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One application decides your exit tax.

A Cyprus company pays 15% and, with non-dom status, you pay no tax on dividends. Austria treats your shares as sold when you leave, and holds off on that tax only if you apply in the right tax return. We plan around that date.

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Austria's 44.18%, next to Cyprus.

Austria's own business portal puts the total tax on profit a GmbH pays out at 44.18%. Move the slider to your own profit.

€200,000
In Austria
Corporate tax
−€46,000
Tax on dividends
−€42,350
You keep
€111,650
In Cyprus
Corporate tax
−€30,000
Health contribution (GeSY)
−€4,505
You keep
€165,495

More in your pocket+€53,845every year

More in your pocket +€53,845 every year

Austria: 23% corporate tax, then the 27.5% flat tax on dividends, which is final. Together that is 44.18%, the figure the government's business service portal gives for a GmbH that pays out its profit.

Headline rates for a founder who takes the profit out as dividends and has become Cyprus tax resident with non-dom status. Your own figures will differ. This is an illustration, not tax advice.

What Austria keeps open.

Austria's exit rules start the day you leave and don't end when you land. Settle these with an Austrian tax adviser before the tax return for your departure year is filed.

  • Nothing to pay the day you leave

    Austria treats your shares as sold at market value when you move abroad, even though nothing is sold. Because Cyprus is in the EU, the tax is worked out but not collected until you actually sell, as long as you apply for it.

  • One application, one chance

    You apply for that deferral (Nichtfestsetzung) in your tax return for the year you move, for each holding, before the tax office issues its assessment. Miss it and you can't fix it later, not even on appeal. Make sure your adviser puts it in.

  • Your file stays open

    Sell the shares later, or move on to a country outside the EU, and Austria reopens the tax for your departure year. You have to tell the tax office yourself. Giving the shares to family doesn't close the file either.

  • Deregistering isn't leaving

    Deregistering your address doesn't end your Austrian tax residency. Stay six months in Austria and you're taxable again, back to the first day of that stay. Keep a flat and you need five years abroad, no more than 70 days' use a year and a written log.

  • The company must be run from Cyprus

    A Cyprus company run from Austria pays Austrian tax. If an Austrian company controls it, Austria can tax its profit at home when it counts as low-taxed, and the low-tax line is now 15%, exactly Cyprus's rate. Hold the shares yourself after you move and that rule doesn't apply.

  • Report gifts to family

    Austria has no gift or inheritance tax. But gifts of shares, cash or a business above €50,000 a year between relatives, or €15,000 in five years between others, must be reported within three months. The fine is up to 10% of the value.

What you get in Cyprus.

One flat rate, no minimum tax in a loss year, and dividends free of tax for 17 years with non-dom status.

Corporate tax
15%
One flat rate, with no local surcharges.
Tax on dividends
0%
As a non-dom, for up to 17 years.
Days a year for tax residency
60
Under the 60-day rule, with a home and a business here.
Wealth or inheritance tax
0
Cyprus has neither.
  • As an Austrian citizen you're an EU citizen, so you don't need a visa. You register with the Yellow Slip, and we file it with you.
  • Running your own Cyprus company counts towards the 60-day rule. Real decisions taken here also show Austria that the company is run from Cyprus.
  • Hold the Cyprus shares yourself and Austria's low-tax rule doesn't reach them. With an Austrian holding company on top, decide the structure and the 3% IP Box together.
  • An online shop keeps selling across the EU, with a Cyprus VAT number and one VAT return for consumer sales in other countries.

The move, in the right order.

The timings depend on your case. On the Austrian side, everything hangs on the tax return for the year you leave.

Book a free call
  1. First

    Plan the exit tax

    An Austrian tax adviser looks at each of your holdings and decides with you whether an Austrian holding company stays on top of the Cyprus one. We can recommend an adviser if you need one.

  2. Month 1We do this

    Form the Cyprus company

    We register it with tax, VAT and VIES. Your books open the day you order.

  3. Month 1 to 3We do this

    Yellow Slip and a home

    We apply for your Yellow Slip with you. You rent or buy the Cyprus home the 60-day rule needs.

  4. Month 2 to 4

    Give up the flat, or start the log

    Give up your Austrian home, or keep it under the second-home rule (Zweitwohnsitzverordnung) and log every day you use it from day one. A log started in month nine is worth nothing.

  5. Month 3 to 6

    Run the company from Cyprus

    Take the company's decisions in Cyprus and record them here. Your adviser checks your social insurance and pension before your Austrian tax return is drafted.

  6. Departure-year return

    Apply to defer the exit tax

    Your adviser files the tax return for the year you moved with the application in it, for each holding, before the tax office issues its assessment.

  7. From month 12We do this

    Tax residency and non-dom

    We register your Cyprus tax residency and non-dom status, then keep your day counts and Cyprus filings in order.

The Cyprus side, done for you.

Fixed prices, excl. VAT, agreed before you start. Government fees are charged at cost, on top of our fee, once your application is approved.

What Austrian founders ask first.

Still unsure? Talk to a person on WhatsApp, or book a free call below.

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Not on the day you leave, if you apply. Austria treats your shares as sold at market value when you move, with no action needed from you. Because Cyprus is in the EU, the tax is worked out but not collected until you actually sell. You apply for that in your tax return for the year you move.

Then the tax is due and you can't fix it later. The application only counts in the return for the year you move, filed before the tax office issues its assessment, and separately for each holding. Advice saying the deferral was abolished, or that you pay in instalments, is about business assets or German law, not shares you hold privately.

When you no longer have a home in Austria that you use, and you don't stay there for six months. Deregistering your address is a formality and doesn't end tax residency on its own. Stay six months in Austria and you're taxable on your worldwide income again, back to the first day of that stay.

Yes, under the second-home rule, if three things hold together. Your life is based abroad for at least five calendar years, you use the flat no more than 70 days a year, and you keep a written log of those days. Austria then stops taxing you as a resident from the year after you move. Move back within the five years and you lose that.

You can keep it, move its management to Cyprus, or wind it down and start fresh in Cyprus. Moving only the management leaves it resident in both countries, because its registered office keeps it Austrian. For most founders a fresh Cyprus company is cleanest. Plan the timing, because your shares are valued when you leave and the application belongs in that year's return.

It can be. Austria has rules that tax a low-taxed foreign company's profit at home. Since 2026 the low-tax line sits at 15%, measured on the tax a company actually pays, so Cyprus sits right on it and 3% IP Box income sits under it. But the rules only apply when an Austrian company controls the Cyprus company. If you've moved and hold the shares yourself, they don't.

No. Under the 60-day rule you can be Cyprus tax resident with 60 days a year here, a home you rent or own, a business or job in Cyprus, and no more than 183 days in any other country. Running your own Cyprus company can count as the business.

Yes, and Austria has no gift or inheritance tax. But you must report gifts above €50,000 a year between relatives, or €15,000 in five years between others, within three months, or face a fine of up to 10% of the value. A gift of shares to someone living abroad can also trigger the exit tax, so plan both together.

EU rules coordinate them between the two countries. We haven't researched the details, so this page gives no figures. They can matter as much as the tax. Ask an Austrian adviser about your social insurance and pension before your departure-year return is filed. We can recommend one if you need it.

Plan your move with us.

Tell us what you own and when you'd like to move. We'll tell you what applies, what it costs, and what to do first.

  • Which rules at home affect you
  • The order to do things in
  • A fixed price for the Cyprus side

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