Self-employed in Cyprus: contributions, deadlines and thresholds

You need this if

• You work for yourself in Cyprus — freelancer, consultant, tradesperson, sole trader.
• You are deciding between employment and self-employment and want the real cost of each.
• You are already registered and want the calendar: quarterly contributions, two tax instalments, VAT returns.
• Your turnover is approaching €15,600, or your income is approaching the level where accounts have to be audited.

You do not need this if

• You are an employee. Your social insurance is 8.8% and your GESY 2.65%, both withheld by the employer.
• You run a company. A limited company files its own return and pays corporate tax; a director’s pay is employment income.
• You let property and nothing else. Rent is not self-employment, and its own guide covers it.

• Your tax number and Tax For All account, and your registration with the Social Insurance Services as self-employed.
• The occupational category the Social Insurance Services put you in — it sets the minimum you pay, whatever your profit.
• Books and records: the law expects them, and above the accounts threshold they have to be reviewed or audited.
• An estimate of the year’s profit, because the income tax is paid in advance in two instalments during the year itself.
• A running total of taxable supplies over the last twelve months, which is what triggers VAT registration.

1. 1

   Register in both places, not one

   Being self-employed means a registration with the Social Insurance Services as well as an entry in the tax register. The tax number comes through Tax For All; the social insurance registration puts you in an occupational category, and that category decides the contributions.

2. 2

   Understand what social insurance is charged on

   Not on your profit alone. A self-employed person pays 16.6% of an insurable income: the minimum set for the occupational category, or the actual profit when that is higher, up to a common ceiling — €1,281 a week in 2025 and €1,325 a week in 2026, which is €5,551 and €5,742 a month. Below the minimum the charge does not follow the profit, unless the Services approve an application on form Υ.Κ.Α. 1-017 to pay on actual income. Contributions are paid quarterly, thirteen weeks at a time. From 6 April 2026 a further 0.5% of the same insurable income goes to the Human Resource Development Authority.

   PracticeThis is the part that surprises people who left employment: a quiet year still carries the category’s minimum, because below that minimum the charge does not follow the profit.

3. 3

   Pay GESY on the insurable income, and on profit above it

   The health contribution is 4%, against 2.65% for an employee’s salary. It is charged on the same insurable income as social insurance, which the Social Insurance Services collect, and on any profit above that income, which the Tax Department collects with the return — so a quiet year still carries 4% of the category’s minimum. The annual income cap of €180,000 is shared across all your income.

4. 4

   Pay the income tax in advance, twice

   Where you have income other than a salary — business profit, rent, royalties — you submit an estimate of the year’s taxable income by 31 July and pay the income tax during the year itself, in two instalments on 31 July and on 31 December. Under law 243(I)/2025, if that income only starts after 30 June, the estimate is due by 31 December and the tax is paid once, by the same date. The estimate is yours to make and yours to revise; the department publishes a guide for computing it.

5. 5

   Know which accounts you owe

   An individual carrying on a business is excused from preparing accounts only while turnover and other gross income stay under the threshold: €70,000 for tax years up to 2025, and €120,000 from tax year 2026, the figure having been raised by law 243(I)/2025. Above it, the accounts must be reviewed or audited, and that changes your deadlines. Up to tax year 2025 the return is due on 31 March of the second year after the tax year, while the tax itself is due on 1 August of the following year — the money before the return. From tax year 2026 both the return and the tax are due on 31 January of the second year after the tax year, which for 2026 is 31 January 2028.

6. 6

   Watch the VAT threshold in two directions

   Registration becomes compulsory at the end of any month in which the value of your taxable supplies over the preceding twelve months has passed €15,600, and also at any moment when there is good reason to believe it will pass €15,600 within the next thirty days. Capital assets of the business do not count towards the figure. Once the duty arises on the twelve-month test you have thirty days from the end of that month to notify, and the registration takes effect from the end of the month that follows.

7. 7

   File the return for the right year and portal

   The self-employed file the individual return, in TAXISnet for tax years up to 2025 and in Tax For All from 2026. Where your accounts are audited or reviewed, you file the version of the return that says so, and the later deadline applies.

Social insurance

16.6% of insurable incomeOn your occupational category’s minimum, or on profit when higher, up to the ceiling. Paid quarterly.

Insurable income ceiling

€1,281 a week in 2025, €1,325 in 2026€5,551 and €5,742 a month respectively.

HRDA contribution

0.5%From 6 April 2026, on the insurable income; not payable in 2025 or in the first quarter of 2026.

GESY

4% of insurable income or profitWhichever is higher. Against 2.65% for an employee. Subject to the €180,000 annual income cap.

Temporary income tax

31 July and 31 DecemberOn income other than a salary. Where it starts after 30 June, one payment by 31 December.

Accounts threshold

€70,000, and €120,000 from 2026Turnover plus other gross income. Above it, accounts must be reviewed or audited.

Audited self-employed, up to 2025

Tax 1 August, return 31 MarchTax by 1 August of the following year, return by 31 March of the second year. For 2025: tax 1 August 2026, return 31 March 2027.

Audited self-employed, from 2026

31 January of the second yearReturn and tax together. For tax year 2026, 31 January 2028.

VAT registration

€15,600Taxable supplies over any twelve months, or expected within the next thirty days. Capital assets excluded.

• Expecting social insurance to fall with a bad year. It is charged on the deemed income of your category, and the category’s floor holds whatever you actually earned.
• Treating GESY as 2.65%. That is the employee rate; for the self-employed it is 4%.
• Missing the two temporary tax instalments and meeting the whole liability at the end. The instalments fall inside the income year, on 31 July and 31 December.
• Reading the accounts threshold as €120,000 for the 2025 return. The figure rose with tax year 2026; a 2025 return is still measured against €70,000, even though it is filed in 2026.
• Assuming the audited category simply gets more time. Up to tax year 2025 the return is later — 31 March of the second year — but the tax is due on 1 August of the year before that, which catches people out. From tax year 2026 both fall on 31 January of the second year.
• Counting the sale of a business asset towards the VAT threshold. Capital assets of the business are left out of the €15,600 test.
• Waiting for the year end to register for VAT. The twelve-month test is applied at the end of every month, and the thirty-day forward-looking test can bite at any moment.
• Overlooking the 25% exemption. Of the three relocation exemptions it is the only one that reaches profits from a business carried on in Cyprus.

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

• Social Insurance Services: contributions of the self-employedThe official contribution tables and the insurable income by occupational category, per year.
• Guide to computing the temporary income tax and GESY
• VAT: the duty and the right to registerThe €15,600 tests, what is excluded, and the notification deadlines.
• Revising the temporary tax assessment (code 0200)

• Social Insurance Services, contribution tables for the self-employed and the schedule of occupational categories and insurable earnings, as compiled in the project’s own `SELF_EMPLOYED_CATEGORIES.md`
• Tax Department, the duty and right to register for VAT: the €15,600 twelve-month and thirty-day tests, the exclusion of capital assets and the notification periods
• Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law 4/1978, art. 30(1) proviso as amended by law 243(I)/2025 for the €120,000 accounts threshold from tax year 2026, art. 5(1Α) and the provisos to arts. 38 and 39 for the audited category’s dates (31 January of the second year from tax year 2026, law 243(I)/2025 arts. 4, 21 and 35(α)), and art. 24 for the provisional tax estimate, including income that starts after 30 June
• Tax Department, guide to computing the temporary income tax and GESY contribution