Company Incorporation in Cyprus

No. Cyprus company law does not require directors or shareholders to be resident or citizens of Cyprus — a company needs at least one director and at least one shareholder, and that can be you, whatever your nationality or country of residence. What residency does affect is tax. A company incorporated in Cyprus is by default treated as Cyprus tax resident, and Cyprus tax residence otherwise turns on where the company is managed and controlled, so a board that meets and decides in Cyprus is what supports a Cyprus tax residency position in practice. If you would prefer not to appear on the public register yourself, Vepapu offers Nominee Director and Nominee Shareholder services — but note that a nominee does not conceal you from the authorities: the ultimate beneficial owner must still be filed on the Cyprus beneficial ownership register.

At least one director and one shareholder are required, and both roles can be held by the same person or entity, with no restriction on nationality or residency. A company secretary is also required — an individual or a corporate entity — responsible for compliance and for maintaining the company’s statutory records; where a company has a sole director, that person may only also be secretary if the company has a single member. The company must maintain a registered office address in Cyprus, in place by the day it starts trading or within 14 days of incorporation, whichever comes first. Each year the company files an HE32 annual return with the Cyprus Registrar of Companies covering its directors, secretary, shareholders, registered office and share capital, together with the audited financial statements for the preceding year. Those financial statements must be prepared under IFRS and audited by a licensed Cyprus auditor. The company must also file an annual corporate tax return with the Cyprus Tax Department — from tax year 2026 due by 31 January of the second year following the tax year — with provisional tax paid in two instalments on 31 July and 31 December of the tax year. Finally, beneficial ownership details must be filed within 90 days of incorporation, updated within 45 days of any change, and confirmed each year between 1 October and 31 December. The EUR 350 annual company levy was abolished from 2024.

Partly, and it is important to be precise about which part. The Cyprus Registrar of Companies runs a public register: the company’s name, registration number, status, registered office, directors, secretary, registered shareholders and share capital are searchable online by anyone, and the full electronic file can be inspected for a small fee. The separate register of beneficial owners is not public. Cyprus opened it to the general public briefly, then suspended that access following the Court of Justice of the European Union’s judgment of 22 November 2022 in joined cases C-37/20 and C-601/20, which held general public access invalid. Since then access has been limited to competent and supervisory authorities and to obliged entities such as banks, lawyers and accountants carrying out customer due diligence. Nominee directors and shareholders can therefore keep your name off the public Registrar file, but they do not keep it off the beneficial ownership register — filing the real beneficial owner there is a legal obligation, and failing to do so carries penalties.

Cyprus is an onshore EU jurisdiction, not a zero-tax one. Companies that are tax resident in Cyprus pay corporate income tax on their worldwide income at 15% from 1 January 2026 — the rate was 12.5% up to 31 December 2025, and was raised as part of the 2026 tax reform aligning Cyprus with the OECD global minimum tax. A company incorporated in Cyprus is treated as Cyprus tax resident by default unless a double tax treaty provides otherwise, so incorporating in Cyprus and managing the company from elsewhere does not by itself put it outside the Cyprus tax net. Several meaningful exemptions do apply: profits on the disposal of securities such as shares and bonds are exempt from corporate income tax, most dividend income is exempt, and profits of a foreign permanent establishment can be exempt — though that PE exemption is withdrawn where more than 50% of the PE’s activities produce investment income and the foreign tax on it is significantly lower than the Cyprus burden (an effective rate below 7.5% from 2026), and, from 1 January 2026, where the PE sits in a jurisdiction on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. Your Vepapu manager will walk through what applies to your structure.

A registered office address in Cyprus is a legal requirement — without it, we cannot proceed to file the documents with the registrar. Vepapu already covers this service for you, so you do not need to lease physical premises in Cyprus to incorporate. Bear in mind that a registered office is an address for service of documents, not evidence of substance: if you need the company to be demonstrably managed and controlled in Cyprus for tax purposes, that takes more than an address.