Forming your company - Cyprus company
On receipt of your instructions, we will file the necessary documents for registering your company. As soon as the registration process is complete, you'll be sent a full set of documents, at which point you can start trading. The documents you receive will be: Certificate of Incorporation, Certificate of Company Registered Office, Certificate of Directors, Certificate of Shareholders, and Company Memorandum and Articles of Association and the first company minutes.
Cyprus company Advanced
- Name check
- Incorporation plus taxes
- Memorandum
- Share certificates
- Registered office for the first year of operation
- Cyprus resident company secretary for the first year of operation
On receipt of your instructions, we will file the necessary documents for registering your company.
As soon as the registration process is complete, you'll be sent a full set of documents, at which point you can start trading.
The documents you receive will be:
Certificate of Incorporation,
Certificate of Company Registered Office,
Certificate of Directors, Certificate of Shareholders,
Company Memorandum and Articles of Association and the first company memorandum
Cyprus company incorporation-Cypriot Accounting-Tax Services
Forming your company - Cyprus company
On receipt of your instructions, we will file the necessary documents for registering your company. As soon as the registration process is complete, you'll be sent a full set of documents, at which point you can start trading. The documents you receive will be: Certificate of Incorporation, Certificate of Company Registered Office, Certificate of Directors, Certificate of Shareholders, and Company Memorandum and Articles of Association and the first company minutes.
Where nominee services are included, additional documents will be supplied. As well as registering your company name and incorporating your Cyprus company we will ensure that it complies fully with the all relevant laws and regulations. We will also organise and record the minutes of board and shareholder meetings and whenever any resolutions are passed, file the reports with the appropriate authority.
How your Cyprus company works in practice?
The answer is, the same as it works where you are now. You run your business (whatever that may be) in Cyprus in the same way as you would run it at home — wherever that may be. Your company can be 100% foreign owned — i.e. you don't need a Cypriot business partner and unless you provide financial services, there's no minimum investment level. (Having country-resident nominee directors does however enable the company to a tax residence certificate with the attendant tax benefits.) You can use your Cyprus company to issue sales invoices for the goods and services you supply to your customers or clients. Your suppliers address their invoices to your Cyprus company. Electronic payments and payments received by cheque or cash are banked in the usual way through your Cyprus bank account.
Your Cyprus company must have:
- A registered office, which can be an office you set up and lease, or a business centre facility
- A tax number which must appear on the company's sales invoices
Your Cyprus company can have:
- Employees: all of whom must be registered with the Department of Social Insurance
- Employees can be Cypriots or expatriates — the choice is yours
- A business telephone and fax line
- A business website and an e-mail address
Other requirements for your Cyprus company
Your company will need at least one director, one shareholder and a company secretary, which can be a person or a company. The authorised, issued and paid up capital of an IBC is one share, worth one Euro. You must also hold the company's AGM in Cyprus. Your company will have to keep accounts, which must be audited annually and submitted to Cyprus' Inland Revenue and copies to the Registrar of Companies.
Cyprus Company tax and tax planning
Generous tax incentives
Business and corporate tax
Where the company is a Cyprus-resident company which is managed and controlled from Cyprus, the IBC's profits are subject to only 12.5% corporation tax on its net profits.
Furthermore, the beneficial owners of the company are not liable to any tax on dividends or profits over and above the amount paid by the entity itself.
Business and corporate tax specifics
- Dividends, interest payments and royalty payments are not subject to withholding tax
- All capital gains are fully exempt from capital gains tax
- Corporation tax — a fixed, flat rate of 12.5% and no more
- 18% VAT — the lowest permissible EU VAT rate
Tax planning and tax structures - Cyprus company
It's highly likely that our advice and recommendations will do much to increase the profits of your business. By combining our expert tax planning services with our bespoke corporate services, our tax-related recommendations can be implemented quickly and easily and without having to involve a third party such as a tax law firm. Many of our tax professionals have worked with one or more of the world's leading audit companies and as such, have extensive knowledge and experience of International tax planning.
Taking account of your business goals, we will identify any areas where making some changes could reduce tax and in so doing, make a real difference to your bottom line. Areas for consideration include:
- International trade
- International property
- Investment holding companies
- Insurance and re-insurance
- Provision of services
- Financing
- Property ownership
- Leasing
- Employment
- Ship registration and management
The significance of Double Taxation Treaties
Businesses or individuals who reside in one country, but make a taxable gain in another country, may find that they are required by domestic law to pay tax on that gain in their country of residence and pay tax again in the country where the gain was made. A double taxation treaty (also known as double taxation agreement) prevents that from happening by protecting an individual or a corporate entity from paying tax twice on the same income, asset or financial transaction.
Management services
Cyprus Company management
"Virtual" company management, administration and legal services
If your company has to be more substantive than simply an office address backed up with local representation — but you don't wish to employ staff — we can run your business for you.
We'll set up a telephone line for customers who want to make contact on a local number. We'll deal with the calls answering them politely and professionally in your IBC's name and passing on any messages accurately and quickly. Or if you prefer, your calls can be diverted to any land line of your choosing. Our e-mail, fax and postal forwarding services ensures that all your in-coming written communications go exactly where you want them to go and in good time.
We can also deal with your out-going correspondence, set up appointments for you, manage diaries and deal with your suppliers. Our legal team can review and prepare any legal documentation your company needs including the management of local taxes and compliance with general legal and accounting issues.
Company Management and Nominee Services
It is important at all times to demonstrate to the Cypriot authorities that the company has "substance". It is not enough just to register your IBC here — it must also be managed and controlled from Cyprus. For this reason, the majority of company directors should be resident in Cyprus.
Through our Director nominee services, we manage the IBC on the client's behalf so as to prove that management and control comes from within Cyprus. It's also important to remember that an IBC's tax residency certificates are issued by the Cyprus Tax Authorities, only if the majority of the directors are resident in Cyprus. (If anonymity is required, shares in your IBC can be held in trust by nominees.)
Cyprus Company registration
Why Cyprus?
A highly respectable and entrepreneurial business environment
Cyprus is politically stable, has a fast-growing economy, a high standard of living, well developed telecoms and infrastructure and is a member state of the EU. The high standards adhered to by the banking, legal and accountancy professions contribute to the country's growing and international reputation as a business centre in its own right.
Establishing a Cyprus offshore company also provides a convenient "foothold" for non-EU countries such as China, India and Japan to engage in trade with Europe and vice versa with no exchange restrictions and offering the benefit of the 19% EU VAT – Europe's lowest permissible rate.
Helping you gain the advantage
A KPMG International survey of 400+ tax professionals, put Cyprus, Ireland, and Switzerland right at the top of the EU tax league table in terms of the attractiveness of their tax regimes. What the survey's participants liked was the combination of consistency in interpreting EU tax legislation, stability in resisting frequent changes to EU tax laws and each country's comparatively low tax rates. A significant number of respondents also believed that operating in a country with an attractive corporate tax regime provided a competitive advantage when competing for an overseas business.
According to the Heritage Organization— the authors of an annual report on economic freedom — compared to 183 other countries, Cyprus is in the top 20 of the world's rankings. The report's authors define an economically free society as one where... "governments allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself."
The safe and sound option
Although the Cyprus tax environment is extremely attractive to business owners, Cyprus is not what's known — and doesn't wish to be known — as a 'tax haven'. The idea of zero tax is not without merit but there is always a price to pay for such generous incentives.
The main drawback of tax havens is that most of them are blacklisted and it is extremely difficult to enter into any legally robust contractual arrangement. Furthermore, not all tax havens are politically stable or economically strong. And few, if any, have double taxation agreements with other countries and next to none have a tried and tested legal system that's enshrined in UK law.
- Directors and shareholders must provide a copy of the ID page from their passports
- Proof of residence must be provided in the form of a utility bill or bank statement
- Each beneficial owner/ director/shareholder will be required to submit a reference letter (please ask for a template)
- We will then apply to the Registrar of Companies to approve your company name: a process can take between 2 to 3 working days.
- Once the name has been approved, the company formation documents will be submitted and your company will be up and running in as little as 6 – 7 days.
- Alternatively and if you need to start business now , just choose one of our available shelf companies and you will be doing business today.
Opening of bank account
We can establish bank accounts of any type, for individuals or companies of any nationality.
Our preferred banking partners are: Bank of Cyprus, Hellenic Bank, Eurobank, Loyal Bank and FBME. Having opened an account with one or more of those banks, we can (if you want) administer it on your behalf.
Some of the banking-related services our specialised bank account support department provide are:
- Issuance of anonymous credit cards
- Same day secure international payments
- Issuance of named credit and debit cards
- Deposit accounts
- Loan facilities
- Internet banking services
- Private banking services
- International factoring
- Escrow account services
- Direct debits and standing orders
Republic of Cyprus
Location: Middle East, island in the Mediterranean Sea
Languages: Greek, English
Currency: Euro
Time Zones: GMT + 2 hours
Legal System: primarily based on English law
Lowest corporate tax rate in the entire EU:
Cyprus is the number-one jurisdiction chosen by international tax planners because it has the lowest corporate tax rate in the entire European Union (a uniform rate of 12.5%).
No withholding tax on dividends.
An extensive network of double-taxation treaties: we use these to create highly effective tax planning structures for our clients, allowing them to increase profit for minimal outlay.
Access to EU directives and EU VAT registration.
Confidentiality: protected by legislation. The shares can be held by nominees so that your anonymity is safeguarded.
Excellent infrastructure: with professional, legal (primarily based on English law) and tax-planning services. Banking services in Cyprus are of the highest standard. Finally, Cyprus enjoys an advanced telecommunications network as well as two airports (Larnaca and Paphos), which provide frequent flights to many destinations.
Management services
Company management
"Virtual" company management, administration and legal services
If your company has to be more substantive than simply an office address backed up with local representation — but you don't wish to employ staff — we can run your business for you.
We'll set up a telephone line for customers who want to make contact on a local number. We'll deal with the calls answering them politely and professionally in your IBC's name and passing on any messages accurately and quickly. Or if you prefer, your calls can be diverted to any land line of your choosing. Our e-mail, fax and postal forwarding services ensures that all your in-coming written communications go exactly where you want them to go and in good time.
We can also deal with your out-going correspondence, set up appointments for you, manage diaries and deal with your suppliers. Our legal team can review and prepare any legal documentation your company needs including the management of local taxes and compliance with general legal and accounting issues.
Company Management and Nominee Services
It is important at all times to demonstrate to the Cypriot authorities that the company has "substance". It is not enough just to register your IBC here — it must also be managed and controlled from Cyprus. For this reason, the majority of company directors should be resident in Cyprus.
Through our Director nominee services, we manage the IBC on the client's behalf so as to prove that management and control comes from within Cyprus. It's also important to remember that an IBC's tax residency certificates are issued by the Cyprus Tax Authorities, only if the majority of the directors are resident in Cyprus. (If anonymity is required, shares in your IBC can be held in trust by nominees.)
Accounting and audit
Cyprus VAT and income tax
Our qualified native accountants will ensure that your accounts are not only complete and accurate but also meet national and international accounting standards. The specific accountancy-based services our tax professionals offer include:
- The preparation of accurate and comprehensive financial records (in as many currencies as required) and filing those accounts securely
- The preparation and submission of your quarterly IBS accounts
- The preparation and filing of your Cyprus VAT returns
- Carrying out audits and preparing reports in accordance with international tax and international financial reporting standards
