Does Cyprus tax foreign income?

Yes. Cyprus taxes residents on worldwide income, subject to any relief for new arrivals that you specifically qualify for.

Does Cyprus have a tax treaty with the United States?

Yes — Cyprus appears on the IRS list of in-force income tax treaties. That provides a tie-breaker where both countries claim you as resident, and can reduce withholding on US-source payments when claimed.

Can I keep my US LLC if I move to Cyprus?

Yes — owning it is not the issue. The issues are how Cyprus classifies it, whether managing it from Cyprus makes it tax resident there, and how the controlled-foreign-company rules attribute its profits to you. Resolve those with a local adviser before you become resident.

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Relocation guide

Moving to Cyprus: residence, tax and your company

Cyprus is chosen for the life rather than the rate. Here is what being tax resident actually costs, and the conditions attached to the relief if you qualify for one.

The short answer

Tax residence in Cyprus is determined by 183 days in the tax year; or the 60-day rule — 60 days in Cyprus, no more than 183 days in any other single state, not tax resident elsewhere, carrying on business, employment or a directorship in Cyprus, and maintaining a permanent home there owned or rented. Cyprus taxes residents on worldwide income, subject to a relief for new arrivals that you have to qualify for specifically. The residence permit and the tax residence are separate things, granted by different authorities on different tests.

Two separate questions get collapsed into one whenever people write about moving to Cyprus. The first is whether you are allowed to be there, which is immigration. The second is whether the tax authority counts you as resident, which is tax. They are decided by different bodies on different tests, and having the first does not give you the second.

This page keeps them apart, and states the facts that are specific to Cyprus rather than the ones that are true everywhere.

The facts specific to Cyprus


Usual route in	Free movement for EU nationals; for others, a temporary residence permit on evidenced income, or permanent residence on a qualifying investment
Indicative cost	Low for EU nationals; six figures on the investment route
Time to obtain	Weeks to months
Presence needed to keep the permit	Permanent residence by investment requires a visit at least once every two years
Domestic tax residence test	183 days in the tax year; or the 60-day rule — 60 days in Cyprus, no more than 183 days in any other single state, not tax resident elsewhere, carrying on business, employment or a directorship in Cyprus, and maintaining a permanent home there owned or rented
Basis of taxation	Worldwide, with relief for new arrivals
US income tax treaty	Yes — in force per the IRS treaty table
CFC rules affecting resident individuals	Yes
Treatment of a US LLC	No settled published position
Route to citizenship	Seven years of residence for most applicants, five in defined cases, with a Greek-language requirement
Dual nationality	Permitted

Immigration and tax positions for Cyprus, last checked August 2026, taken from the sources listed at the foot of this page. Immigration thresholds in particular change every few years and several routes in this set have been rewritten recently. Verify before acting, and take advice on your own facts.

Getting the residence

The route most founders use is free movement for EU nationals; for others, a temporary residence permit on evidenced income, or permanent residence on a qualifying investment. Timeline: weeks to months. Cost: low for EU nationals; six figures on the investment route.

Keeping it is a separate condition from getting it. Here: permanent residence by investment requires a visit at least once every two years. That number is the one to plan travel around, and it is frequently different from the number that decides your tax position.

When you become tax resident

The domestic test is this: 183 days in the tax year; or the 60-day rule — 60 days in Cyprus, no more than 183 days in any other single state, not tax resident elsewhere, carrying on business, employment or a directorship in Cyprus, and maintaining a permanent home there owned or rented.

What being resident here costs

Cyprus taxes residents on worldwide income, but non-domiciled residents are exempt from the defence contribution on dividends and interest for a defined period of years — which is where the benefit actually sits.

The headline is worldwide taxation; the benefit sits in a relief for new arrivals. Reliefs of this kind are time-limited and condition-heavy by design, so read the conditions and the end date before the rate — and assume ordinary rates apply unless you specifically qualify.

What happens to your company

There is no clearly settled published position on how Cyprus classifies a US LLC. That is the honest answer for most of the world, and it means the question has to be resolved with a local adviser on your facts rather than assumed from how the IRS treats it.

Cyprus applies controlled-foreign-company rules that can attribute a foreign company's profits to you as a resident, in the year they arise, whether or not you take the money out. That is separate from — and additional to — the question of whether the company has become resident here because you are managing it from here. Both doctrines are set out in full.

The treaty position

Cyprus has an income tax treaty in force with the United States. That gives you a tie-breaker if both countries claim you as resident, and it can reduce withholding on US-source payments — claimed rather than automatic, generally on a Form W-8BEN.

Banking

Functional, and shaped by the post-2018 clean-up: entities with no substance, no local nexus and no employees are declined as a matter of policy rather than case by case.

Whatever you open locally, the account-opening form will ask which countries you are tax resident in and will report accordingly — see what your bank reports. The general picture across jurisdictions is here.

Where the route ends

Citizenship: seven years of residence for most applicants, five in defined cases, with a Greek-language requirement. Dual nationality is permitted, so the question of giving anything up does not arise.

The years only count if the permit you hold is a reckonable one and you are actually present for the required part of it — the two clocks run separately, and only one of them appears in most marketing.

What goes wrong in Cyprus

The order to do this in

Settle the exit first. What it takes to stop being resident where you are now, and whether leaving triggers an exit charge. This is the half that decides the bill.
Resolve the company question before you land, not in your first filing season — classification, management and any local registration obligation.
Get the permit, and diarise the presence condition that keeps it alive.
Register with the tax authority and meet the domestic residence test deliberately rather than incidentally.
Request the certificate of tax residence for the first full year, and every year after. It is the document every other party in this story will ask you for.
Record presence contemporaneously — entry and exit dates, per country. Both the permit and the tax position depend on it, and neither can be reconstructed convincingly from memory.

The move, tracked rather than remembered

Presence by country, residence status, permit conditions and the filings each one creates — recorded from the day you land so the position you rely on is evidenced.

See how residency works

Frequently asked questions

When do you become tax resident in Cyprus?: 183 days in the tax year; or the 60-day rule — 60 days in Cyprus, no more than 183 days in any other single state, not tax resident elsewhere, carrying on business, employment or a directorship in Cyprus, and maintaining a permanent home there owned or rented. This is decided by the tax authority under domestic law and is separate from holding a residence permit, which is an immigration matter.
Does Cyprus tax foreign income?: Yes. Cyprus taxes residents on worldwide income, subject to any relief for new arrivals that you specifically qualify for.
Does Cyprus have a tax treaty with the United States?: Yes — Cyprus appears on the IRS list of in-force income tax treaties. That provides a tie-breaker where both countries claim you as resident, and can reduce withholding on US-source payments when claimed.
Can I keep my US LLC if I move to Cyprus?: Yes — owning it is not the issue. The issues are how Cyprus classifies it, whether managing it from Cyprus makes it tax resident there, and how the controlled-foreign-company rules attribute its profits to you. Resolve those with a local adviser before you become resident.

Sources

Immigration routes, presence conditions, residence tests and tax treatment were taken from the authorities above and last checked in August 2026. Immigration thresholds in this area change every few years and several of these routes have been rewritten recently — verify before acting, and take advice on your own position.

Residency information is general and for orientation only. Eligibility, timelines and outcomes are determined by the relevant authorities, and applications are handled by licensed local partners.