Cyprus company formation, run end-to-end

A Cyprus private limited company is the standard vehicle for founders who want an EU company with a clear tax system and a realistic path to relocating themselves: corporate tax at 15% from 2026, no withholding on dividends flowing to non-resident owners in most cases, and the non-dom regime waiting for owners who move. Incorporation itself is quick and cheap by EU standards — the state charges €165 to register a company limited by shares. The real work is everything around the certificate: KYC done right the first time, the tax and VAT registrations, the employer setup, the bank account, and the compliance calendar that starts ticking on day one. That surrounding work is what we run.

Who a Cyprus Ltd actually fits

The profiles we see most: IT and consulting founders invoicing international clients; trading and services businesses that want an EU home with treaty access; groups adding a holding company above operating subsidiaries; and founders relocating to Cyprus who want the company, their own tax residency and the family’s permits handled as one project. If your case is mostly about moving yourself, start with the taxes in Cyprus overview — the company is only half of that picture.

What the law requires — and what a complete setup includes

Cyprus company law (Cap. 113) sets a low structural bar: at least one shareholder, at least one director (no residency requirement), a company secretary, and a registered office in Cyprus. A sole director cannot also act as secretary, except in a single-member company.

A setup that is actually ready for business covers more:

• Name approval from the Registrar
• Memorandum and articles of association drafted for your real cap table — not boilerplate
• Registered office and secretary
• Tax registration (TIC) with the Tax Department
• VAT registration where required — the obligation kicks in at €15,600 of taxable turnover, and voluntary registration earlier often makes sense for EU-facing businesses
• Employer and social insurance registrations when the first hire happens
• Beneficial-owner (UBO) filing — due within 90 days of incorporation
• A working bank or EMI account

The process, step by step

1. Structure and name. Share structure, board, and substance level decided first — changing them later costs more than deciding them now. Name approval costs €10 per name, plus €20 for the accelerated track.
2. KYC. Passports, proof of address and source-of-funds evidence for every shareholder and director. This is the honest bottleneck of every formation: complete files move in days, gaps stall for weeks.
3. Drafting and filing. Memorandum and articles plus the HE1 statutory pack, filed with the Registrar. The state fee is €165 for a company limited by shares, plus €100 if accelerated. Cyprus charges no capital duty on share capital.
4. Post-registration registrations. TIC from the Tax Department, VAT and VIES where relevant, employer registrations if you are hiring, and the UBO filing — missing its deadline gets expensive: €100 for the first day and €50 per day after, capped at €5,000.
5. The account. Bank or EMI, chosen against your actual payment flows — the trade-offs are on the bank account page.

Documents we will ask you for

For each individual involved: a passport, recent proof of address, a short professional profile, and evidence behind the source of funds — statements, sale agreements, dividend vouchers, not adjectives. For the company: a plain description of what it will sell, to whom, and the expected countries of payment flows. Corporate shareholders add their own certificate chain, apostilled. One well-assembled pack feeds the Registrar, the banks and the tax registrations — we build it once and reuse it everywhere.

Timelines, honestly

The Registrar publishes no official service-level guarantee. In market practice as of July 2026, with accelerated fees: name approval in roughly two to four working days, and registration around one to two weeks end-to-end. Treat those as practice ranges, not promises — and note that the calendar is usually driven by KYC completeness on the client side, not by the Registrar. The bank account runs on its own, slower clock; we start preparing that file in parallel rather than after.

After registration: where the real obligations start

The certificate is the beginning, not the end. From day one the company carries a compliance calendar: bookkeeping, VAT returns if registered, payroll filings once staff are on board, the HE32 annual return, and annual financial statements with an audit or review. From 2026 a company incorporated in Cyprus is also treated as Cyprus tax resident by default unless a tax treaty places it elsewhere — which makes real substance and governance worth planning at formation, not retrofitting later.

This is why formation and accounting belong with one team: the same people who set the company up run its monthly accounting, VAT and payroll afterwards — nothing falls between a formation agent who has moved on and an accountant who wasn’t there at setup.

How we run it

1. Scoping. One call, then a written structure memo: shares, board, substance level, registrations needed, and every presence step flagged.
2. KYC and name, in parallel. We collect and pre-check the document pack while the name clears, so nothing waits twice.
3. Filing. Constitution drafted for your cap table, HE1 pack filed, accelerated track used where timing matters.
4. Registrations. TIC, VAT/VIES, employer and UBO filings — done as one batch, with the deadlines on our calendar, not yours.
5. Account and handover. Bank/EMI file prepared and driven to a working account, then a clean handover into monthly accounting.