Cyprus · Tax regime
Non-Domiciled Tax Status
Materially changed by the tax reform passed by Parliament on 22 December 2025, gazetted 31 December 2025 and in force for tax years from 1 January 2026. The 17-year limit stays, but is now extendable by two consecutive 5-year periods at EUR 250,000 per period — a maximum of 27 years. Simultaneously the SDC rate on dividends from post-2026 profits fell from 17% to 5%, which sharply reduces what the non-dom exemption is actually worth.
The 2026 reform is more double-edged than the marketing admits. Yes, non-dom can now run to 27 years — but cutting SDC on dividends from 17% to 5% means a domiciled Cypriot now pays only 5% on dividends, so the exemption a non-dom is paying EUR 250,000 to extend is worth a fraction of what it was worth in 2025. Run the arithmetic before buying the extension: for many families the extension will never pay for itself.
Qualifying routes
17 tax years from becoming Cyprus tax resident, free of charge, if not deemed domiciled
lump sum covering a further 5-year period; available where the domicile of origin is outside Cyprus
a further 5 years; the election may be made twice, giving up to 10 additional years
The facts
- Qualifying figure
- €250k
- Total landed cost
- Free for the first 17 years. EUR 250,000 per 5-year extension thereafter, up to EUR 500,000 for the full additional decade.
- Physical presence
- Cyprus tax residence required — 183 days, or 60 days under the alternative test
- Family
- assessed individually per taxpayer
- Permanent residency
- n/a — a tax status
- Citizenship
- n/a
- Language test
- n/a
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Cyprus tax resident under the 183-day or 60-day testnot domiciled in Cyprus by origin, and not deemed domiciled by 17 years of residence in the last 20for the extension: domicile of origin outside Cyprus and a EUR 250,000 lump sum per 5-year period
- The 17-year clock runs from the year you become Cyprus tax resident, not from when you claim the status — arriving young burns years cheaply, arriving at 55 may mean the clock outlives the plan anyway.
- The EUR 250,000 extension must be assessed against the new 5% SDC rate, not the old 17%. Advisers still pricing the extension against a 17% counterfactual are overstating its value by more than threefold.
- Dividends out of pre-2026 profits keep the 17% SDC rate until 31 December 2031 — a transition trap for companies with accumulated reserves.
- 'Deemed domicile' catches anyone Cyprus-domiciled by origin or resident 17 of the last 20 years, regardless of the extension.
- Cyprus corporate tax rose from 12.5% to 15% on 1 January 2026, so structures built on the old rate need re-modelling.
- The precise conditions attaching to the extension election could not be confirmed against the statute text — KPMG describes it as '2 consecutive 5-year periods (5+5), subject to conditions' without publishing those conditions. Verify before committing EUR 250,000.