How to Register a Company in Cyprus in 2026

The main options in Cyprus:

• a private limited liability company;
• a public limited liability company;
• a partnership or joint venture;
• a local branch of a foreign company.

The private limited company is the most common choice. It can have up to 50 shareholders, and each is liable for the company’s obligations in proportion to their share of the capital.

Private companies have no minimum share capital requirement; owners usually contribute about €1,000. When opening a branch of a foreign company, share capital of €200,000 allows foreigners to be hired under a simplified procedure.

Already at the stage of choosing the form, it is worth discussing the project details with an auditor, which makes it easier to plan taxes years ahead.

Some words cannot be freely used in a company name: “bank”, “insurance”, “cooperative”, “financial services”, “group”; these require permission from the relevant authority. The name must be unique, and similarity in spelling or sound to other Cypriot companies is not allowed.

The application can propose three name options. The check takes 3–4 working days.

The set of documents depends on the form of business and the applicant’s personal circumstances. In any case you need to prepare:

• an application for company registration;
• an application for registration of the registered office address;
• name registration approval;
• the company’s articles with a Greek translation;
• certified specimen signatures of the founders;
• a receipt for payment of the state fee.

The company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association is the single constitutional document. It records the shareholders, the director and secretary, the amount of share capital and the distribution of shares, as well as the rules for holding meetings and how participants interact.

You cannot prepare these documents yourself: they must be drawn up by a lawyer registered with the Cyprus Bar Association.

There are four in total: certificate of incorporation, of directors and secretary, of registered office, and of shareholders. The certificates are needed for tax registration and for opening a bank account.

To do this you need to:

• register on the tax authority’s website and create an electronic signature;
• complete and sign form T.D.2001 to obtain a tax identification number;
• complete and sign form T.D.1101 to register for VAT.

The company must be registered with the tax authority within 60 days of the date the incorporation certificate was issued.

Opening a corporate account in Cyprus is not just submitting a standard set of documents to the bank. It is a comprehensive review of the company under KYC and AML requirements.

To pass bank onboarding successfully, you need to present the company’s constitutional documents, describe in detail the intended activity and business model, the ownership and management structure, and provide information and documents on the shareholders, directors and ultimate beneficial owner (UBO).

The bank also assesses how real and economically justified the company’s future activity is: sources of funding, expected transactions and counterparties, contractors and key business partners, the geography of activity and the nature of the planned cash flows.

So at the account opening stage it is important not only to collect the necessary documents but also to structure and present the company’s whole business model to the bank correctly, so that it is clear, consistent and confirms a genuine intention to carry out the stated activity.

Properly prepared bank onboarding lets you close potential compliance questions in advance and run the account opening process as efficiently as possible.

Most popular types of activity, such as tourism, insurance, catering and financial services, require a licence in Cyprus. For financial sector companies obtaining a licence can take several months; for most other activities the issuing time is much shorter.