprus, issues a temporary certificate of continuation and publishes the move in the Official Gazette. From that date the company counts as a company formed under Cyprus law, with all of a Cyprus company's duties and powers, and its revised constitution becomes its memorandum and articles.

Within six months it files the evidence that its home registry has removed it, with form ME4, the temporary certificate and a fee of €20. The Registrar then issues the final certificate of continuation, and the earlier certificates stop having legal effect.

Both forms can be accelerated, for €100 more on the ME1 and €20 more on the ME4.

The only clock in the process is the company's own six months: the Registrar's guidance gives no processing time.

Which companies qualify

Conversion covers limited companies of the legal forms on a list in EU company law, formed under the law of an EU country and with their registered office, central administration or principal place of business in the EU. It is closed to public collective investment funds and to companies in liquidation that have begun distributing their assets, under resolution tools or crisis-prevention measures, or in insolvency, preventive-restructuring or other liquidation proceedings.

The route was added to the Companies Law by an amendment published in the Official Gazette on 15 March 2024.

Who runs each half

Your home country's law governs every step up to the pre-conversion certificate; Cyprus law governs everything after it.

The company applies to the Cyprus court with the draft terms its general meeting approved. The court reviews the legality of the Cyprus part and approves it, and the pre-conversion certificate is conclusive proof that the home steps were completed. The Registrar then registers the conversion and tells your home registry through the system that connects the EU's business registers.

What carries over

All the company's assets and liabilities, including contracts, credits, rights and obligations, become the converted company's, and employment rights and obligations carry over. The shareholders stay shareholders, except those who left for cash under the exit rules.

Forms and fees

The Registrar's guidance and forms pages list no guide, form or fee for a conversion into Cyprus. Its notice of 31 May 2024 names the procedure cross-border conversion.

The registered office

Every Cyprus company keeps a registered office in Cyprus from the day it is incorporated, an address where communications and notices can reach it; the Registrar adds that it cannot be a mailbox.

A change of address is notified to the Registrar within 14 days, and late notice costs €50 plus €1 a day, at most €250. For 21 days after the Registrar registers a change, documents can still be served at the old address.

The company's name has to be shown, legibly and where it is easily seen, outside every office or place where it does business.

A provider's address

Cyprus law treats giving a company its registered-office address as an administrative service which, subject to exceptions the law sets out, only licensed providers, or exempt persons supervised by their own supervisory authority, may offer.

Premises for the register

For the register, the premises are separate from any home, a shareholder's included, and shown by a title deed, a purchase agreement or a lease of at least 12 months. A sublease or shared space counts only if the agreement gives both parties' full details and addresses, with the number of a dedicated room only the company uses, the floor, street, street number and area.

Buying the premises, or equipment strictly for the business, can be the €200,000 instead of a deposit. Buying real estate to run a property business, such as an estate agency or a developer, does not.

The rule follows the government's strategy, which describes these companies as running independent offices in Cyprus.

Virtual offices

For the registered office, a provider's address is something the law, with some exceptions, allows only an authorised provider to supply.

For the register, the Business Support Centre does not say whether an address-only office or a hot desk meets its premises condition, and neither the Companies Law nor the Administrative Services Law defines a virtual office.

Where the company pays tax

A company is resident in Cyprus for tax if it is managed and controlled here, or if it is incorporated here under the Companies Law unless a tax treaty says otherwise. A company that moved its registered office or seat to Cyprus counts as incorporated here.

For a tax residency certificate, the Tax Department's form asks where the registered office is, whether most board meetings take place in Cyprus, whether most directors are tax resident in Cyprus, whether the board itself takes the main decisions, and whether minutes, records and shareholder meetings are kept or held in Cyprus. These are the form's questions, not conditions in the law.

Company tax is a subject of its own: the rate is 15% since 1 January 2026, and taxesincyprus.com covers the rest.

What every bank must check

These are the Central Bank's rules for every bank, which is why it pays to have the answers ready.

A bank identifies a company by its registration number, registered and trade names, registered office, the full address of its head office, contact details, directors, the people authorised to act for it, its beneficial owners and any nominee shareholders. It verifies them against the company's certificates of incorporation, registered office, directors and secretary and, for a private company, shareholders, its memorandum and articles, and the further documents the rules list, from the board resolution to open the account to the ownership structure and recent accounts.

Before the relationship starts, the bank collects at least:

• Why the company wants the relationship
• How it expects to use the account, and in what volume
• The nature of its transactions
• Where payments will come from and go to, and how muchCountries and main partners, both ways.
• A clear, detailed description of its main business
• Its ownership structure and group

Bank of Cyprus

For a Cyprus limited company's first business account, Bank of Cyprus asks, where they apply, for the beneficial-owner register receipt, any nominee trust deeds, management accounts for up to two years or VAT payments for the last twelve months, a utility bill from the last six months for the address of the company's main business (not a mobile phone bill), a directors' resolution on the account, its signatories, cards and online access, and identity documents and proof of address for the directors, secretary, shareholders and signatories.

During its review Bank of Cyprus may also ask for the certified memorandum and articles and the Registrar's certificates.

Its process: an online application, a bank officer in touch within 3 working days, then a branch visit with all the original documents.

Bank of Cyprus's international clients visit one of its International Business Units or apply through a local professional intermediary, with its account-opening questionnaire, which asks for a detailed description of the business.

Eurobank and Alpha Bank

Eurobank, formerly Hellenic Bank, publishes no document list for a business account on its account pages; its business current-account page asks you to book a virtual or physical meeting at a branch.

For a personal international current account, Eurobank uses its own questionnaire and a virtual or physical meeting with an International Business Centre.

Alpha Bank Cyprus, which took over AstroBank's banking operations, lists for its international unit an ID or passport, proof of address, a bank reference, a CV and a due-diligence questionnaire, a list not written for companies.

When Alpha Bank reviews an existing company customer, it may ask for the founding document and articles, the Registrar's certificates, good-standing and incumbency certificates for a foreign company, the group structure, details of the people connected to the company, and audited accounts no older than two years, or management accounts or the latest tax returns.

In person or online

It depends on the bank. Bank of Cyprus finishes its domestic process with a branch visit, and its international one with a visit to a business unit or an application through a local intermediary; Eurobank offers a virtual or a physical meeting.

The Central Bank lets banks take customers on remotely, following the European Banking Authority's guidelines, with enhanced checks where the risk is high.

Where a third party introduced the company, the bank meets its beneficial owners, or the people who control or run it, before any transaction, face to face or online with safeguards such as recording.

Shell companies

The Central Bank's rules call a company a shell company if it has no physical presence or activity where it is registered, usually beyond a postal address, and/or no established business activity and little or no independent economic value. Physical presence means a place of business, owned or rented; a lack of real management and administration can itself count as no presence, and a third party who only acts as representative or company secretary is not presence. Holding shares or other assets, or other convincing evidence of a legitimate business with identifiable owners, can show business activity.

A business run remotely, selling products or services, producing content or providing professional or technical services, may be left out of the definition once the bank has checked its activity, with evidence such as financial statements, active accounts, tax returns, its website, customers and contracts.

The bank must turn down, or end, a relationship with a shell company that is also registered where no audited accounts are required and prepares none, or is tax resident in a jurisdiction on the EU or Global Forum non-cooperative lists or a similar list, or has no tax residence. For any other shell company the bank decides on a documented risk basis.

How long it takes

If the company is eligible and the application complete, registration is completed within ten business days.

The nine criteria

Besides the €200,000 investment and the premises, the company meets one of these:

• Non-EU nationals hold the majority of its shares
• A non-EU minority shareholder's stake is worth at least €200,000On top of the €200,000 investment. If the stake is shown through a capital increase or a share allotment filed with the Registrar, the filing comes with a certificate of the cash deposit.
• A public company listed on a recognised stock exchange
• A former offshore company that operated before the change of regime, whose data the Central Bank holds
• A Cypriot shipping company
• A Cypriot high-tech or innovation company
• A Cypriot pharmaceutical company, or one in biogenetics or biotechnology
• A company mostly owned by people naturalised on economic criteriaWho still meet the conditions they were naturalised under.
• A private tertiary education institute licensed by the Ministry of Education

A company owned exactly half by non-EU nationals confirms its case with the Business Support Centre.

If no owner is non-EU

The first two criteria need non-EU shareholders; the other seven are separate routes. Whether the Business Support Centre accepts a company with no non-EU shareholder under one of them, its published pages do not say.

What counts as the €200,000

The money can be a deposit, paid by the shareholder or shareholders from abroad into the company's account at a credit institution licensed by the Central Bank of Cyprus and shown by a SWIFT or equivalent record; an e-money or payment institution does not count. A nominal capital increase of €200,000 counts only with proof of the actual transfer.

The alternative is buying offices or equipment strictly for the business, with invoices or receipts in the company's name; buying real estate to run a property business does not count. Either way, the amount is still there when the company applies.

Why older sources miss it

The government's questions-and-answers document of November 2021 does not mention the general €200,000 investment: it predates the Council of Ministers decision of November 2022 that reinstated it.

Companies registered before 2022

Companies that were on the Migration Department's register before 2022 keep the strategy's benefits without registering again, but are asked to update their information every year, with audited accounts, a tax-compliance certificate and a Social Insurance certificate.

Without the register

Without the register, non-EU staff come through other routes, each with its own conditions: general employment on a single permit, or the EU Blue Card. Whatever the route, every non-EU employee needs a residence permit.

Who skips the labour-market test

Staff earning at least €2,500 gross a month, with a relevant degree or two years' relevant experience and a contract of at least two years, skip the labour-market test; below that, the test applies, and so does a contract sealed by the Department of Labour.

What the Migration Department asks for

Being on the register is not enough by itself: the company and each employee also meet the single-permit conditions. For a first entry and residence permit, in any category, these are the core of the department's longer official list:

• A signed employment contract of at least two years
• The employer's declaration covering the employee's return costs
• The employee's passport, CV with qualifications or experience, medical tests and criminal-record certificateBefore arrival.
• Employer's liability insurance with automatic renewalAfter arrival.
• The employee's housing document, health insurance and medical tests done in CyprusAfter arrival: a title deed or rental agreement; Plan A health cover, or GESY registration with private cover for repatriation of remains.
• The company's registration certificates from the Registrar and the Tax Department

Arriving and registering

A highly paid employee can enter on a visa from a Cyprus consulate or on an entry permit the employer applies for; support staff enter only on an entry permit.

After arriving, the employee registers in the Aliens' Register and applies for a temporary residence and employment permit, with its fees. First applications go only to the department's headquarters in Nicosia, with biometric data (photo and fingerprints) and a signature.

Someone who came in on an entry permit registers with the department within seven days of arriving.

How long a permit lasts

A permit lasts as long as the employment contract, up to three consecutive years. A highly paid employee can stay without a time limit while holding a valid permit; support staff fall under the limits of general employment.

The 70:30 commitment

A registered company hires highly paid non-EU staff without a labour-market test.

The official texts agree on a commitment to a 70:30 ratio of staff over five years, and a company that misses it is reviewed case by case.

Support staff

Below €2,500 a month, a job counts as support level: it needs a labour-market test and a contract sealed by the Department of Labour, and support staff enter only on an entry permit.

The strategy texts also set a further limit on the share of support staff from outside the EU, which the department's current pages do not repeat.

How long the department takes

The department's pages say it examines a complete application within one month under the policy; its application form says four months, which can be extended in exceptional cases.

EU staff

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens have free access to work, employed or self-employed. Staying longer than three months, they apply for a registration certificate within four months of entering Cyprus.

Stamp duty

Employment contracts signed from 1 January 2026 carry no stamp duty; the Department of Labour's sealing of support-level contracts is a different thing.

Every residence route, not only the company ones, is compared on Cyprus residence permits.

The permit categories

The strategy keeps the categories Director, Key Personnel and Specialist, for administrative and statistical reasons only, and Specialists are not limited to particular professions. The application form offers Director, Middle management – Key personnel, Specialist and Support staff.

Bringing your family

The department's English page says employees "as Directors or Key Personnel executives" can bring a spouse and minor children through family reunification; its Greek page gives that right to highly skilled employees, names no category, and makes it subject to the conditions of the Aliens and Immigration Law.

A spouse living here through reunification may take paid work in a Cypriot company without a sealed contract, if the single-permit conditions are met, but not self-employment.

The government's strategy links this to a salary of at least €2,500 gross a month, excluding support staff, without making clear whose.

Parents and parents-in-law, partners in a proven relationship, and adult children up to 25, or within a year of finishing their studies, if their stay is justified, can apply to come as Dependent Visitors when the employee's annual income is at least €24,000, plus 20% for a spouse or partner and 15% for each child and dependent parent.