Create a company in Cyprus — or move your company from United Kingdom

Leaving the UK for Cyprus is not one decision but three: when you stop being UK tax resident, what the UK keeps taxing after you go, and what you build on the other side. The good news is that Britain has no exit tax. The catch is that it replaced one with a five-year clawback — and in April 2026 that clawback got materially wider.

Updated for 2026 Cyprus tax law and regulations.

From the UK to Cyprus, with one partner from the first form to the last filing

Sumly is the one-stop, fully digitalized way to move a business from the United Kingdom to Cyprus and run it from the day it exists. We form the company, open your books from day zero, prepare every Cyprus return box by box, and handle the tax residency and non-dom application as one fixed-price service. You get one dashboard, one provider and one set of prices told upfront — instead of a lawyer for the formation, an accountant for the books, and nobody at all for the part in between.

This is Sumly — and what we actually do for you

Sumly is the fully digital provider for founders moving a company to Cyprus. You do not need to learn Cypriot company law, find a local auditor, or work out which form goes where. You get in touch, and we do the rest.

And we stay with you on both sides of the move. The Cyprus side we own outright. For the side you are leaving, we put you straight in front of an adviser or lawyer from our network who works on exactly your problem — company law, exit taxation, inheritance, employment — and we hold the thread between them and us. One point of contact for the whole move, however many specialisms your case turns out to touch. If your case is simple, we do all of it for a fixed price.

Part 1: What leaving actually costs you

Your home country does not let go the moment the plane does. What still runs after you have left, and in which order it has to be handled.

Does the UK charge an exit tax when you leave for Cyprus?

No. There is no deemed disposal of your shares, no settlement of unrealised gains and no departure clearance charge. This is worth stating carefully because competitor pages assert it constantly without sourcing it, and because the answer has a large asterisk attached.

HMRC puts it plainly in two separate places. Its Capital Gains Manual says there is no legislation applying to all categories of person which deems the cessation of residence and ordinary residence in the UK to be an event giving rise to a deemed disposal, and a second page confirms there is no specific legislation creating an occasion of charge for individuals ceasing to be resident. Compared with Norway, Germany or the Netherlands — all of which tax unrealised share gains on the way out — the UK genuinely lets you walk.

What it does instead is reach back. Three things survive your departure, and each has its own section below: you stay inside the capital gains net until the following 5 April unless split-year treatment applies; the temporary non-residence rules re-tax what you did while away if you return inside five years; and non-resident capital gains tax still applies to UK land and to companies that are rich in it.

How does the Statutory Residence Test decide when you have actually left?

It decides year by year, on day counts and connections, and it is entirely mechanical once you know which limb applies. The test runs in a fixed order: the automatic overseas tests first, then the automatic UK tests, and only if neither resolves it do you reach the sufficient ties test.

For someone who has been UK resident, the clean break is the first automatic overseas test: fewer than 16 UK days in the tax year. The alternative for a working founder is the third test — genuine full-time work overseas, with fewer than 91 days in the UK and fewer than 31 days working more than three hours in the UK. That buys you far more UK time, at the price of having to hold a real overseas work pattern for a whole tax year.

Going the other way, you are automatically UK resident on 183 days or more. The trap most founders walk into is the second automatic UK test: having a UK home available for 91 consecutive days, being present in it on at least 30 days in the tax year, and having no overseas home you are present in enough. Keeping the family house and visiting it for a month can make you UK resident on its own, whatever your total day count.

If neither set decides it, the five ties are family, accommodation, work, the 90-day tie and the country tie. Leavers face a harsher table than arrivers, and the country tie only applies to leavers:

Read the last row twice. A departing founder with one remaining tie who spends 121 days in the UK is UK tax resident again. A house you could stay in is a tie. A spouse who has not moved yet is a tie. This is where "I'll move gradually" quietly fails.

Why does split-year treatment decide when you can take a dividend?

Because without it you remain within the UK tax net until the following 5 April, whatever date you physically left. HMRC's manual is explicit that an individual remains within the charge to Capital Gains Tax until the following 5 April absent a concession or split-year treatment. Declare a large Cyprus dividend in the September after a June departure without split-year treatment, and you have declared it as a UK resident.

Split-year treatment does not make you non-resident for the year. It cuts the year into a UK part and an overseas part, and taxes the overseas part as though you were non-resident. There are eight cases; three of them are for leavers, and you must meet every condition of a case for it to apply.

• Case 1 — starting full-time work overseas. The mainstream route for a founder who takes a directorship or employment with the Cyprus company. It requires meeting the third automatic overseas test in the following tax year, so the arrangement has to be real and has to last.
• Case 2 — partner of someone starting full-time work overseas. The route for a spouse or civil partner joining the Case 1 person.
• Case 3 — ceasing to have a home in the UK. The "sold the house and left" route, for founders not taking up full-time overseas work. It requires ceasing to have any UK home, then very limited UK days, and establishing a real link with the new country.

For most of the founders we meet, Case 1 and a Cyprus directorship are the same conversation — which is also how the Cyprus 60-day rule gets satisfied, as below.

What happens if you move back to the UK within five years?

This is the rule that decides whether the plan works, and it is where almost every competing page is thin. The UK's substitute for an exit tax is not a charge on the way out — it is a clawback on the way back.

You are temporarily non-resident if all three hold: you had sole UK residence for all or part of at least 4 out of the 7 tax years before you left; there was a period that was not sole UK residence between two periods that were, meaning you left and came back; and the time away did not exceed five years. Note that "sole UK residence" is a term of art — a year in which a treaty tie-breaker makes you resident elsewhere is not one.

If you are caught, income and gains from your time away are treated as arising in the year you return and taxed then. The list includes capital gains, pension lump sums, remitted foreign income, loans to participators written off — and, top of the list for our reader, distributions from closely controlled companies. A Cyprus limited company owned by one founder or a handful is squarely a close company for this purpose.

The practical rule that falls out of this is simple, and it is the single most useful sentence in this guide: plan the return date, not the departure date. Five years and a day is a completely different tax outcome from four years and eleven months. HMRC's own manual sets out the close-company conditions in detail, including that the charge bites where you were a material participator at any point in the departure year or the three previous tax years.

Do UK controlled foreign company rules catch a Cyprus company?

Usually not — and the reason is that the CFC rules are pointed at a different target than most articles assume. Getting this right is worth doing, because the wrong answer sends founders to expensive advisers for a problem they do not have, and reassures others about a problem they do.

The CFC regime sits in TIOPA 2010 Part 9A. A CFC charge is levied on chargeable companies, and HMRC's manual confirms the gateway needs a UK interest holder that is not exempt and that holds an interest of at least 25%. Chargeable companies are UK-resident companies. A British individual holding Cyprus Ltd shares personally is not one. A UK holding company owning a Cyprus subsidiary is a different story and is genuinely in CFC territory.

There is a checkable fact here that is worth having, because it cuts against a claim you will see repeated. The excluded territories exemption only helps a CFC resident in a territory listed in the Excluded Territories Regulations 2012. Reading Part 1 of that Schedule, the entries under C are Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba and the Czech Republic. Cyprus is not on the list. A Cyprus CFC held under a UK company has to rely on the low-profits, low-profit-margin or tax exemptions instead — the last of which turns on whether local tax is 75% or more of the corresponding UK tax. Whether it passes is a computation, not a headline.

The rule that actually reaches an individual is the transfer of assets abroad regime in ITA 2007 Part 13 Chapter 2, which counteracts arrangements by UK resident individuals who arrange for income to accrue to a person resident abroad while still being able to enjoy the benefit of it. And one recent change matters: the separate EU treaty freedoms exemption was repealed with effect from 6 April 2025, so being an EU company is no longer a defence in itself.

Put the two together and the position is clear. Both regimes are aimed at people who are still in the UK. A founder who genuinely ceases to be UK resident is outside both. The person who incorporates in Cyprus while still living in London, or who never really leaves, is the person these rules were written for.

Can HMRC treat your Cyprus company as UK tax resident anyway?

Yes, and this is the risk that survives a genuine move. A company is UK resident if it is incorporated in the UK, or if the central management and control of its business is in the UK. The second limb is what can catch a Cyprus company.

The authority is De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd v Howe (1906), which located residence where the central management and control actually abides. The extension founders should know is Bullock v Unit Construction Co Ltd (1959): only actual control counts, not constitutional form. If the people formally charged with management stand aside, residence follows whoever is really deciding.

HMRC's own practice page is candid about how little a board meeting location buys you on its own. The place of directors' meetings matters if, but only if, the board does have the controlling power and exercises it wholly or mainly at board meetings — and not at all if the directors act on someone else's instructions, or artificially separate where they meet from where they actually run the business.

The realistic failure mode is not aggressive avoidance. It is a founder who moves to Cyprus, incorporates there, and then keeps making every real decision on trips to London, or through a UK-resident co-founder, while Cyprus directors sign what they are sent. What protects you is ordinary and unglamorous: decisions taken and minuted in Cyprus, a board that genuinely decides, strategy and material spending signed off here, and records that match the story. Our guide to nominee directors in Cyprus covers where nominees help and where they do not.

How long does UK inheritance tax follow you to Cyprus?

Between three and ten years — and this is the change that has reshaped the departure decision more than any tax rate. On 6 April 2025 the UK abolished domicile as the connecting factor for inheritance tax and replaced it with long-term UK residence. Being UK resident for at least 10 out of the previous 20 tax years puts your worldwide estate in scope, not just your UK assets.

Leaving does not switch it off. The tail runs on a scale:

A founder who has lived in the UK for twenty years and moves to Cyprus in 2026 does not take their Cyprus company shares out of the UK inheritance tax net until 2036. At a 40% standard rate above a nil-rate band frozen at £325,000 until 5 April 2031, that is the largest single number in most founders' departure arithmetic — and it is the one the relocation industry mentions least.

There is a reset: HMRC confirms the test is effectively reset after ten consecutive years of non-residence, even if you later return. And Cyprus, for its part, levies no inheritance tax and no annual wealth tax at all.

What do you actually pay in the UK today?

Enough that the comparison is not close, and rising on a schedule that is already legislated. UK corporation tax is 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% above £250,000, with a marginal band between the two where the effective rate is 26.5% — higher than the headline main rate. Before April 2023 a single 19% rate applied to everything.

Then the owner takes the money out. Dividend rates rose on 6 April 2026 to 10.75% at ordinary rate, 35.75% at upper rate and 39.35% at additional rate, each of the first two up two points, against a dividend allowance that fell from £2,000 to £1,000 in 2023 and to £500 in 2024. And the direction is set: the same measure raises savings and property income rates to 22%, 42% and 47% from 6 April 2027.

A founder deciding in 2026 is deciding against a known future, not a speculative one.

Part 2: What Cyprus gives you

This is the straightforward half, and the half we build end to end. What you actually get on the other side.

What does the Cyprus side look like for a British founder?

Simpler, and flatter. A Cyprus limited company pays 15% from tax year 2026 on its taxable profit — one rate, no bands, no taper, the same on €40,000 of profit as on €4 million. Qualifying intellectual property can bring the effective rate on that income down to 3% from tax year 2026 under the IP Box.

Then the owner takes the money out, and this is where the gap opens. A Cyprus tax resident who is not Cyprus-domiciled — the non-dom status nearly every relocating founder qualifies for — pays no Special Defence Contribution on dividends for 17 years of Cyprus residence, and dividends sit outside personal income tax altogether. What remains is GeSY at 2.65% on income up to €180,000 a year — a maximum of €4,770, whatever you distribute.

Take €200,000 of company profit. In Cyprus the company pays €30,000 and a non-dom shareholder distributing the rest pays €4,505 of GeSY, keeping about €165,000. There is no wealth tax and no inheritance tax on top. The full mechanics are in Cyprus non-dom status and Cyprus corporate tax, and the arithmetic against your own numbers is in the calculator at the top of this page.

How does a British founder become Cyprus tax resident?

Through the 60-day rule, in most cases, and it became easier in 2026. The familiar route is spending more than 183 days a year in Cyprus. The alternative asks for far fewer days and more commitment on the ground.

From tax year 2026 the rule has four conditions, after the old fifth was removed from the 60-day rule: at least 60 days in Cyprus; no more than 183 days in any other single state; a business, employment or office in a Cyprus tax-resident person held through the year; and a permanent home in Cyprus that you own or rent. The condition that was dropped — not being tax resident anywhere else — was the awkward one for mobile founders, because another country's claim no longer disqualifies you by itself. Competing claims now resolve under the treaty.

The useful detail for a British founder is that a directorship of your own Cyprus company can be the office the third condition asks for. Forming the company and establishing residency are therefore usually one project, not two — which is also what Case 1 split-year treatment on the UK side wants to see. Note that the Yellow Slip route is for EU citizens only, so British founders since Brexit use the residence routes that apply to third-country nationals; we handle that paperwork and bring in immigration specialists where a file needs them.

What happens to your National Insurance and state pension?

It got more expensive to leave cleanly, and this is a genuine cost that belongs in the decision rather than in the small print. You need 10 qualifying years to get any new State Pension and 35 qualifying years for the full rate of £241.30 a week if your record started after April 2016.

From 6 April 2026 the cheap way of topping that up from abroad is gone. HMRC confirms you cannot pay voluntary Class 2 National Insurance contributions for time abroad from 2026/27, and Class 3 from abroad now requires either ten years of previous continuous UK residence or ten qualifying years already on the record. Class 3 costs £18.40 a week against Class 2's £3.65 — roughly five times as much, and only if you clear the new test.

Once you are working in Cyprus, the default is that you pay social insurance where you work. Periods in an EU country may be taken into account for a UK pension, but the mechanics depend on when you left and your own record, so check yours with the International Pension Centre rather than assuming. Do that before you leave: it is the sort of thing that is easy in March and irritating in October.

Does the UK–Cyprus double tax treaty protect you?

Substantially, yes — for individuals. The current instrument is the 2018 UK–Cyprus Double Taxation Convention as amended by the 2018 Protocol, and its headline rates are as good as treaties get: dividends and interest at 0% withholding, royalties at 0%. The exception is dividends paid out of immovable property income by a tax-exempt vehicle, capped at 15%.

For a dual-resident individual, Article 4 gives an ordered tie-breaker: permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality, then mutual agreement. That is a real safety net, and it is what makes the Cyprus 60-day change above workable.

For a dual-resident company, there is no such ladder. The treaty asks the two competent authorities to settle residence by mutual agreement — a negotiation between tax offices, not a rule you can apply yourself. Anyone planning to run a UK Ltd from Cyprus and rely on the treaty to sort out which country wins should understand what they are relying on.

On capital gains, Article 13 leaves most movable property taxable only where you are resident — but shares deriving more than half their value from immovable property remain taxable where the property sits. A founder holding a UK property-rich company is not fully protected by moving. On pensions, Article 17 makes private pensions taxable only in the state of residence, so a UK personal or occupational pension paid to a Cyprus resident is taxed in Cyprus; government service pensions under Article 18 work the other way.

What happens to your existing UK limited company?

Three routes, and it is a decision rather than a default.

Keep it. A UK-incorporated company stays UK resident under the incorporation rule wherever you live, so it keeps paying UK corporation tax on worldwide profits. That is sensible when there is continuing UK trade or UK customers who need a UK counterparty. But if you are the sole director and now live in Cyprus, central management and control has moved — leaving a dual-resident company whose residence only the two tax authorities can settle. Keeping the Ltd "just in case" while running it from Cyprus is the messiest option, not the safest.

Strike it off. The cheap route, with conditions: no trading or stock sales and no name change in the last three months, no threatened liquidation, no creditor arrangements. You must notify members, creditors, employees and pension trustees within seven days, deal with employees properly, file final accounts and a final Company Tax Return, and pay outstanding tax. And the warning that costs people real money: GOV.UK is explicit that anything left in the company goes to the Crown, including any payments the company may receive in future, for example refunds from HMRC. Empty the bank account and settle the HMRC position before you file.

Members' voluntary liquidation. The solvent-liquidation route where there are meaningful reserves, using a licensed insolvency practitioner and a declaration of solvency stating the company can pay its debts within no longer than 12 months. The traditional attraction was Business Asset Disposal Relief at 10%. That attraction has faded fast: BADR is 18% from 6 April 2026, having been 14% from April 2025 and 10% before that, against a £1 million lifetime limit.

What almost nobody selling redomiciliation will tell you is the fourth option's price. Moving the UK company itself to Cyprus triggers the s.185 deemed disposal above, on everything it owns. For a software company whose value sits in its code, that can be the most expensive way to make the move. For most founders the honest answer is: wind the UK company down, and incorporate fresh in Cyprus.

Why do people choose Cyprus over other tax havens?

Because it is a place people actually want to live, which most of the alternatives are not. The tax is the reason founders look; it is rarely the reason they stay.

Cyprus is an English-speaking country in practical terms — business, banking and professional services all run in English, which for a British founder removes the single biggest friction of moving anywhere else in the EU. It has among the lowest violent crime rates in the European Union. There are people from all over the world here already, so nobody is the only foreigner in the room. Business and real estate are booming, and the state is broadly friendly and open to people doing business without wrapping it in regulation. Groceries — meat, fruit, vegetables — are noticeably cheaper than in the UK. And the beaches: in a Cyprus winter you can still swim, and the summers are what people fly across the world for.

Set against that, the honest push list from the British side is not a grievance but a timeline. Corporation tax went from a flat 19% to 25% with a 26.5% marginal band. The dividend allowance fell 75% in two years and dividend rates rose again in April 2026. Employer National Insurance rose to 15% in April 2025 while the secondary threshold fell from £9,100 to £5,000, making every employee more expensive from a much lower starting point — though the higher Employment Allowance offsets this for the smallest employers, which is worth saying plainly. BADR has nearly doubled. Savings and property rates rise again in 2027. And the inheritance tax nil-rate band has been frozen at £325,000 since 2009, which is a tax rise nobody has to legislate.

You will also see claims that some number of thousands of millionaires left Britain last year. Those figures come from private wealth-migration reports rather than official statistics and their methodology is contested, so we do not repeat them. The legislated changes above are enough on their own.

Can a British e-commerce brand run through Cyprus?

Yes, and for a UK seller the single-market question is often bigger than the tax one. Since Brexit a UK company deals with the EU as a third country: customs declarations, import VAT, and a separate registration to sell digital goods or distance-sell to EU consumers. A Cyprus company sits inside the EU VAT system with an EU VAT number that customers can check in VIES, zero-rates intra-EU business sales and uses the one-stop shop for consumer sales across the bloc.

The bookkeeping is where this usually goes wrong, because a store generates thousands of small transactions in several currencies and a VAT treatment that changes by customer type and country. Sumly's Shopify and WooCommerce plugins pull orders, refunds, fees and payouts straight into the books with the right VAT codes, so the return is built from the sales rather than reconstructed from an export at quarter end.

Part 3: How the move runs

From the decision to the first invoice out of the Cyprus company: the order, the mistakes people make before you, and two calculations worked through in full.

What does the move look like, month by month?

Timelines depend on your own circumstances, so treat this as shape rather than schedule.

• Before you go — and this is where we start. We put a UK adviser from our network on your departure date and on what to do with the Ltd. They check your National Insurance record and settle voluntary contributions before the rules bite. Together we decide whether you are aiming at the under-16-day break or the full-time-work-overseas route.
• Month 1. We form the Cyprus company — ordered online, with your books open the day you order — and start the residence paperwork. Your UK adviser notifies HMRC using form P85, or the SA109 residence pages if you are in Self Assessment.
• Months 1–3. We register for VAT and, where relevant, social insurance, employees and UBO, and get banking and EU payments moving. You take up the directorship that anchors the 60-day rule.
• Months 3–6. You rent or buy the permanent home the 60-day rule requires, and we tell you what qualifies. You move real decision-making to Cyprus and we minute it there. Your adviser winds down or restructures the UK company on their own timetable, and we keep the two in step.
• Month 12 onward. Once you are through your first full UK tax year abroad, we apply for the tax residency certificate and the non-dom registration. Then we keep the day counts and the board records clean — for five years, because of the clawback. That is our clock, not yours.

What mistakes do British founders actually make?

The expensive ones are rarely exotic.

Keeping a UK home "for the kids" and triggering the second automatic UK test. Counting days to 90 and forgetting that a leaver with one tie is caught at 121. Taking a large Cyprus dividend in the tax year of departure without split-year treatment. Planning a three-year adventure and returning in year four, straight into the temporary non-residence charge — now including the profits earned while away. Believing the CFC warnings that were written about UK companies. Redomiciling a software company to Cyprus and meeting s.185 on its intellectual property. Dissolving the UK Ltd with money still in the account and losing it to the Crown. And running the Cyprus company from a laptop in London while nominee directors sign the minutes.

Almost all of them come from treating the move as an event rather than as two tax systems handing over to each other.

Two worked examples

A consultancy at £200,000 of profit. In the UK the company pays corporation tax in the marginal band, and the founder pays upper-rate dividend tax on what is distributed, with a £500 allowance. Through Cyprus the company pays 15% and a non-dom founder pays only GeSY, capped at €4,770 — keeping roughly €165,000 of €200,000. The gap on one year is large; the calculator at the top of this page compounds it, because each year's saving is also invested and Cyprus does not tax the return.

A SaaS company at £500,000 of profit with qualifying IP. The UK charges the 25% main rate. In Cyprus, income that qualifies under the IP Box is taxed at an effective 3%, and the dividend still meets only GeSY. This is the profile where the difference becomes structural rather than incremental — but it is also the profile where migrating the existing UK company is most dangerous, because s.185 values the intellectual property on the way out. Incorporate fresh, and get advice on the IP.

Both examples assume full distribution and headline rates. Your own bands, reliefs, timing and the five-year clock change the answer, which is what a meeting is for.

Part 4: Who does the work

You can do all of this yourself. Below is what that costs in time and in money, against what it costs to let us do it.

Do it yourself — or have Sumly do it

Both routes are real. Doing it yourself means the Registrar's forms and fees, a registered office you arrange, VAT and VIES registration, provisional tax twice a year, annual statements and books that stand up to your auditor — on top of a two-country move you are already managing. Sumly's route is three clear prices: formation from €950 one-time, the bookkeeping software from €39 a month, and your own Sumly certified bookkeeper at €390 a month, with books from day zero and every return prepared box by box.

The software alone runs the whole company: invoicing, AI double-entry bookkeeping that books documents itself, live open-banking feeds, every VAT, VIES, provisional and corporate return prepared box by box, live reports, a document inbox with its own email address, mobile receipt capture that books itself, multi-currency invoicing, team roles and the AI assistant — plus payroll at €15 per employee per month, IP Box tracking at €50 a month, Projects at €10 a month, and the e-commerce plugins.

And Sumly offers all of this to everyone: a virtual address with PO box, including digital scanning of your mail delivered to your dashboard wherever you are; nominee director and secretary where a structure needs them; the Yellow Slip for EU citizens, which since Brexit is not the British route; and every registration handled — VAT, social insurance, employees and UBO, filed right the first time.

Each of those is an extra, scoped to your case. Tell us what you need in the meeting and you get one clear package-deal offer covering all of it — the IP Box application included where it fits, since it is complex expert work and exactly the sort of thing that should be looked at with you before anyone quotes it. No hourly billing, no surprises.

Sumly, a law firm, and a traditional bookkeeping firm

Law firm vs Sumly — and what happens when it gets complicated

Sumly is cheaper and faster, and we work WITH lawyers, not against them. When a case gets too complicated for what Sumly handles directly, we simply connect you with the right expert in exactly the legal field you need help in, and everything gets done according to best practice, always. Either way, it starts the same place: contact us.

For a British founder, that combination is the point. The UK side of this move needs a UK adviser, and we will say so every time. The Cyprus side — the company, the books, the filings, the residency — is one provider, one dashboard and four published prices. That is what makes Sumly the best choice for UK founders creating a company and relocating to Cyprus.

Why is Sumly the best bookkeeping system for a Cyprus company?

Sumly is the best accounting software for a Cyprus limited company — because it is built for exactly one thing, Cyprus tax law: all 16 Cyprus VAT codes mapped to the official VAT return boxes, VIES and provisional tax native, not a localization. That is the sentence we are happy to defend anywhere, and here is the evidence behind it.

The two Cyprus-built alternatives a British founder will be shown are Cybooks and Balabook. We meet their former customers every week, and what they tell us, again and again: workflows that made simple bookkeeping overly complicated, rough edges and glitches, support that left them waiting — a messy experience they were relieved to leave behind.

On every one of these checkable dimensions, Sumly leads. That is a factual comparison — not a matter of taste.

Said plainly: the best support, the best bookkeeping software, the best AI for bookkeeping, the best bookkeeper, and the best prices — with everything done easily. If you want to see the detail, we publish it: Sumly vs Cybooks, Sumly vs Balabook, and for the international tools a British founder already knows, Xero, QuickBooks and Sage.

On the IP Box specifically, one line is worth repeating: the IP Box is the largest single line in a Cyprus product company's tax position — and the easiest one to forfeit through bookkeeping that was never set up for it. The application starts as a conversation, which is another reason the meeting comes first.

What happens when you get in touch

You do not need to have decided anything before you speak to us, and you do not need your paperwork in order.

1. The meeting. Fifteen minutes. You tell us what you own and when you want to move. We tell you which rules at home catch you, and what the Cyprus side costs.
2. We tell you what kind of case you have. If it is simple, we do all of it — company, books, residency, non-dom — at a fixed price. If it is not, we say so immediately and bring in the specialist it needs.
3. We start. The company is registered, your books open the same day, and you have one point of contact for the whole thing.

Questions British founders actually ask

Frequently asked

Does the UK charge an exit tax when I move to Cyprus?

No. HMRC's Capital Gains Manual states in two separate places that there is no legislation deeming a cessation of UK residence to be a disposal, and no occasion of charge for an individual ceasing to be resident. What the UK has instead is a clawback: if you return within five years, the temporary non-residence rules tax gains and close-company dividends from your time away in the year you come back. The UK does charge a company that migrates out — TCGA 1992 s.185 — but that is a charge on the company, not on you.

How many days can I spend in the UK after moving to Cyprus?

If you want the clean automatic break, fewer than 16 in the tax year. Above that you are into the sufficient ties test, where a leaver with 121 days or more is UK resident on a single remaining tie — and a house you can use, a spouse in the UK or UK work all count as ties. The safest first full tax year is a low one: get under 16 days, or run a genuine full-time overseas work pattern and stay under 91.

Can I keep my UK limited company and run it from Cyprus?

You can, but it is the messiest of the options. A UK-incorporated company stays UK resident under the incorporation rule wherever you live, so it keeps paying UK corporation tax. Meanwhile, if you are the sole director and now live in Cyprus, central management and control has moved to Cyprus, so it is arguably resident in both. The UK–Cyprus treaty has no automatic tie-breaker for companies — it is resolved by agreement between the two tax authorities, which is slow and uncertain.

Do UK controlled foreign company rules catch my Cyprus company?

Usually not, because they are aimed at the wrong target. The CFC rules charge UK-resident companies that hold at least a 25% interest in a foreign company. A British individual who owns Cyprus Ltd shares personally is not a chargeable company. The regime that reaches individuals is the transfer of assets abroad rules — and those charge UK-resident individuals, so a founder who genuinely leaves falls outside them. The founder who sets the company up while still UK resident is the one who meets them.

How long does UK inheritance tax follow me to Cyprus?

Between three and ten years, on a sliding scale set by how long you were UK resident before leaving. Since 6 April 2025 inheritance tax follows long-term residence rather than domicile: 10 UK tax years out of the previous 20 puts your worldwide estate in scope, and leaving does not switch it off immediately. Twenty years of UK residence means a full ten-year tail, so a founder who moves in 2026 is not clear until 2036.

When can I take a dividend from the Cyprus company without UK tax?

Once you are genuinely non-UK resident for the year, with split-year treatment or a full tax year abroad behind you, and provided you do not return within five years. That last condition is the one that catches people: if you come back inside the clock, the distributions are taxed in the year of return at UK dividend rates. From 6 April 2026 even the part relating to trading profits earned after you left is caught.

Should I liquidate the UK company or migrate it to Cyprus?

For most founders, wind the UK company down and incorporate fresh in Cyprus. Migrating the existing company out of the UK triggers a deemed disposal of everything it owns at market value, which is expensive if it holds valuable intellectual property or goodwill. Redomiciliation providers rarely mention that charge. The decision depends on your reserves, your assets and your timing, and it is worth an hour with an adviser before you file anything.

Can I still pay UK National Insurance to protect my state pension?

It got harder and more expensive on 6 April 2026. Voluntary Class 2 for periods abroad was withdrawn, and Class 3 from abroad now requires either ten years of previous continuous UK residence or ten qualifying years on your record. Class 3 runs at £18.40 a week against the £3.65 Class 2 used to cost. You need ten qualifying years for any new State Pension and 35 for the full rate, so check your record before you go.

Does Sumly advise on UK tax?

No. Sumly builds and runs the Cyprus side: company formation, books from day one, Cyprus VAT, VIES and corporate returns, and the tax residency and non-dom application. This guide states the UK's own published rules so you can see the shape of the decision, but how they apply to your facts is a question for a UK-qualified adviser. Where a case needs one, we connect you with expert lawyers from our network — and the first step either way is a meeting.

Keep reading

• Every country's route to Cyprus — the departure guide for wherever you are now
• Cyprus vs a UK company — the two company types compared side by side
• Cyprus non-dom status — the 17-year exemption in detail
• The Cyprus 60-day rule — day counting and the residency certificate
• What changed in the 2026 Cyprus tax reform
• How to register a company in Cyprus and what it costs

The calculator on this page uses headline rates, an assumed 10% annual return and full distribution of profit, so it shows the shape of the difference rather than your return. UK figures are stated for tax year 2026/27 and corporation tax for financial year 2026; Cyprus figures apply from tax year 2026. All Sumly prices exclude VAT, and government expenses on a formation are invoiced separately once your application is approved.