Levies for 2011–2023 still count
Key figure: Annual government fee€0
From 2024 the annual government fee is €0: the €350 levy was abolished by a law published on 15 March 2024. Abolition did not wipe the past. Levies for 2011–2023 that a company never paid remain due.
This matters most for a dormant company set up before 2024 and left without filings. We ask the Registrar for the company’s levy position first, so the arrears appear in your quote and not halfway through the closure.
Note
Outdated figure on some government pages
Some Registrar guidance pages still mention the old annual levy. Our reference follows the abolition notice and the amending law.
Checked on cy-drcor-levy-abolition
Liquidation procedure in Cyprus: choosing the route
Key figure: Statutory auditYes
Every Cyprus company prepares audited financial statements each year, and that obligation does not stop because the owners want to close. Whichever route fits, a strike-off or a liquidation, the company’s filings have to be in order first.
The choice depends on what the company still holds and owes: assets, bank balances, loans from shareholders, open contracts. Our fact reference does not publish the statutory steps or the authority’s time for each procedure, so we do not quote them here. We name the route in the written plan after reading the company’s file.
Where the chosen procedure requires a liquidator, that liquidator’s fees are not part of our price. The quote says so before any work starts.
Small companies and the review option
Every company must prepare audited IFRS financial statements and file them with the tax return. Small private companies (not public, not public-interest or regulated entities) may instead have a review engagement (ISRE 2400) if net turnover and total gross assets do not exceed the thresholds for two consecutive years: turnover EUR 200,000 / assets EUR 500,000 (Companies Law amendment 88(I)/2022); turnover threshold reported raised to EUR 300,000 for financial years beginning on or after 6 Feb 2026 (secondary only, legal basis not verified).
Final accounts and annual returns
Key figure: Annual return filing deadline28 days
The annual return goes to the Registrar with the financial statements within 28 days of its drafting date. Any year without a filed return is brought up to date before the closure filings go in.
We list each missing return in the plan. Preparing the accounts themselves is the accounting package, from €1,200; the audit or review is signed by an auditor the company appoints.
Tax on profits paid out before closing
Key figure: Defence contribution on dividends5%
Dividends out of profits from 2026 onwards carry 5% defence contribution for Cyprus-domiciled individuals. 5% on dividends from profits of 2026 onwards (was 17%). 17% continues on dividends paid until 31 Dec 2031 out of profits of 2025 and earlier. Non-domiciled and non-resident individuals pay 0%.
Deemed dividend distribution no longer applies to profits of 2026 and later. Abolished for profits of tax year 2026 onwards; profits up to 2025 remain subject to the old rules (transitional SDC payments due until 31 Dec 2028/2029). A company that kept older profits on its balance sheet still carries that history into the closure.
If you moved to Cyprus with foreign passive income and hold the company as a non-domiciled resident, the defence contribution on the dividend is nil; paid to a non-resident shareholder, the dividend carries 0% withholding tax under Cyprus law, with the exceptions in the note to that fact.
When this applies
From 1 January 2026, a company incorporated in Cyprus is tax resident there unless a treaty provides otherwise. While it stays on the register, its Cyprus tax filings continue.
Checked on cy-td-it-law-244-2025
Registered office and registers until the end
Key figure: Register of beneficial ownersYes
A company must keep its beneficial ownership information current in the Register of Beneficial Owners, and it keeps a registered office in Cyprus that is not a mailbox: Must maintain a registered office in Cyprus which must not be a mailbox; statutory registers are kept there. Changes notified on form HE2 within 14 days.
Both obligations run until the company leaves the register. Company law asks for at least 1 director and a secretary, so the officers who sign the closure documents have to be in place and on record.
Who this is not for
A closure is the wrong step, or this package is the wrong fit, in these cases.
- You only want to stop paying the annual levy. It was abolished from 2024 onwards; a company with nothing owed pays €0 a year in levy.
- You need the company gone within weeks. Our own part takes 60–180 working days, and the Registrar’s time is not published in our reference.
- You expect the closure fee to cover years of missing accounts. It does not: those are the accounting package, from €1,200.
- The company owes more than it holds and creditors are waiting. That case needs a different procedure and a statutory liquidator, and we quote it only after reading the balance sheet.