Cyprus Forex Company Registration | Index2day

Cyprus is the leading country in the EU regulating the Forex market due to its numerous tax advantages, low set up and operational expenses along with the “passport effect” to offer services in all EU countries.

Read more on Index2Day.

The Best EU Investment Fund Jurisdiction | Cyprus Funds | Index2Day

A month after India's Department of Revenue notified Cyprus as a notified jurisdictional area (NJA) for not sharing information about tax dodgers, the Island has agreed to exchange information and amend the tax treaty between the two.

Read more on Index2Day.

Cyprus | India New Tax Agreement | Information Exchange Provision | Index2Day

A month after India's Department of Revenue notified Cyprus as a notified jurisdictional area (NJA) for not sharing information about tax dodgers, the Island has agreed to exchange information and amend the tax treaty between the two.

Read more on Index2Day.

Cyprus steps out to defend its tax regime | Index2Day

Cyprus, along with Luxembourg, British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles have been rated "non-compliant" with international tax transparency norms.

The OECD raised concerns on Cyprus failure to respond to tax information requests. Another concern the OECD has is that only about 23 percent of Cyprus-based corporations filed income tax returns with the government between 2008 and 2012. The low number of filings may have accounted for a lack of government oversight and resulted in Cyprus not exchanging up-to-date tax information with other jurisdictions, the report said. 

Read more on Index2Day

Amendments Proposed for EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive | Index2Day

On Monday, 25 November, the European Commission proposed changes to EU corporate tax law that would be intended to address tax avoidance in Europe.


According to the European Commission official press release, the Commission wants to close loopholes being used for a particular tax planning arrangement (hybrid loan arrangements) and to introduce a general anti-abuse rule the Directive is not exploited by tax avoiders.Read the full article on Index2Day.

Eurozone Banking Sector has Changed | Index2Day

 Smaller, less leveraged and more concentrated is the Eurozone banking sector in relation to the pre-crisis data, according to a survey by the European Central Bank on the structural changes that have occurred in the period 2008-2012. Read more on Index2Day.

Troika strategy for Cyprus banking ‘not working’ | Index2Day

Troika strategy for Cyprus banking ‘not working’ | Index2Day

Estonia DTA also approved by the Estonian Parliament | Index2day

A Double Tax Agreement (DTA) was signed between Cyprus and Estonia on October 15, 2012. The Cyprus Govermnent rativied the DTA in February 2013 and now it has also been approved by the Estonian Parliament on September 25, 2013. Read more: http://www.index2day.com/article/cyprus-estonia-dta-also-approved-by-the-estonian-parliament/

Dubai Multi Commodities Centre – UAE’s largest Free Zone | Index2Day

 The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), known also as the free zone authority behind Dubai’s Jumeirah Lake Towers, has now become UAE’s largest free zone, with more than 7,330 active registrations. Read more on Index2Day

EU Commission doesn’t give up on the FTT | Index2Day

(...) despite potential legal hurdles, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has pointed that the introduction of the FTT at international level is still being considered. While insisting that "a solution can be found" to overcome the legal issues, Schäuble nevertheless mentioned that the tax will not now enter into force at the beginning of 2014 as initially planned...Read more on Index2Day

Cyprus Citizenship | OSYS Newsletter | Index2Day

Since 2004, Cyprus is a EU member. By becoming  a Cypriot citizen, one can take advantage of all the benefits that EU citizenship has to offer:
a. right to move and reside freely within the EU;
b. right to vote and stand as candidates in municipal and European Parliament in any EU country;(...) read more at OSYS Newsletter | Index2Day

Malta | Ukraine Sign Agreement for Avoidance of Double Tax | Index2Day

On the 4th of September in Kyiv, Malta’s prime minister Joseph Muscat held talks with the Ukraine's prime minister, Mykola Azarov and signed a Double Tax Treaty. (...) Read more on  Index2Day

How to obtain Cyprus Residency | Index2Day

On the 24th of May 2013, in an effort to promote foreign investment in Cyprus, the Cypriot Government introduced amended conditions for obtaining Cyprus Permanent Residency permits and Cyprus Citizenship to foreign investors.

Foreign persons that wish to obtain a Cyprus Permanent Tax Residency through means of investment have two options (...) read more on Index2Day.

G20 – New Global Standard on Tax Information Exchange | Index2Day

While the Group of the 20 leading economies (G20) summit in St Petersburg was dominated by tensions over the Syria crisis, a deal was reached on new rules to make it harder to hide money in tax havens and force companies to pay tax in the countries where they have profits (...) Read more on Index2Day

Cyprus Officially Enters World Energy Market – Historical Ignition of Gas Flame | Index2Day

Cyprus, the South Eastern border of the EU is expected to see a historical day today , as the first trial production of natural gas within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a process known as " flame ignition ", will become a reality.

The ignition of the flame(...) Read more on  Index2Day

Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) on loss for the first half of 2013 | Index2Day

Hellenic Bank declared a net loss of €46 million for the period from 1st of January to 30th of June 2013, by raising its provisions for non-performing loans that appeared during as a result of the financial crisis and Eurogroup’s decision about deposits.

Read more:
Hellenic Bank (Cyprus) on loss for the first half of 2013 | Index2Day

Most Powerful Supercomputer in East Med Region Hosted in Cyprus

Cyprus’ very own supercomputer, in its first year of operation, has carried out simulations producing 70 TB (Terabytes) of data, the equivalent of 17 million of copies of the bible, which would have taken a normal laptop 456 years to compute. Its computational power is 30 Tflops, which means it can perform 30 trillion multiplications per second.

Read more:
Most Powerful Supercomputer in East Med Region Hosted in Cyprus | Index2Day

Malta – Mexico Tax Treaty Update 2013 | Index2Day

Malta – Mexico Tax Treaty Update 2013 | Index2Day

Troika’s assesment of Cyprus Economic Programme | Index2Day

Troika’s assesment of Cyprus Economic Programme | Index2Day

Malta attracts High Net Worth Individuals | Index2Day

Malta attracts High Net Worth Individuals | Index2Day

Italy & Vatican Sign MOU for AML | Index2Day

Italy & Vatican Sign MOU for AML | Index2Day

Millions paid by Swiss banks to UK and Austria | Index2Day

Millions paid by Swiss banks to UK and Austria | Index2Day

ENI exploratory drilling in block 9 to start next year | Index2Day

ENI exploratory drilling in block 9 to start next year | Index2Day

The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and Eni’s CEO, Paolo Scaroni, met on the 11th July in Nicosia, Cyprus, to discuss Eni’s ongoing activities offshore the island and the company’s future involvement in hydrocarbon activities in Cyprus. Scaroni updated the president of Cyprus on Eni’s plans, confirming that it will start exploratory drilling for natural gas off Cyprus in the second half of 2014. Eni has an 80% participating interest in Blocks 2, 3 and 9 located in the Cypriot deep offshore portion of the Levantine basin. The other partner in the Blocks is the Korean company KOGAS with a 20% participating interest.

Cyprus reported its first offshore natural gas find in 2011. It is currently planning to build a multibillion euro Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facility in Vassilikos which will consist of at least 3 liquefied natural gas production lines. In this sense, earlier this month Cyprus signed a framework agreement to negotiate the construction of an LNG terminal in Vassilikos Cyprus with US-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek and Avner. 

Noble has 70% working interest in the Aphrodite field offshore Cyprus. In late 2011, Noble announced the discovery of the Aphrodite field in Block 12 of offshore Cyprus with a gross mean of 7 tcf. Noble is expected to announce the results of the appraisal drilling in September 2013. Noble told Natural Gas Europe that if the quantities expected are confirmed, one approach for the commercialization of Block 12 natural gas production would be to construct an LNG facility on land identified by the Republic of Cyprus in Vasilikos, where space is available for at least three LNG trains.

ENI could also be interested in participating in the LNG project depending on weather the explorations prove successful or not. 

Cyprus Proposes Tax Amnesty

Cyprus has drafted legislation for a tax amnesty that is meant to encourage taxpayers to bring back any funds hidden overseas. The full details of the proposed amnesty are expected to be revealed in front of the House of Representatives within the next two weeks, and, if approved, would come into effect immediately.

The tax amnesty, which would last until 31 December if approved, would only count for people making a long-term investment, buying government bonds or  depositing the funds with a national bank for a period of at least five years.

No firm estimates have been made yet as to the amount the government expects to be repatriated, as this will depend on the actual provisions of  the legislation. 

http://www.index2day.com/article/cyprus-proposes-tax-amnesty/

Cyprus increases corporate tax

The Cypriot parliament has approved a hike in the country's corporate tax rate from 10% to 12.5%, a measure required by the €10bn EU-IMF bailout. Parliament also approved increasing a levy on profits from deposits from 15 to 30 percent and raised a levy on bank transactions.

Cyprus - Eighth decree for temporary restrictive measures on transactions

Several updates have followed to first Decree regarding the temporary restrictive measures, issued by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) on the 27th of March 2013.

Today a eighth Decree has been published with some modifications to the temporary restrictive measures on transactions.

As mentioned before the credit institutions reopened, the CBC will closely monitor developments and make appropriate adjustments to ensure the stability of the financial sector.

Read here the full text of the Decree, having the changes highlighted.

Cyprus Restrictive Measures on Transactions

The CBC announces that as of today, 28 March 2013, all banks in Cyprus have reopened. For today only, the business hours will be from 12 pm to 6 pm.

In order to safeguard the stability of the Cypriot banking system, it was deemed necessary to implement interim restrictive measures, which will gradually be lifted upon assessment of the situation.

The temporary restrictions are:

1.        The maximum amount of cash withdrawal shall not exceed €300 daily or its equivalent in foreign currency, per person in each credit institution. All cash withdrawals (namely the withdrawals through debit and/or prepaid cards, the withdrawals from the credit institution’s tellers and the withdrawals through credit cards against balance in sight/current account) will be computed per person on a consolidated basis in each credit institution.

2.        If the maximum daily amount of cash allowed is not withdrawn on any given day, it may be withdrawn at any time afterwards.

3.        The cashing of cheques is prohibited.

4.        The following payments are allowed:

(a)     Payments for trade transactions that fall within the normal business of the customer and upon presentation of     supporting documents as follows:

-           Payments of up to €5.000 per day per account are not subject to any restrictive measure.

-           Payments from €5.001 to €200.000 are subject to the approval of the Committee established in the CBC. Credit institutions will need to submit to the Committee the daily total and the number of such payments. The Committee will take a decision within the same day, taking into account the liquidity buffer situation of the credit institution.

-           Payments above €200.000 provided the prior approval of the Committee is obtained after taking into account the liquidity buffer situation of the credit institution.

(b)     Payments for salaries of employees upon presentation of supporting documents.

(c)      Student living expenses up to €5.000 per quarter and tuition fees of first degree relatives of residents studying abroad on the basis of supporting documents. The payment shall be made to the beneficiary.

(d)     Payments and/or transfers outside the Republic, via debit and/or credit and/or prepaid cards, shall not be allowed to exceed €5.000 per person per month in each credit institution.

Cashless payments or transfers of deposits/funds to accounts held abroad or in other credit institutions are prohibited.

5.        Fixed term deposits cannot be terminated prior to their maturity unless the funds are used to repay a loan within the same credit institution.

6.        On the first maturity of fixed term deposits, €5.000 or 10% of the total capital, whichever is the highest, can if the depositor wishes, be transferred to a sight/current account or deposited in a new fixed term deposit in the name of the depositor in the same credit institution. For the remaining amount the maturity shall be extended for 1 month.

7.        Amounts transferred from fixed term deposits in a sight/current account are subject to the restrictive measures applied to sight/current accounts.

8.        Exports of euro notes and/or foreign currency notes exceeding €1.000 or its equivalent in foreign currency per physical person per journey abroad is prohibited, unless the prior approval of the Committee is acquired. The Director of the Customs and Excise Department will be responsible for ensuring that this measure is implemented.

9.        Financial transactions, payments and/or transfers that have not been finalised prior to the date of entry into force of this Decree shall be subject to the restrictive measures. Financial transactions, payments and/or transfers, which have not been processed by credit institutions prior to the date of entry into force of this Decree are cancelled and must therefore be resubmitted.

10.     Credit institutions shall not execute cashless transfers or any other transfers that facilitate the circumvention of the restrictive measures.

11.     The restrictive measures apply to all accounts, payments and transfers regardless of the currency denomination.

12.     Exempted from the restrictive measures are:

(a)     All new funds transferred from abroad.

(b)     Withdrawal of cash using credit and/or debit and/or prepaid cards issued by foreign institutions on accounts abroad.

(c)      The cashing of cheques issued on accounts held with foreign institutions abroad.

(d)     Cash withdrawals from accounts of credit institutions with the Central Bank of Cyprus.

(e)     The Republic of Cyprus.

(f)      The Central Bank of Cyprus.

(g)     The diplomatic missions.

(h)     Payments that have been authorised by the Committee.

Double Tax Treaty signed between Cyprus and Spain

The representatives of Cyprus and Spain signed a double tax treaty agreement on the 14 February 2013. The treaty will enter into force three months after its ratification and for taxes on income and capital at the beginning of the year following the date the treaty enters into force.

The signing of the tax treaty together with the removal of Cyprus from the Spanish “black list” of jurisdictions with privileged tax regimes is expected to encourage investments between the two countries and will effectively reduce Spanish withholding taxes.

The most significant provisions of the treaty are as follows:

Permanent Establishment

The permanent establishment definition included in the treaty is in line with the meaning provided in the OECD model tax convention. In particular, any building site or construction or installation project or any supervisory activities in connection with such site or project constitutes a permanent establishment only if it lasts more than 12 months.

Dividends

• 0% withholding tax applies if the beneficial owner is a company (other than a partnership) holding at least 10% of the capital of the company paying the dividend.

• 5% applies in all other cases.

Interest

• 0% withholding tax.

Royalties

• 0% withholding tax applies with respect to copyrights of literary, artistic or scientific work including films, any patent, trademark, secret formula or process or for information concerning industrial, commercial or scientific experience.

Capital Gains

• Gains from the disposal of immovable property are taxed in the country where the immovable property is situated.

• Gains from the disposal of shares or comparable interests not listed on the Stock Exchange of either country (deriving more than 50% of their value from immovable property), are taxed in the country in which the immovable property is situated. For the purposes of determining the value referred to above, the domestic law of the country where the immovable property is situated applies.

• Gains from the disposal of any other type of shares are taxed in the country of which the seller is resident.

Flat annual levy for all Cyprus Companies

The new amendment of the Companies Law (no. 117(1)/2011) passed on the 7^th of December 2012 by the House of Representatives, provides the following:

a. All existing registered companies are required, with regards to the current year, to proceed with the payment of a Levy of €350 (hereinafter referred as ‘the Levy’), not later than the 30th of June of each year.

b. A company shall not be required to pay such Levy, in the year of incorporation.

In case that there is delay in the payment of the Levy the following penalties will apply:

• Up to 2 months – 10% (3^rd of July - 31^st of August):  €385

• 2 to 5 months – 40% (1^st of September – 31^st November): €490

After 5 months- the Registrar will de-register the Company. Re-registration of the Company can be made within two years with a payment of €500 annual fee. In case that the re-registration will take place after the period of two years from the date of de-registration the annual fee increases to €750.

c. Companies which were exempted from the payment of the annual fee for 2012, in accordance with the previous legislation, will now have to proceed with the payment prior to the end of March 2013.

Delay in the payment of the levy will incur penalties ranging from 10% to 30% even leading to the company’s removal from the Registry. Removal from the Registry will automatically exclude the company from filing any documents or requesting certificates from the Registrar’s Office while possibly facing problems with the legality of the transactions to which it is engaged.

The deadline for the payment of the Levy as from 2013 onward will be 30 June.

Increase in the Cyprus VAT rate

For the period from 14 January 2013 to 12 January 2014 the standard VAT rate will increase from 17% to 18% for the supply of goods and services. 

Furthermore, as from 13 January 2014 the standard VAT rate will further increase from 18% to 19%. Therefore, all the supplies of goods and services that are currently taxable with the standard VAT rate of 17%, will become taxable at the rate of 18% from 14 January 2013.

The supplies of goods and services that fall under the zero VAT rate or are exempt from VAT will continue to have the same treatment for VAT purposes after 14 January 2013.

In addition, please note that the change in the standard VAT rate will not affect the reduced rates of 5% and 8% for the period 14 January 2013 - 12 January 2014. As from 13 January 2014, the reduced rate of 8% will increase to 9%. 

With the forthcoming increase of the standard VAT rate from 17% to 18%, please note that the transitional provisions of Article 55 of the VAT Law apply, based on which a taxable person selling goods or providing services has the choice of applying the old VAT rate (17%) or the new VAT rate (18%), but only for certain cases.

For more information, please contact us.