From tax year 2026 a Cyprus resident files a tax return on gross income within Article 5(1) of the Income Tax Law, and any resident aged 25 to 70 files, income or not. Self-employed people file by 31 July of the following year, or by 31 January of the year after that where accounts must be audited or reviewed.
The tax year 2025 return
Decree K.D.P. 260/2026 extended the tax year 2025 return of a natural person other than a self-employed person with audited or reviewed accounts, and the payment of the tax due on it, until 31 October 2026 at 23:59. Whether a self-employed person without that duty sits inside those words is not settled, so the group you are in decides your date. Confirm yours with the Cyprus Tax Department or your accountant.
Most people meet this form the same way: invoices scattered through a mail thread, receipts in a drawer, twelve months to summarise. The law underneath moved too, so 2025 and 2026 answer to different rules.
What is the TD1, and who has to file it?
The T.D.1 is the Tax Department's annual income tax return for individuals, self-employed people included. Whether you have to file turns on your income and, from tax year 2026, on your age, and that rule is not the one that governed the returns you filed before.
From tax year 2026 a resident files on gross income within Article 5(1) of the Income Tax Law, and/or if on 31 December they have completed the 25th year of age but not the 71st, income or none. The Tax Department puts that as between 25 and 70. It is Article 4(a) of law N. 243(I)/2025, and a decree of the Council of Ministers can narrow it again.
Tax year 2025 ran on the older rule: decree K.D.P. 52/2025 exempts a natural person whose gross income for 2025 does not exceed €19,500. The Business in Cyprus page says something looser, a Taxpayer Identification Code and an IR1 every year regardless of the amount earned; the decree is the more specific source.
Which TD1 deadline applies to a self-employed person?
In Cyprus, for tax year 2026 and later the general deadline is 31 July of the year after the tax year. Someone who must keep accounting records and have the accounts audited or reviewed by a statutory auditor may file instead by 31 January of the year following that one, so the 2026 return by 31 January 2028.
| Branch | Who it covers | Return due |
|---|---|---|
| General rule | No audit or review duty | 31 July of the year after the tax year |
| Audit or review duty | Accounts audited or reviewed by a statutory auditor | 31 January of the year after that |
Which branch is yours follows the audit obligation, not the job title. Both dates sit in Article 5(1A) of Law 4/1978, as replaced by Article 4(b) of N. 243(I)/2025 for tax year 2026 and later. Never read a bare "31 January" without the audit condition, or a bare "31 July" without the exception, and treat 31 March of the second year as superseded for tax year 2026 onward. A decree can still set a later date for a category of persons.
Paying during the year is a separate track: two equal instalments, on 31 July and 31 December, which the Cyprus provisional tax guide carries. The Cyprus tax deadlines guide has the whole calendar.
Do you need audited accounts, and what does it change for your return?
From tax year 2026 a natural person carrying on a business in Cyprus is exempt from preparing accounts under Article 30 when annual turnover and certain other gross income do not exceed €120,000. Above that figure the accounts go to an audit, or, inside a middle band, to a review. The old line was €70,000.
The middle band carries three conditions. Under the Cyprus rule, where the total exceeds €120,000 but not €200,000, and the balance sheet total, the value of assets with liabilities not deducted, stays at or under €500,000 at the balance sheet date over at least two consecutive financial years, the accounts may be submitted to a review; anyone outside both limbs submits them to an audit. The law says "may", which is more careful than a rule of thumb about two years. The total is annual turnover plus certain other gross income, never profit.
So the threshold picks your row in the table above: exempt means the general 31 July rule, audited or reviewed accounts open the 31 January branch. Whether someone who chooses a review also gets January is nowhere stated outright, so ask your accountant. The exemption decides who signs the accounts off, not whether records exist, and the Cyprus freelancer tax guide has the fuller audit section.
Is 31 October 2026 your deadline?
It depends which of three groups you are in. Decree K.D.P. 260/2026 set 31 October 2026 at 23:59 for the tax year 2025 return of natural persons other than the self-employed who must prepare audited or reviewed accounts, and for the tax due on it. The other two groups are less clear.
Employees, pensioners and other natural persons with no duty to prepare audited or reviewed accounts sit inside the decree by its own words. Decree K.D.P. 260/2026, Official Gazette No. 6029 of 12 June 2026, page 1593, extends the return and the payment until 31 October 2026 at 23:59, a Saturday; the Tax Department's return page gives the same date against a base rule of 31 July.
Self-employed people with no audit or review duty are the open case. The decree reaches "a natural person other than a self-employed person who has an obligation to prepare audited or reviewed accounts", and that wording neither names this group nor plainly shuts it out. Nothing we hold makes a later date available, so confirm with the Cyprus Tax Department or your accountant before relying on one.
Self-employed people with audited accounts are left out of the decree. For them the Department lists 31 March 2027 for the 2025 return, and it listed 1 August 2026 for payment of the final tax by self-assessment, a date that has passed. A decree can still move those, and no source we have read gives a date for a reviewed-accounts filer.
Whichever group is yours, a return that misses its date carries the fixed fine of €150. Checked against the Tax Department's pages on 16 October 2026.
Do you file on TAXISnet or Tax For All?
It depends on the tax year. The Tax Department's return page says tax years 2017 to 2025 are filed exclusively on the TAXISnet platform, and from tax year 2026 exclusively on the Tax For All platform. So the 2025 return runs through TAXISnet, and the first return filed on TFA is the 2026 one.
That is not a shutdown: TAXISnet is not decommissioned and no Tax Department source we have read names an end date for it. On the TFA side, registration in the Tax Register runs only online through the portal, creating an account comes first, and since 22 August 2025 it can also be entered through CY Login, formerly Ariadni. The Tax For All guide covers it, registering as self-employed in Cyprus the step before.
Which tax bands does the return use?
The bands depend on the tax year. The Cyprus 2025 return uses the table that has applied since tax year 2008: nothing up to €19,500, then 20%, 25%, 30%, and 35% above €60,000. From tax year 2026 the zero band runs to €22,000 and the top rate of 35% starts above €72,000.
| Taxable income, tax year 2025 | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to €19,500 | 0% |
| €19,501 to €28,000 | 20% |
| €28,001 to €36,300 | 25% |
| €36,301 to €60,000 | 30% |
| Above €60,000 | 35% |
From tax year 2026 the same five steps sit elsewhere: nothing to €22,000, 20% to €32,000, 25% to €42,000, 30% to €72,000, 35% above that. Never read one table against the other year.
Something comes off before either applies. Contributions paid to the Social Insurance Fund and under the General Health System Law are deducted in ascertaining taxable income from tax year 2026, within an aggregate cap of one fifth of taxable income across everything claimed under Article 14; what is deducted is the amount actually paid, not a rate. The Cyprus self-employed social insurance guide has the rates, the Cyprus self-employed tax calculator guide the arithmetic.
Which records have to be behind the return?
In Cyprus, books and records, and the documents that support the figures on the return, are kept at least six years from the later of the filing deadline and the date it was actually filed. If a tax audit starts in the last year, they stay until the audit ends or a year after it began, whichever comes first.
Six years is not the new part. Before 2026 the documents supporting a return were kept six years from the end of the tax year; from 1 January 2026 the six years run from the later of the deadline and the filing date. The length stayed, the clock's start moved, and for a late filer the same paperwork now stays on file longer.
What happens if you file or pay late?
Article 50A of Cyprus Law 4/1978 puts a fixed fine of €150 on a natural person who does not submit a return on time, unless they file inside a grace period the Commissioner has announced. Paying late is a separate charge: 5% of the tax due, and another 5% if it is still unpaid two months after the deadline.
The two stack and are never one number: the fine answers the missing return, the percentage answers the unpaid tax, and the second 5% takes that charge to 10% together once two months have gone. Interest is a third thing again. Cyprus applies one public default rate to every debt owed to the state, set each December for the whole following year, and for 2026 it is 3.50%. Whether it also runs on a fine or a surcharge is not something our sources settle, so we leave that open. The Cyprus VAT penalties guide explains that mechanism. We hold no source for a formula in income tax, so this page gives none.
The return is only as good as the records behind it
Nothing in our software prepares a TD1, works out your tax, files anything with the Tax Department or watches a deadline for you. The audit line, the retention clock and the late charge all assume one thing: that the documents exist and agree with each other.
That part is worth automating. Documents are read, filed and matched to the payments that settled them, the invoices you raise sit beside the supplier documents, and the mechanics are in how the matching pipeline works. Photographing receipts when they happen, with the receipt scanning app, stops the drawer filling up.
At return time the Excel report carries a Profit & Loss sheet you can filter by period, labelled as draft figures unless an advisor maintains the ledger. Your accountant pulls the accounting reports as XLSX, you export your records for year-end as CSVs, or you invite your tax advisor in instead of emailing a folder in January. It starts when you sign up and add your company.
Then the line is clean. We keep the evidence; you or your accountant file on the Tax Department's portal. The Cyprus bookkeeping guide is the hub for the year behind the figures, and the records side of the product is on the freelancer tour.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Cyprus self-employed tax return deadline for 2026?
For tax year 2026 there are two dates, not one. The general deadline is 31 July of the year after the tax year. Where a person must keep accounting records and have the accounts audited or reviewed, the return may instead go in by 31 January of the year after that, so 31 January 2028.
Do I have to file a Cyprus tax return if I earned nothing?
From tax year 2026, yes: a Cyprus resident aged 25 to 70 on 31 December of the tax year files whether or not there was any income. For tax year 2025 a decree exempted any natural person whose gross income for that year did not exceed €19,500, so a low year may need no return at all.
What is the Cyprus audit limit for a sole trader?
From tax year 2026 the line is €120,000 of annual turnover plus certain other gross income. Up to €200,000, with a balance sheet total of at most €500,000 over at least two consecutive financial years, a review of the accounts may be enough. The old threshold was €70,000.
Is the Cyprus 2025 tax return still filed on TAXISnet?
Yes. The Tax Department's return page says tax years 2017 to 2025 run exclusively through TAXISnet, and only from tax year 2026 does the individual income tax return run exclusively through Tax For All. TAXISnet itself is not decommissioned, and no source we hold names a shutdown date for it.
How long should a Cyprus sole trader keep tax records?
At least six years, counted from the later of the return's filing deadline and the day it was actually filed. That clock has run that way since 1 January 2026; before then the six years ran from the end of the tax year. A tax audit starting in the last year extends it.
Does TaxItEasy file my Cyprus tax return?
No. Nothing in the software prepares, calculates or submits a TD1. What it keeps is the evidence underneath the figures: documents read and filed, bank lines matched to them, invoices you raise beside supplier documents, and a profit and loss sheet you can export. You or your accountant file on the Tax Department's portal.