Cyprus expat tax 2026: non-dom and 60-day rule

Cyprus is one of the few EU countries where you can live full time and pay no tax on your dividends, interest or share gains. That's the non-dom regime, and almost everyone who moves to Cyprus qualifies for it for their first 17 years.

This guide covers Cypriot personal tax for people moving to or living in Cyprus in the 2026 tax year, including non-dom status, the 60-day rule, the employment exemptions and the biggest tax reform in more than 20 years.

The key question is simple. Is your income investment income, a salary, or self-employed profit? Cyprus treats the three very differently.

What's changed: a tax reform took effect on 1 January 2026. The tax-free band rose from €19,500 to €22,000 and the 35% rate now starts at €72,000. Crypto gains are taxed at a flat 8%, and the foreign pension allowance rose to €5,000. Domiciled residents pay 5% on dividends instead of 17%, and non-doms can pay to extend their status. The 60-day rule no longer requires you to be non-resident everywhere else, and stamp duty was abolished. A law passed in April 2026 made lump sums from approved foreign pension funds tax free, backdated to 1 January.

📋 Cyprus tax at a glance for 2026

Non-dom status in Cyprus

Why do investors and business owners choose Cyprus? Because non-dom status removes the tax on the income they live on.

Image 1 — non-dom status takes dividends and interest to 0%

Cyprus charges a separate tax called the Special Defence Contribution (SDC) on dividends and interest. It only applies if you're both tax resident and domiciled in Cyprus. If you're resident but not domiciled, you don't pay it at all, wherever in the world the income comes from.

You're non-domiciled if your domicile of origin is outside Cyprus, which usually means your father wasn't domiciled in Cyprus when you were born. You then become "deemed domiciled" once you've been Cyprus tax resident for at least 17 of the last 20 years, and you stay domiciled until you've spent 20 years non-resident. To claim the exemption, you file a non-domicile declaration (form T.D.38) with the Tax Department.

• Dividends: 0% for non-doms. Domiciled residents pay 5%, on Cypriot and foreign dividends alike. Dividends from Cypriot companies paid out of profits made up to 2025 are still charged at 17%.

• Interest: 0% for non-doms. Domiciled residents pay 17%, or 3% on Cypriot or EU government bonds and listed bonds.

• Gains on shares, bonds and funds: exempt for everyone. Capital gains tax of 20% only applies to property in Cyprus and to shares in companies that own Cypriot property.

Since 1 January 2026 you can extend non-dom treatment beyond year 17, as long as your domicile of origin is outside Cyprus. You apply by 30 June in the first year of a five-year period and, once accepted, pay a single €250,000 for all five years. You can do this twice, giving a maximum of 27 years. The payment is never refunded.

👉 Special Defence Contribution Law, article 3D: the €250,000 extension (in Greek)

When you become tax resident in Cyprus

There are two routes. The first is the usual one: you spend more than 183 days in Cyprus in a calendar year.

The second is the 60-day rule. You're Cyprus tax resident for the year if you meet all four of these conditions:

• you spend at least 60 days in Cyprus

• you don't spend more than 183 days in any other single country

• you run a business in Cyprus, are employed there or hold an office with a Cyprus tax resident company at some point in the year

• you keep a permanent home in Cyprus, owned or rented

Until 2026 you also had to show you weren't tax resident anywhere else. That condition has gone. You can now be resident in Cyprus and another country at the same time, with the double tax treaty deciding which one comes first. The other country may still tax you under its own rules, so check both sides.

One catch: if your Cyprus job, business or office ends during the year, you stop qualifying under the 60-day rule for that year. For counting days, the day you leave counts as a day outside Cyprus and the day you arrive as a day in it.

Leaving is straightforward: you stop being resident in a calendar year where you meet neither test, and there's no exit tax for individuals. But the 60-day rule can keep you resident if you keep your home and directorship and still visit for 60 days.

👉 Income Tax Law, article 2: the 183-day and 60-day residence tests (in Greek)

Income tax rates for 2026

Cyprus taxes salaries, self-employed profits, pensions and rent on one progressive scale. The tax year is the calendar year.

Cyprus income tax rates for 2026

Source: Income Tax Law, Second Schedule, rates from the 2026 tax year.

Social insurance and health contributions are deductible, up to one fifth of your income. The reform also added family deductions: each parent can deduct €1,000 for the first child, €1,250 for the second and €1,500 for each further child, plus up to €2,000 each for rent or mortgage interest on your main home and €1,000 each for green spending such as solar panels or an electric car. They have income limits: €40,000 for a single person, and family income of €100,000 with up to two children, €150,000 with three or four and €200,000 with five or more.

👉 Income Tax Law, Second Schedule: rates from 2026 (in Greek)

👉 Income Tax Law, article 14B: child, home and green deductions (in Greek)

The employment exemptions

Cyprus has three exemptions for people who take up work on the island. You can only use one of them, and only once in your life.

Cyprus employment income exemptions for new residents in 2026

Worked example

• You're single and start your first job in Cyprus in 2026, earning €87,000 (about US$100k).

• You pay social insurance of €6,064 and a health contribution of €2,306. Both are deductible.

• With the 50% exemption, €43,500 of your salary is exempt. Your taxable income is €35,131 and your income tax is €2,783.

Your all-in bill is about €11,150, or 13% of your salary. Without the exemption, your income tax would be €15,821 and your all-in bill about €24,190, or 28%.

The exemptions cut income tax only. Contributions are still charged on your full salary.

👉 Income Tax Law, article 8: the 50%, 20% and 25% exemptions (in Greek)

Freelancing in Cyprus

Self-employed people don't get the 50% or 20% employment exemptions. Your profit is taxed on the scale above, and you pay your own contributions: 16.6% social insurance and 4% for the health system. Both are deductible, as they are for employees.

Social insurance is based on estimated earnings for your occupation and experience, and you can ask to pay on your actual earnings instead. On US$100k of profit, that works out at roughly 27% to 33% all-in, and about 30% for an experienced professional.

Sole-trader status suits lower earners best: on a profit of €40,000, income tax is only around €2,000, although contributions add about €8,200.

👉 Business in Cyprus (government portal): social insurance registration and contributions

Crypto, investments and pensions

How is crypto taxed in Cyprus? Since 1 January 2026, gains on crypto-assets are taxed at a flat 8%, for individuals and companies alike. It doesn't matter how long you held the asset.

• Selling for cash, swapping one crypto for another, paying with crypto and gifting it all count as disposals.

• Losses can only be set against crypto gains in the same year. You can't carry them forward.

• Gains on crypto from mining are taxed under the normal rules, at up to 35%.

Foreign pensions get their own choice. Each year you can either be taxed on the normal scale, or pay a flat 5% on foreign pension income above €5,000. On a pension of €34,800 (about US$40k), the 5% route costs €1,490 against about €2,470 on the normal scale, after deducting the health contribution. Government service pensions can be treated differently under the treaty with the country that pays them.

From 1 January 2026, a one-off lump sum from a pension fund in an EEA country, Switzerland, the UK, Australia, South Africa, the United States or Canada is also tax free, if the Tax Department approves the fund.

Cyprus has no inheritance tax, no gift tax and no wealth tax.

👉 Income Tax Law, article 20E: the 8% tax on crypto-assets (in Greek)

👉 Income Tax Law, article 20: the 5% option for foreign pensions (in Greek)

👉 Law 67(I)/2026: tax-free lump sums from foreign pension funds (in Greek)

Social security

Employees pay 8.8% social insurance on earnings up to €5,742 a month in 2026 (€68,904 a year), and employers pay the same. On top of that comes the General Healthcare System contribution, known as GHS or GESY.

The health contribution is the one cost non-doms can't avoid. Residents pay it at 2.65% on salaries, pensions, dividends, interest and rent, and at 4% on self-employed income, up to total income of €180,000 a year. That caps it at €4,770 a year at the 2.65% rate.

👉 Cyprus Social Insurance Services: maximum insurable earnings for 2026

👉 General Healthcare System (GESY): contribution rates

Double tax treaties

Does Cyprus have double tax treaties? Yes. Cyprus has more than 65 double tax treaties in force, including with the UK, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, the UAE, India, China, Canada and South Africa.

The treaties matter more than usual, because the 60-day rule now lets you be resident in two countries at once. The treaty's tie-breaker then decides which country comes first.

The digital nomad visa

Non-EU remote workers can apply for Cyprus's digital nomad visa if they work for employers or clients outside Cyprus and earn at least €3,500 a month after tax.

The first permit lasts one year and can be renewed for up to two more. Your family can join you but can't work in Cyprus. Permits are capped, so check that applications are open before you plan around it.

There's no tax exemption attached. Spend more than 183 days in Cyprus in a year and you're taxed on the normal scale.

Who is Cyprus good for?

Ratings are relative to the 150+ countries TaxPilot covers, based on 2026 rules and the all-in cost including social insurance and health contributions.

☑️ Who is Cyprus good for? Tax ratings for expats in 2026

Filing and deadlines

Every Cyprus tax resident aged 25 to 70 has to file a personal tax return, even with no taxable income, and so does any resident with income. The return for 2026 is filed online and is due by 31 July 2027, or by 31 January 2028 if you have to keep audited accounts.

Employees pay through payroll. If you're self-employed or have other untaxed income, you pay provisional tax in two instalments, on 31 July and 31 December. If you're domiciled, SDC on foreign dividends and interest is due by the return deadline, with credit for foreign tax paid.

👉 Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law, article 5: who must file and by when (in Greek)

Frequently asked questions

Do non-doms pay tax on dividends in Cyprus?

No. A Cyprus tax resident who isn't domiciled in Cyprus pays no Special Defence Contribution on dividends or interest, for up to 17 years (27 with the paid extension). A 2.65% health contribution still applies.

What is the 60-day rule in Cyprus?

It's a way to become Cyprus tax resident without spending 183 days there. You need at least 60 days in Cyprus, no more than 183 days in any other single country, a permanent home in Cyprus, and a business, employment or an office in Cyprus.

What are the income tax rates in Cyprus in 2026?

The first €22,000 is tax free. Income is then taxed at 20% up to €32,000, 25% up to €42,000, 30% up to €72,000 and 35% above that. Employees also pay 8.8% social insurance and a 2.65% health contribution.

How is crypto taxed in Cyprus?

Gains on crypto-assets are taxed at a flat 8% from 1 January 2026. Selling, swapping, spending and gifting crypto all count as disposals.

How is a foreign pension taxed in Cyprus?

You can choose each year between the normal scale and a flat 5% on foreign pension income above €5,000, plus a 2.65% health contribution. Lump sums from approved foreign pension funds are tax free.

How many double tax treaties does Cyprus have?

More than 65 are in force, including with the UK, the United States, Germany, France, Spain and the UAE.

Where to go next

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