Capital gains in Cyprus: shares, crypto and property

Cyprus has no general tax on capital gains. An investor’s profit on shares, funds or bonds is not income and stays off the tax return. A trader’s profit on them is free of income tax but carries GESY. Crypto gets its own 8% from 2026. And the one capital gains tax there is, 20%, reaches only Cyprus property and the shares of companies that own it, on a return of its own.

Checked against its sources on 14 October 2026

Sold shares or fund units in 2025?

The return helper asks, sale by sale, whether you were trading or investing. An investor’s gain stays out of the return; a trading profit goes in PART 4 H, code 5, and the GESY on it is worked out for you.

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Who this is for

You need this if

You sold shares, ETFs or other fund units, or bonds, through a broker in Cyprus or abroad, and are preparing your T.D.1.
You buy and sell often enough that you are no longer sure it is still investing.
You sold crypto-assets in 2025, or are selling them in 2026.
You are selling a flat, a house or land in Cyprus, or shares in a company that owns one.

You do not need this if

Dividends and interest. They are income, with the defence contribution and GESY, and have their own parts of the return.
A company selling its assets. A company files its own return under its own rules.
Shares or options your employer gives you. Their value is a benefit from your employment, taxed through your pay, not a gain on a sale.

What to prepare

The broker’s annual statement or the trade confirmations: for each sale, the date, what it sold for and what the position cost, in the currency of the trade.
The exchange rates, if the trades were not in euro.
The facts that decide trade or investment: how many trades in the year, how long you held, whether you used borrowed money or leverage.
The dividends and coupons received while you held the positions. They are declared as dividends and interest, not as part of the gain.
For crypto: the exchange and wallet history with every sale, swap, payment and gift, and where each coin came from.
For Cyprus property: the sale contract, the purchase cost and date, invoices for improvements, the transfer fees and the agent’s and lawyer’s fees, and a record of any lifetime exemption you have already used.

Steps

1
Sort what you sold into one of four kinds
Each kind follows its own rule. Securities, in the law’s words “titles”: shares, bonds, debentures, fund units and rights on them, which circulars 2008/13 and 2009/06 extend to depositary receipts, repos and derivatives written on titles. Crypto-assets. Immovable property in Cyprus, and shares in companies that own it. And everything else, such as property abroad, gold or commodity derivatives.
2
An investor’s gain on securities: there is nothing to declare
Article 5 of the Income Tax Law lists the kinds of income that are taxed: business profits, pay, dividends, interest, pensions, rents, goodwill and, from 2026, crypto gains. A gain on selling an investment is not among them, so it is not income at all. The return says so itself. Its Part 7, the instructions, reads: “Incomes that do not fall within these laws MUST NOT be included.” Among its examples are “capital profits on disposals of assets/shares that are not trading in nature”. So nothing goes in PART 4 H, and there is no GESY either, because the GESY law defines income as income from the sources in article 5. There is no defence contribution either: it is charged only on dividends, interest and, up to 2025, rents.
3
Check the signs of trading before you decide
Whether you invested or traded is a question of fact, judged on all your dealings together. The Tax Department’s own list of trading criteria looks at what was sold, how long it was held, how often similar deals were made, how it was acquired, what work was done on it, why it was sold, the motive, how the purchase was financed, what the proceeds were used for and what the owner knew of the market. For securities that usually comes down to frequent trades and short holdings, borrowed money or leverage, an organised activity, a link to your profession, and buying in order to resell quickly. Buying, holding for months or years and selling to spend or reinvest is usually investing. If the picture is mixed, take advice before you file.
4
A trading profit on securities: PART 4 H, code 5, with GESY
Trading is a business. Article 5(1)(α) taxes the profits of any business, and article 2 counts any undertaking in the nature of trade as one. Article 8(22) then exempts the profit from disposing of titles from income tax. The return puts that profit in PART 4 H, income under article 5 that is exempt from income tax, under code 5: “Trade Profit on disposal of securities exempted under Article 8(22)”. It enters gross income and the GESY calculation, then comes back out before taxable income. The result: no income tax, but GESY at 2.65%, inside the €180,000 cap on all your income for the year. If you trade systematically, the 2025 guide to the return asks for the self-employed return, T.D.1A, rather than the T.D.1.
5
Crypto-assets: nothing for an investor in 2025, 8% from 2026
Crypto-assets are not titles, so article 8(22) does not reach them. For tax year 2025 the law has no charge on an investor’s crypto gain, so it is not income and is not declared. A trader’s crypto profit is business income under article 5(1)(α), taxed at the ordinary rates as business profit. From 1 January 2026, Law 244(I)/2025 added article 20E: anyone’s gain from disposing of crypto-assets is taxed at 8%. A disposal is a sale, a gift, a swap of one crypto-asset for another, or a payment made with one. A loss offsets only crypto gains of the same year and is never carried forward. Crypto you mined yourself is outside article 20E and taxed under the ordinary rules.
6
Cyprus property and the companies that own it: capital gains tax, on its own return
The Capital Gains Tax Law charges 20% on the gain from disposing of immovable property in Cyprus and of shares in companies that own it, directly or through other companies. From 2026 an indirect holding is caught once Cyprus property makes up at least 20% of the shares’ market value; up to 2025 the threshold was 50%. It applies whether or not you are resident here. The gain is the price less the cost, or the value on 1 January 1980, with the cost and improvements raised for inflation, and less allowed costs such as the transfer fees, the agent’s commission, legal fees and interest on a loan taken to buy it. For shares, it is worked out on the property behind them. The return is form T.D.401 for property or T.D.402 for shares, due within one month of the sale and in any case before the transfer. The tax is paid in the same month, and the property is not transferred until it is. None of this goes on the T.D.1.
7
Use the lifetime exemptions — they rose for sales from 2026
An individual pays no capital gains tax on the first €30,000 of gains in a lifetime (€17,086 for sales up to 2025), or €50,000 on farmland sold by a farmer (€25,629). For a main residence the figure is €150,000 (€85,430), if you lived in it for at least five years, ten if it is not the first home you sell, and sold it within a year of moving out; on a plot over 1,500 m², the gain on the extra land is taxed. You get one of these, the larger, not both, and what you used before counts against it: someone who used €30,000 on a plot has €120,000 left for the home. A person who used the whole €17,086 before 2026 has €12,914 more for sales from 2026. Inheritance is not taxed, and neither, with conditions, are gifts to a spouse, to children or to relatives up to the third degree.

Time, money, deadlines

Investor’s gain on shares, funds, bonds: not incomeNot declared on the T.D.1. No income tax, no defence contribution, no GESY.
Trading profit on securities: GESY 2.65%, no income taxPART 4 H, code 5, within the €180,000 GESY cap. Systematic trading: the self-employed return T.D.1A.
Crypto, tax year 2025: no charge on an investorA trader’s profit is business income at the ordinary rates.
Crypto, from 1 January 2026: 8%Every sale, swap, gift or payment. Losses only against crypto gains of the same year. Mined coins excluded.
Capital gains tax: 20%Cyprus property and shares in companies that own it, for residents and non-residents alike.
Capital gains tax return: within one monthForm T.D.401 for property, T.D.402 for shares. The tax is paid in the same month and before the transfer.
Lifetime exemptions from 2026: €30,000 / €50,000 / €150,000General, farmland sold by a farmer, main residence. Up to 2025: €17,086, €25,629 and €85,430.
Listed shares under capital gains tax: exempt on a regulated marketFrom 2026, on another market of a recognised exchange only while the year’s sales stay within €50,000. Shares held on 31.12.2025 stay exempt.
Late capital gains tax return: €250 from 2026€100 up to 2025. Late tax: 5%, another 5% two months on, and interest.
Fund redemptions from 2031: treated as a dividendThe gain on redeeming a share or unit of an investment fund set up as a company, under article 8(20) as amended by Law 244(I)/2025.

Where people go wrong

Declaring an investor’s gain in PART 4 H “to be safe”. It makes the return no safer; it charges you 2.65% GESY on money the law does not count as income.
Calling every sale an investment. Frequent, short, leveraged or organised dealing is a trade, and the profit then belongs in PART 4 H with GESY.
Treating crypto as a security. Crypto-assets are not titles under article 8(22). For 2025 an investor’s crypto gain stays out of the return for another reason: the law has no charge on it at all.
Setting a 2026 crypto loss against later years, or against a gain on shares. Article 20E allows it only against crypto gains of the same year.
Forgetting that swapping one coin for another is a disposal from 2026, taxed at 8% like a sale.
Putting the sale of a Cyprus flat on the T.D.1. Capital gains tax has its own return, T.D.401, due within one month of the sale.
Assuming a non-resident pays no capital gains tax on Cyprus property. The charge follows the property, not the seller’s residence.
Assuming shares in a foreign company are always outside capital gains tax. If the company owns Cyprus property, directly or through companies where it is a fifth of the value, the sale is caught.
Moving out and waiting. The main-residence exemption is lost if you sell a year or more after you stopped living there.

Anything marked “practice” is what the department does in the office, not a rule you can hold it to. Rules carry a source.

Forms and portals

The Tax Department’s page on capital gains (Greek)The trading criteria, the lifetime exemptions before and after 2026, allowed costs, indexation and penalties.
Forms for capital gains tax (Greek)Which forms a sale needs. They are handed in at the district offices.
Form T.D.401 — return of disposal of immovable property
Form T.D.402 — return of disposal of company shares
Guide for the completion of the 2025 returnPART 4 H, and the note that regular trading income calls for the self-employed return T.D.1A.

Questions

Do you pay tax on capital gains in Cyprus?

Only in two cases. Capital gains tax of 20% is charged on Cyprus property and on shares in companies that own it, and from 2026 crypto gains are taxed at 8%. An investor’s gain on shares, funds or bonds is not income: no income tax, no GESY, and it is not declared on the T.D.1. A trader’s profit on securities is exempt from income tax but carries GESY at 2.65%.

Do I declare the sale of my ETF on the 2025 return?

Not if it was an investment. Part 7 of the return says that income outside article 5 must not be included and names capital profits on shares that are not trading in nature as an example. An ETF unit is a title, so only a trading profit on it is declared: in PART 4 H, code 5, where it carries GESY but no income tax.

Do I pay GESY on my profit from shares?

Only on a trading profit. The GESY law charges income from the sources in article 5 of the Income Tax Law, and an investor’s gain is not one of them. A trading profit is business income under article 5, exempt from income tax by article 8(22), and declared in PART 4 H, where TAXISnet charges 2.65% on it within the €180,000 cap.

How do I know whether I am a trader or an investor?

By the facts of all your dealings together, not by one test. Frequent trades and short holdings, borrowed money or leverage, an organised activity, a link to your profession and buying in order to resell quickly point to trading. Buying, holding for months or years and selling to spend or reinvest point to investing. The Tax Department’s list of trading criteria also looks at the motive, the financing and what the proceeds were used for.

Is crypto taxed in Cyprus?

For 2025, not for an investor: crypto-assets are not titles, and the law had no charge on the gain, so it is not declared. A trader’s profit is business income at the ordinary rates. From 1 January 2026 article 20E taxes anyone’s gain on disposing of crypto-assets at 8%, counting a swap, a gift or a payment as a disposal. Losses offset only crypto gains of the same year, and mined coins are taxed under the ordinary rules.

I sold a flat in Cyprus. What do I file?

Form T.D.401, the return of disposal of immovable property, within one month of the sale and before the transfer, with the tax of 20% on the gain paid in the same month. The lifetime exemptions come off the gain: from 2026, €30,000 in general or €150,000 for a main residence that meets the conditions. Nothing about the sale goes on your T.D.1.

What about property or shares abroad?

Capital gains tax reaches only property in Cyprus and shares in companies that own it, so a flat abroad is outside it. Shares in a foreign company follow the same rule as any other title: an investor’s gain is not income, a trader’s profit goes in PART 4 H. The country where the property stands may tax the gain itself.

Sources

What next

2025 return helper (TD.1)Asks trade or investment for each sale and puts only a trading profit in PART 4 H, with its GESY.Filing the 2025 return in TAXISnetWhere PART 4 H sits in the return and what the portal checks.Self-employed in CyprusIf the trading is your business: social insurance, GESY and provisional tax.The 2026 reform for individualsThe other changes that start in 2026, beside the 8% on crypto.

This is a description of a public procedure, not advice on your own affairs. Where your case has a wrinkle, the Tax Department’s district office answers on it directly.