Most English-language pages ranking for taxes in Cyprus still quote figures the reform replaced. Cyprus taxes personal and corporate income, turnover, dividends and interest, property gains and payroll, each under its own law and at its own rate. This page is the complete map: what each tax is, who pays it, the headline figure, and where the detail lives.
One disclosure, since we sell bookkeeping software: the last section is about TaxItEasy, and everything before it stands on its own. Nothing here is advice: which of these taxes reach you, and at what figure, is your accountant's call. They review your year and file.
Who counts as a Cyprus taxpayer, and is any of this actually current?
Yes, and it is enacted law. The Cyprus 2026 tax reform was published in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025, with its core provisions in force from 1 January 2026, so the reform figures below are law rather than a proposal. Whether the rest of the page applies to you starts with one word: residency.
Cyprus treats you as tax resident for a year if you spend more than 183 days there. Fall short of that and the 60-day rule can still make you resident, but only if all of it holds at once: you spend at least 60 days in Cyprus, you do not spend more than 183 days in any other single state that year, you carry on a business in Cyprus, are employed in Cyprus, or hold an office with a person or company that is tax resident in Cyprus, at any time in the year, provided that activity is not terminated during the year, and you keep a permanent home there, owned or rented. That definition is Article 2 of law N. 244(I)/2025, in force from 1 January 2026, and it replaced the earlier Cyprus wording outright.
Residency decides how much of this map reaches you: broadly, a Cyprus tax resident is taxed on worldwide income and a non-resident only on income arising in Cyprus. Which side you sit on is your accountant's first question.
Personal income tax: who pays it in Cyprus, and on what income
In Cyprus, individuals pay it in slices rather than at one rate. From the 2026 tax year Cyprus taxes personal income in bands: nothing on the first €22,000, 20% on the slice to €32,000, 25% to €42,000, 30% to €72,000, and 35% above that. The tax-free amount is €22,000 in Cyprus from 2026, the one number most stale pages get wrong.
The same bands apply whether the income is a salary or a freelancer's profit; what differs is the base: gross pay for an employee, net profit after the costs of earning it for the self-employed, and which costs count is the part an accountant is for. If you are self-employed, Cyprus only requires audited accounts once your gross income passes €120,000, up from €70,000 before the reform, under law N. 243(I)/2025. Below that line you still keep books in Cyprus; the threshold decides who signs off on them.
The Cyprus freelancer tax guide works the bands through against real freelancer numbers, with the audit question in full.
Corporate income tax, if you trade through a company
If you trade through a Cyprus limited company instead of as a self-employed individual, the company pays corporate income tax at 15% on its profits from the 2026 tax year, up from 12.5% before the reform. That is the company's bill. What you then take out as dividends is a separate question, and in Cyprus it belongs to the defence contribution two sections down.
Which structure suits you is not answered by the rate alone. The gap between Cyprus's 15% and the personal bands above is only the start: how you take money out, whether you count as domiciled, and what the structure costs to run and to unwind all move the answer further than the headline rates do. The Cyprus freelancer taxes guide weighs that decision on its own numbers.
VAT: the one Cyprus tax charged on turnover, not profit
A business established in Cyprus must register for VAT once its taxable turnover passes €15,600 in a rolling 12-month period. That threshold covers only domestic trading: a separate Cyprus rule with no minimum amount at all catches a business supplying reverse-charge B2B services to a customer in another EU member state from the very first supply.
VAT runs on what you sell rather than on what you keep, which is why a year with no profit can still end with a VAT payment. Once registered, Cyprus VAT runs at four rates depending on what you sell: 19% standard, 9% and 5% reduced, and 3% super-reduced. The Cyprus VAT return and its payment are due by the 10th day of the second month after the VAT period ends.
The form has its own guide, how to file a VAT return in Cyprus, which walks the return box by box; the Cyprus bookkeeping guide covers registration and rates for a small business in more depth.
Special Contribution for Defence (SDC): who actually pays it
It is paid only by a Cyprus tax resident who is also domiciled in Cyprus under the defence law's own domicile test. A Cyprus tax resident who does not count as domiciled there, the non-dom, pays no SDC whatsoever on dividends or interest. In Cyprus, non-dom is a defence-contribution category, not a general tax status; the income tax bands above apply regardless of domicile.
Residency and domicile are separate tests in Cyprus, and residency alone never triggers SDC.
For a Cyprus tax resident who is also domiciled there, SDC on dividends is 5% from the 2026 tax year, down from 17%, under law N. 245(I)/2025. The old 17% rate still applies for 6 years to dividends paid out of profits of tax years up to and including 2025, but only when the paying company is itself resident in Cyprus; a dividend from a company resident elsewhere takes the 5% rate even where the profits predate the reform.
Cyprus charges SDC on interest at 17%, cut to 3% for a short list of instruments and bodies, among them Cyprus government savings and development certificates, corporate bonds listed on a recognised stock exchange, and pension, provident, social insurance and GESY funds. Rental income carries no SDC at all from the 2026 tax year: the Cyprus reform removed the rental-income provisions from the defence contribution law entirely.
Capital Gains Tax: only if you sell Cyprus property
Cyprus levies a flat 20% Capital Gains Tax, but only on gains from disposing of immovable property situated in Cyprus, or shares in a company that holds such property directly, or indirectly through a chain of companies where at least 20% of the shares' market value comes from Cyprus immovable property. That indirect-holding threshold was lowered from 50% to 20% with effect from 1 January 2026 by law N. 242(I)/2025, and it is the only change the reform made here: the 20% rate in Cyprus's Capital Gains Tax Law 52/1980 did not move.
In Cyprus an individual can also exempt €30,000 of lifetime gains, cumulative across every disposal rather than per transaction, or €50,000 instead where the disposal is agricultural land and farming is the person's main occupation; the two are alternatives, not additive. Separately, per disposal rather than once in a lifetime, up to €150,000 of the gain from selling a main residence in Cyprus that you held and used exclusively as such for at least 5 years is exempt; a second such disposal by the same person needs at least 10 years of use instead of 5. Only one of the two reliefs applies to any single disposal in Cyprus, whichever gives the larger relief, and all three euro amounts took effect on 1 January 2026. The Cyprus law's only brake on repeat use of the main-residence relief is that step from 5 to 10 years of use.
Stamp duty: abolished from 2026
Cyprus abolished stamp duty on contracts entirely from 1 January 2026: law N. 239(I)/2025 repealed the Stamp Duty Laws.
Until then a Cyprus contract paid nothing on the first €5,000 of value, €1.50 per €1,000 or part of it from €5,001 to €170,000, and €2 per €1,000 above that, capped at €20,000 per document. A document drawn up in Cyprus had to be stamped at or before signature, with a 30-day penalty-free window for a stamping that was already late.
If you hold an older Cyprus contract signed before the cutover, that history is why a stamp reference might still appear on it; none of these bands is a current obligation. On a pre-2026 contract still unstamped at the cutover, the Cyprus repeal law says nothing at all, so that question goes to your accountant.
Social insurance and GESY: what comes off your income before tax
In Cyprus there are two contributions on top of income tax, each on its own base. Cyprus charges social insurance at 22.8% of an employee's insurable earnings, split 8.8% employer, 8.8% employee and 5.2% state, or 21.8% for a self-employed person, 16.6% own share plus 5.2% state. The 2026 ceiling on insurable earnings in Cyprus is €5,742 a month, or €68,904 a year, a figure the Social Insurance Services publish in their contributions table and confirmed in their announcement of December 2025.
Separately, GESY, Cyprus's national health system, takes 2.65% from an employee, 2.90% from the employer and 4.00% from a self-employed person, calculated on income up to €180,000 a year. Neither contribution is part of the income tax calculation, and a fair share of the confusion around accounting in Cyprus comes from pages that blend all three into one headline percentage.
For the self-employed, the contribution base and the billing rhythm are a subject of their own; the Cyprus freelancer taxes guide states those figures in context.
When each Cyprus tax falls due, at a glance
In Cyprus, provisional tax comes first, the return later, and VAT runs on its own clock. If you are self-employed in Cyprus, you estimate the year's taxable profit on a provisional tax assessment and pay the resulting tax in two equal instalments, by 31 July and 31 December of that same year. The Cyprus income tax return for the 2025 tax year itself is due by 31 October 2026. VAT keeps the rhythm from above: the Cyprus return and payment fall on the 10th day of the second month after each VAT period ends.
Cyprus requires the records behind that income tax return to be kept for at least 6 years from the filing deadline or the day you actually filed, whichever is later, and longer while a review stays open.
The full calendar, and what a missed deadline costs tax by tax, is the Cyprus tax deadlines guide; which portal a given filing runs through today is the Tax For All guide. Before any of those dates, the period checklist is how a period gets closed cleanly, and at year end you export your records for year-end for whoever files.
How TaxItEasy fits into this picture
Eight charges with eight rhythms is not something anyone holds in their head. None of them is a number until the receipts, invoices and bank lines behind it agree with each other. That paperwork side is what TaxItEasy does. The tax side stays with your accountant, on purpose.
Receipts and invoices reach TaxItEasy three ways: a photo on your phone with a guided scan, the email they arrived in forwarded to your company's private address, or a connected mailbox. Each document is then matched against your bank transactions in a workbench where every suggestion explains which signals it scored, and the VAT on those documents rolls up into a running VAT overview by rate.
When a period closes, a period report is ready to hand over inside the product, with the form lines as they appear on the return. You can invite your accountant into the account on any plan, because tax advisor connections are unlimited on every plan, including Free. What they see from their side is the portal for tax advisors.
What TaxItEasy does not do is decide or file. It works out no tax bill under any of the taxes above, files nothing with the Cyprus Tax Department, and does not tell you whether you are resident or domiciled. Your accountant reviews the numbers, applies the rates on this page to your actual position, and signs the return. If you came here to choose accounting software rather than to read a tax overview, the Cyprus bookkeeping guide is the comparison.
Frequently asked questions
What taxes does someone living or working in Cyprus actually pay?
You pay personal or corporate income tax, VAT once you trade above the threshold, the Special Contribution for Defence on dividends and interest if you are resident and domiciled in Cyprus, social insurance and GESY, and Capital Gains Tax if you sell Cyprus property. Stamp duty was on that list too; Cyprus abolished it from 1 January 2026.
Did the 2026 reform touch SDC, Capital Gains Tax or stamp duty?
Yes, all three. SDC on dividends fell to 5% for a Cyprus tax resident who is also domiciled there, down from 17%. The Cyprus Capital Gains Tax threshold for indirect shareholdings dropped from 50% to 20% while the 20% rate itself stayed put. And Cyprus abolished stamp duty on contracts entirely from 1 January 2026.
What is the Special Contribution for Defence, and do I have to pay it?
It is a separate Cyprus tax on dividends and interest, charged only to a Cyprus tax resident who is also domiciled there; a resident without Cyprus domicile, the non-dom, pays none of it. From the 2026 tax year the Cyprus dividend rate is 5%, down from 17%, and the rate on interest is 17%. Cyprus residency alone never triggers it.
Do I pay Capital Gains Tax if I sell property in Cyprus?
Yes, at a flat 20% on the gain from disposing of Cyprus immovable property, or shares in a company holding it. In Cyprus a lifetime exemption of €30,000, or €50,000 where the disposal is agricultural land and farming is your main occupation, and a separate per-disposal main-residence exemption of up to €150,000 can reduce or remove the bill.
Is stamp duty still charged on contracts in Cyprus?
No. Cyprus abolished stamp duty on contracts entirely from 1 January 2026. Before that date a Cyprus contract paid nothing on the first €5,000 of value and at most €20,000 in total above it, and it had to be stamped at or before signature. An older contract may still carry a stamp reference for exactly that reason.
Which of the taxes on this page does TaxItEasy help you prepare for?
It helps with all of them on the paperwork side and none on the filing side. TaxItEasy organises the receipts, invoices and bank lines behind every tax here and keeps a running VAT overview by rate; your tax advisor reviews those numbers, applies them to your position and files each return. It works out no tax bill and files nothing.