The Cyprus Company Compliance Calendar

Two authorities, two timetables

The obligation most often missed is missed because founders assume one filing covers everything. It does not, and the two authorities do not stand in for each other.

The Registrar of Companies maintains the corporate record: who the directors are, where the registered office is, who holds the shares, and the annual return confirming it. Filing here keeps the company in good standing as a legal entity.

The Tax Department assesses tax. Filing here settles what the company owes.

A company can be fully current with the Tax Department and facing strike-off proceedings at the Registrar, or the reverse. Both timetables have to be run, and in practice that is what an administrator is for.

What has to be filed

The annual return, form HE32. Filed with the Registrar with the financial statements attached. It confirms the company's officers, registered office and share capital as at the return date. Late filing carries 50 euro on the first day of non-compliance and 1 euro for every day it continues, capped at 150 euro, with a further 20 euro fee on top of the calculated charge. Partnership annual returns on form Σ5 carry the same structure. The charge applies to annual returns with a reference date in 2021 or later, under the Companies (Amendment) Law N.18(I)/2024.

Two further consequences sit behind the charge. Failure to file is an offence for which the company and its officers are liable to a fine of up to 42 euro, which is nominal but attaches to the officers personally rather than only to the company. And a sustained failure leads to involuntary strike-off from the Register and dissolution of the company, which is the consequence that actually matters.

Audited or reviewed financial statements. Every Cyprus company needs an assurance engagement carried out by a licensed statutory auditor, and it is a precondition for the tax return rather than an optional exercise.

What changed in 2026 is the level of that engagement. For financial years beginning on or after 6 February 2026, a private limited company whose net turnover is below 300,000 euro and whose total gross assets are below 500,000 euro, in each case for two consecutive financial years, may opt for a review engagement under ISRE 2400 instead of a full statutory audit. A review provides limited assurance through enquiry and analytical procedures rather than the detailed testing an audit involves, and it is ordinarily cheaper.

The relief is not open to everyone below the thresholds. Public companies, public-interest entities, regulated financial institutions and companies required to prepare consolidated financial statements remain within full audit whatever their size. And a review engagement is still performed by a licensed statutory auditor, so this is a lighter obligation rather than an exemption from assurance altogether.

The corporate income tax return. Filed with the Tax Department, supported by those audited statements, which is why the audit sits on the critical path for both filings.

Provisional tax. Cyprus asks companies to estimate the current year's taxable profit and pay it in instalments during that year, with a balancing payment afterwards. Underestimating the liability by more than the permitted margin attracts an additional charge, so the estimate is a judgement with a cost attached rather than a formality.

VAT returns and VIES statements, where the company is VAT registered. These run on their own periodic cycle, independent of the annual filings.

Employer returns and payroll, where the company has employees, including any officer taking a salary.

What missing a deadline costs

The Registrar's charge is set out above. What follows is the Tax Department, where the charges changed on 1 January 2026. Article 50A of the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law N.4/1978 was rewritten by Law N.243(I)/2025, published in the Gazette on 31 December 2025, and the flat amounts that preceded it no longer apply. Figures still circulating from before that date are wrong.

Late filing with the Tax Department now runs on a three-tier scale rather than a single amount. Missing a deadline set by the Law costs 150 euro for an individual and 250 euro for a company, rising to 500 euro where the company's turnover or its assets exceed one million euro. The threshold is met by either measure, not both, so an asset-holding company with little turnover can still sit in the higher tier.

Where the Commissioner has served a notice requiring compliance, and the notice period is not less than sixty days, the amounts are higher again: 300 euro for an individual, 500 euro for a company, and 1,000 euro above the one million euro threshold. The same applies where the information demanded concerns another person, which is the provision that reaches a company asked about a shareholder or a counterparty.

Late payment of tax is charged separately from late filing, at 5 percent of the tax due. If two months pass from the last day for payment and the failure continues, a further 5 percent is added.

Interest is no longer fixed in the statute. Article 39 of the same Law set 9 percent a year until Law N.243(I)/2025 replaced that figure with the rate determined under the Unified Public Default Interest Rate Law, which is set by decree each year. The rate is 3.5 percent for 2026, and was 5.5 percent for 2025, 5 percent for 2024, 2.25 percent for 2023 and 1.75 percent from 2020 to 2022. Any calculation running across those years applies the rate in force for each period rather than the current one.

VAT runs on its own scale, and conflating it with the income tax charges is a common error. Late submission of a VAT return is 100 euro, with additional tax of 10 percent of the VAT owed. Late submission of a VIES recapitulative statement is 50 euro. Note that the VAT charge on the amount owed is 10 percent where the income tax charge is 5 percent, twice, on a different timetable.

Separately, the Commissioner may impose an administrative fine of up to 20,000 euro for a breach of the Law, its Regulations or orders made under it, judged by the gravity of the breach and independent of any criminal liability.

The late filing penalty calculator applies all of the above to a given set of dates and amounts, including the interest, which is the part that cannot sensibly be done by hand once arrears run across more than one year.

What founders get wrong

Assuming a dormant company is exempt. It is not. A company with no trading activity still files an annual return and still files with the Tax Department. Dormancy reduces what the filings contain, not whether they are made.

Not budgeting for the audit. It is mandatory, it is a professional fee, and it recurs annually. A structure costed on formation fees alone understates the running cost by the largest single item.

Treating provisional tax as an estimate without consequence. The additional charge for a material underestimate is real, and it applies to companies that had a better year than they forecast.

Discovering transfer pricing late. A company with an intra-group royalty or loan may have documentation obligations alongside the ordinary filings. See transfer pricing in Cyprus for the thresholds.

Where certainty can be obtained in advance

Two mechanisms exist for a company that wants a position confirmed rather than assumed.

Advance tax rulings. The Tax Department operates a ruling procedure under which a taxpayer can apply for a written position on the treatment of a proposed transaction, against a fee and to a target response period. It is used most often for IP Box qualification, reorganisations and cross-border structures where the amount at stake justifies the certainty.

Advance pricing arrangements, for transfer pricing specifically, where a company wants its intra-group pricing methodology agreed rather than tested later.

Neither is necessary for ordinary trading. Both are worth the cost where a structure depends on a particular reading and the consequence of being wrong is large.