How to register a company in Cyprus: every step, from name approval to a live company

Registering a Cyprus limited company takes four steps: get the company name approved by the Registrar of Companies, prepare the incorporation documents, file them, and register the new company with the Tax Department once the certificate of incorporation arrives. Everything can be filed electronically through a provider, without visiting Cyprus. The official fees are small, €10 for the name and €165 for the incorporation itself, and most of the total cost is the provider or law firm running the process.

What are the steps to register a limited company in Cyprus?

The order is fixed: reserve an approved company name, prepare the incorporation documents, file them with the Registrar of Companies, and register the new company with the Tax Department once the certificate arrives. Each step depends on the one before it, which is why the name approval always comes first.

1. 01

   Get the company name approved

   Propose a name to the Registrar of Companies. It must be distinctive, not misleading, and not confusingly similar to an existing name, and 'Limited' (or 'Ltd') is added as the legal suffix. Once approved, the name is reserved for you while you complete the incorporation.

2. 02

   Prepare the incorporation documents

   The application is form HE1, which carries a statutory declaration sworn by a licensed Cyprus lawyer, together with the memorandum and articles of association in Greek, form HE2 stating the registered office address, and form HE3 listing the first directors and the company secretary.

3. 03

   File with the Registrar of Companies

   The documents are filed electronically with the official fee. Accelerated processing is available for an extra fee if speed matters.

4. 04

   Register with the Tax Department

   The Registrar issues the certificate of incorporation and the certified company documents. The company then registers in the tax register to get its tax identification number, which for legal persons runs through the Tax For All (TFA) portal with a CY Login account.

The name application costs €10 per proposed name, plus €20 per name if you want it accelerated. The incorporation filing costs €165 in Registrar fees for a company with share capital, plus an optional €100 for accelerated processing.

Provider and legal fees come on top. The official fees are only the Registrar's slice, and for most founders they are the smallest line on the invoice.

How long does it take to register a company in Cyprus?

Plan for a few weeks end to end. The Registrar processes the name application first and the incorporation filing after it, and paid acceleration exists at both stages for founders in a hurry. The Registrar does not publish official processing times, so any precise day-count you read elsewhere is someone's experience of a queue that moves with the Registrar's workload.

If you have a target date, a contract to sign or a client to invoice, start earlier than feels necessary and use the waiting time for the things that do not depend on the certificate: your bookkeeping setup, your banking shortlist, the layout of your first invoice.

Can I register a Cyprus company online without visiting?

Yes. The Registrar accepts electronic filing for both the name application and the incorporation, and there is no requirement for shareholders or directors to live in Cyprus or to set foot on the island. In practice a local provider or law firm handles the filings and you sign remotely.

For founders abroad, the 2026 tax reform simplified one old worry. A company incorporated in Cyprus is now Cyprus tax resident by default, unless a double tax treaty provides otherwise, where previously incorporation made a company resident only if it was not tax resident somewhere else. Management and control still matters, because another country can claim your company under its own rules and the treaty then decides, so a founder who runs everything from abroad should still think about where decisions are taken. Banking remains the slowest part for non-residents, and it is worth starting before the certificate arrives. Our company formation service handles this path routinely, and you can follow the registration's live status in your Sumly dashboard while it runs.

Do you need a lawyer to register a company in Cyprus?

You will not need to find one yourself, but a licensed professional is part of the process. Form HE1 includes a statutory declaration that a licensed Cyprus lawyer swears before the court, and the memorandum and articles of association are legal documents that someone qualified drafts in Greek. Formation providers include this in the service, which is why most founders never deal with it directly.

What you actually decide is who runs the process: a law firm you instruct directly, or a formation provider that wraps the legal step and the filings into one fixed-price package. Both end in the same certificate.

What documents and details do you need?

Less than most founders expect. The Registrar needs the approved name, the memorandum and articles, the details of the directors, shareholders and company secretary, the share structure, and a registered office address in Cyprus. A few rules behind that list are worth knowing:

• There is no minimum share capital for a private limited company, which can have between one and fifty members.
• Every company must appoint a company secretary, and only a private company with a single member and single director may have that director act as secretary too.
• Every company must maintain a registered office in Cyprus from incorporation. It cannot be a mailbox: official notices are served there and the statutory registers are kept there.

You will also provide identity documents for the people involved; your provider gives you the precise list for your case.

Can I start bookkeeping before the company is approved?

Yes, and you should, but be clear about what the head start actually buys you. Cyprus income tax law has no special deduction window for pre-incorporation costs, and the formation costs themselves, the Registrar fees and the legal work of incorporating, are capital expenses that are never deductible. The genuine recovery sits in VAT: once the company registers for VAT, its first return can reclaim input VAT on services received up to six months before registration and on goods still held that were bought up to three years before, provided the invoices exist. The receipts you collect while the Registrar processes your filing are therefore worth keeping, and worth recording properly from day one. The full rule, what qualifies and what does not, is in our guide to pre-establishment expenses in Cyprus.

This is also why we start the bookkeeping the day you order formation with Sumly, before the incorporation completes. Those early invoices land in the books as they happen, and when the certificate arrives the company opens with a complete record instead of a shoebox.

What happens after the company is registered?

The compliance cycle begins immediately, whether or not the company trades. Right after incorporation the company registers with the Tax Department through TFA, and from there it watches its turnover against the €15,600 VAT registration threshold. Every year after that it keeps proper books, prepares financial statements, has them audited, and files the annual return (HE32) with the Registrar. Our guide to the annual return in Cyprus walks through that cycle.

The rules the company will live under also changed this year. The corporate rate is 15% from tax year 2026, dividends paid to Cyprus-domiciled residents from 2026-onward profits carry 5% SDC instead of 17%, and stamp duty was abolished entirely, so the incorporation documents themselves no longer attract it. The full picture is in the Cyprus tax reform 2026, explained.

If you would rather hand the whole thing over, our formation service files the name application and the incorporation, comes with a 100% approval guarantee (your money back, minus any government fees already paid, if the company is not approved), and can add a registered office if you need one. The bookkeeping starts the day you order.

Questions founders actually ask

Frequently asked

How do I get a company name approved in Cyprus?

You propose a name to the Registrar of Companies, which checks that it is distinctive, not misleading and not confusingly similar to an existing company. The fee is €10 per proposed name, or €30 with accelerated processing. Names that are too generic or that imply a regulated activity get rejected, so it is worth submitting two or three candidates. Once approved, the name is reserved for you while you complete the incorporation.

Can a foreigner register a Cyprus company?

Yes. Cyprus places no nationality or residency restrictions on the shareholders or directors of a private limited company, and the whole process can run remotely through a local provider. One 2026 change matters here: a company incorporated in Cyprus is now Cyprus tax resident by default, unless a double tax treaty says otherwise, so non-resident founders no longer need to build a Cyprus board just to secure residency. Banking is where non-residents meet the most friction, so start that conversation early.

How much share capital do I need?

There is no minimum share capital for a Cyprus private limited company. A single share is legally enough, and a small nominal amount such as €1,000 is the common convention. The capital does not need to sit in a bank account before incorporation, and a single shareholder is permitted.

Should I buy a shelf company instead of registering a new one?

For most founders, no. E-filing has made fresh incorporation fast enough that a shelf company's speed advantage has largely gone, while its drawbacks remain: you inherit an unknown history, the share transfer and officer changes each need their own Registrar filings within 14 days, and banks apply the same onboarding scrutiny either way. A clean new company is usually the simpler path.

Is a Cyprus company still worth it after the 2026 tax changes?

For many founders, yes. The corporate rate rose from 12.5% to 15% in 2026, still one of the lower rates in the EU. The same reform cut the tax on dividends paid from 2026-onward profits from 17% to 5% for Cyprus-domiciled residents, abolished the deemed dividend distribution regime for new profits, and scrapped stamp duty entirely. For an owner-director taking profits out as dividends, the total tax bill on new profits is lower than it was before the reform.

Do I need an accountant to register the company?

No. Registration and accounting are separate: a formation provider or lawyer handles the incorporation filings, and no accountant signs anything at this stage. The books are a different question. Proper accounting records are required from the company's first transaction, and VAT paid on services and goods bought before VAT registration can often be recovered on the first return, so it pays to decide how the bookkeeping will run before the certificate arrives.