Moving to Cyprus in 2026: Non-Dom Tax, the 60-Day Rule and Residency
What a business owner pays after moving to Cyprus in 2026: non-dom dividends at 2.65%, the 60-day rule, residency routes for non-EU founders, crypto, the IP box and banking.
A business owner who moves to Cyprus and takes their profit as dividends pays 2.65% personal tax on them, and only on the first €180,000. On a €2 million dividend that is €4,770. The company pays 15% corporate tax before that, and some businesses bring that down to 3%, or further.
Whether those numbers apply to you depends less on Cyprus than on how you get there: the residency route you use, how you become tax resident, and what your current country does when you leave. That is where founders fall into the traps, and where we tell clients which parts to use and which to leave alone.
- Non-dom tax on dividends
- 2.65%, at most €4,770 a year
- Corporate tax
- 15%
- Qualifying IP profit
- 3% effective
- Crypto disposals
- 8%
- Tax residency
- 183 days, or 60 with conditions
- Non-dom status
- Up to 17 years
- Wealth and inheritance tax
- None
- Tax treaties
- About 65 countries
Cyprus in brief
Cyprus is an island in the eastern Mediterranean. It has been in the EU since 2004 and uses the euro. The island is divided, and the tax rules and residency routes here are those of the Republic of Cyprus, in the south.
English is everywhere. Cyprus was British until 1960, its legal system is built on English common law, and you can run your company, deal with your accountant and go to court in English.
Summers are long and hot, and winters are mild. Limassol is where the business community sits: the law firms, the accountants, the banks, and a large Russian-speaking business community that has been there for decades. Nicosia is the capital. Paphos and Larnaca are quieter and cheaper.
Who can live there
With an EU passport
You have the right to live and work in Cyprus. There is no investment and no minimum number of days you have to spend there, and you can own and run a Cyprus company from day 1.
Without an EU passport
Of the 4 routes to residency, 2 are worth your time. Which of them fits depends on whether you are willing to be on a Cyprus payroll.
| Compared | Permanent residence | Company of foreign interests |
|---|---|---|
| What it takes | A €300,000 investment: new-build property, other real estate, share capital in a Cyprus company, or a Cyprus fund | Your Cyprus company, majority owned by you, receives €200,000 of foreign capital through a Cyprus bank |
| Income | €50,000 a year, more if you bring family | The company employs you at €2,500 a month or more, gross |
| Working in Cyprus | No job, but you can be a director of the company you invested in and take dividends | A residence and work permit with no maximum stay, and your spouse can work |
| Citizenship | After 7 years | After 4 years, with Greek at B1 level |
| Fits when | Your business runs itself | You are willing to be on a Cyprus payroll |
The only presence rule on permanent residence is that you cannot stay away for 2 consecutive years. Citizenship takes much longer on it than on the company route, whose fast track needs some Greek.
The other 2 routes are not serious options for someone running a business. The older residence permit for people living on passive income has a far lower threshold, but it forbids you from working in Cyprus at all. The digital nomad visa is capped, lasts 3 years at most and then stops. You cannot work for a Cyprus company on it, and it leads nowhere: not to permanent residence, and not to citizenship.
Becoming tax resident
Living in Cyprus and being tax resident there are not the same thing, and the second is what changes your bill.
You are Cyprus tax resident if you spend more than 183 days there in a calendar year. Or on 60 days, if all of this is true:
- you spend no more than 183 days in any other single country
- you keep a home in Cyprus, owned or rented
- you hold a job, a business or a directorship in a Cyprus company
The 60-day route used to have another condition: no other country could treat you as tax resident. That was removed in January 2026, which makes the route usable for a lot more people. Where 2 countries both treat you as resident, the tax treaty between them decides.
Be clear about what 60 days means. The other 305 days have to go somewhere, and every country you spend them in has its own rules. Some start counting you as resident at 183 days, some at 90. Your whole year has to work, not only the part in Cyprus.
On paper, Cyprus gives you a tax number, and you file a return there every year, including as a 60-day resident. You are not holding a single certificate. You are building an annual paper trail, and that is what the tax office in the country you left will want to see.
What you pay personally
Cyprus taxes salary progressively, up to 35%, and the top rate starts at €72,000. If you pay yourself a salary, Cyprus is not a low-tax country. What matters for an owner is dividends.
Dividends meet a second tax, the special defence contribution, at 5%. It only applies to people domiciled in Cyprus, which you would most likely not be. You arrive with the domicile you were born into, and moving there does not give you a Cyprus one. That is the non-dom regime, and it runs for 17 years.
Following the money
Your company earns the profit and pays 15% corporation tax on it. What is left comes out to you as a dividend.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Income taxDividends are not in the income tax base | €0 |
| Special defence contributionNon-doms are exempt | €0 |
| Social insuranceDividends are not insurable earnings | €0 |
| Health contribution2.65%, capped at €180,000 of income | €4,770 |
| Total | €4,770 |
It is the same €4,770 on €5 million, because the cap has already done its work. All in, with the company's 15%, you are at about 15.2%.
Non-dom covers dividends and interest from anywhere: your own company, your portfolio, your ETFs, your deposits.
There is no wealth tax and no inheritance tax. Cyprus abolished estate duty in 2000, and gifts to close family are not taxed.
Selling the shares in your company works the same way: Cyprus does not tax the gain. There is no holding period and no minimum stake, and it applies to shares in foreign companies as well as Cyprus ones. The only exception is Cypriot property.
Crypto
Crypto disposals are taxed at a flat 8%. That covers selling for cash, swapping coins, and using crypto to pay for something.
The company
Corporate tax is 15%. Dividends your Cyprus company receives from other companies are exempt, and so are gains on selling shares, including shares in foreign companies. Cyprus has tax treaties with about 65 countries, including the United States and most of Europe.
The IP box
If your company owns qualifying intellectual property, most of the profit from it is exempt, and the effective rate comes down to 3%.
It covers patents and copyrighted software, and excludes trademarks, brands and image rights. For a software or tech business this is one of the best regimes in Europe, but whether your IP qualifies, and how much of the benefit you get, depends on how the company is built.
Controlled foreign company rules
If you already own companies abroad, this matters. Cyprus has controlled foreign company rules, but they are narrow and do not apply to individuals. They only reach a foreign subsidiary owned by a Cyprus company, and even then a subsidiary with no more than €750,000 of accounting profit and €75,000 of non-trading income falls outside them. Hold the company personally, and they do not reach you at all.
Putting it together
Take 60 days to be tax resident, non-dom on the distributions, and no controlled foreign company rules reaching you personally, and Cyprus stops being just a place to live. It becomes the personal residency at the centre of a structure where the trading companies sit somewhere else entirely. Done properly, the health contribution can end up being the only tax in the whole thing.
Done properly includes where those companies are run from. A company managed and controlled in Cyprus is Cyprus tax resident wherever it was incorporated, so they have to be run where they sit. What the structure looks like depends on where your business actually operates and what you are leaving behind, and that is what we work out on a call.
Banking and payments
Local banking is the downside. Opening an account with a Cyprus bank for a foreign-owned company takes weeks, and the bank will want your source of funds documented going back years. It is doable. It is just slow, and it needs to start early.
In the meantime, most people open with an electronic money institution. Revolut and the others onboard online in days rather than weeks, and for a lot of businesses that is enough to operate.
Where Cyprus is strong is payments. A Cyprus company is an EU company, with a European IBAN and access to European payment rails and card acquiring. If you sell to customers in Europe, that is something a Dubai or a Caribbean company cannot give you.
If you are regulated, Cyprus has licensed a large number of the EU's investment firms, and that licence passports across all 30 EU and EEA states. That is why so many brokers, payment companies and crypto firms are based there.
What it costs to run
Less than most people assume. For a straightforward setup, meaning a holding company or a company without people on the ground, you are in the mid 4 figures a year.
It often makes sense to have substance in Cyprus: directors who make the decisions there, meetings that happen there, a real address rather than a mailbox. Once you add an office, local directors and staff employed there, it moves into the low 5 figures. We set up Cyprus companies with that substance: the registered office, tax and VAT registration, payroll, and help finding an office.
So the running cost is rarely the constraint. What stops people is everything on the other side: the company they already own, and what their current country does about it when they go.
Questions
How do I become tax resident in Cyprus?
Spend more than 183 days there in a calendar year, or use the 60-day rule: at least 60 days in Cyprus, no more than 183 days in any other single country, a home in Cyprus that you own or rent, and a job, business or directorship in a Cyprus company. Since January 2026 you no longer have to show that no other country treats you as tax resident.
What tax does a non-dom pay on dividends in Cyprus?
No income tax and no special defence contribution. The only charge is the 2.65% health contribution, capped at €180,000 of income, so the most you pay on dividends is €4,770 a year. The company pays 15% corporate tax on the profit before it is distributed.
How long does non-dom status last in Cyprus?
Until you have been tax resident in Cyprus for 17 of the last 20 years. You arrive with the domicile you were born into, and moving to Cyprus does not change it.
Can I move to Cyprus without an EU passport?
Yes. The 2 routes that suit a business owner are permanent residence for a €300,000 investment, and registering your company as a company of foreign interests, which employs you at €2,500 a month or more. The passive-income permit forbids working in Cyprus, and the digital nomad visa lasts 3 years at most and leads to neither permanent residence nor citizenship.
Can I get Cyprus citizenship on the 60-day rule?
No. Naturalisation counts the years you have physically lived in Cyprus: at least 7 of the last 10, with the final 12 months continuous and no more than 90 days away. On the company of foreign interests route it can come after 4 years, with Greek at B1 level.
How is crypto taxed in Cyprus?
Disposals are taxed at a flat 8%: selling for cash, swapping coins, and paying for something with crypto. The gain is measured from what you originally paid, not from what the coins were worth when you moved to Cyprus.
Does Cyprus have inheritance or wealth tax?
No. Cyprus abolished estate duty in 2000, has no wealth tax, and does not tax gifts to close family.
How long does it take to open a bank account in Cyprus?
With a Cyprus bank, for a foreign-owned company, weeks, and the bank will want your source of funds documented going back years. Electronic money institutions such as Revolut onboard online in days, which is enough for a lot of businesses to start operating.
Who Cyprus is right for
Cyprus is a good answer for a lot of business owners, and depending on your circumstances there may be better ones. It is one of the few places where you and your company can both sit in the same EU country, with banking that works and a rate that is low without being a red flag.
It can also be one part of a wider international structure that brings your tax close to zero, legally. If you are running a business at 7, 8 or 9 figures, or you are a high-net-worth individual, book a consultation and we will go through your case to find the setup that fits it.
