Cyprus non dom status requirements, in full

Cyprus non dom status requirements: the residency half

You get there one of two ways. More than 183 days in Cyprus in the calendar year, which needs nothing else. Or the 60-day rule, which needs four things at once: at least 60 days here, no more than 183 days in any one other state, a business, employment or office in a Cyprus tax-resident person at some point in the year and not ended during it, and a permanent home in Cyprus you own or rent.

Without residency, the non-dom claim does nothing. The tax it removes is charged on residents, so a non-resident has nothing to remove.

The domicile half

Domicile is a common-law idea and it is not nationality, not residence and not where you pay rent. A Cyprus domicile of origin generally makes you domiciled here, with two escapes: a domicile of choice elsewhere plus twenty consecutive years of non-residence, or twenty or more years abroad before 16 July 2015.

Most people arriving from another country are non-domiciled on day one and do not have to do anything to become it. The people who need advice before filing are those born in Cyprus or with a Cypriot parent.

On top sits deemed domicile. Whatever your origin, seventeen years of Cyprus tax residence out of the previous twenty makes you domiciled, and that lasts until you complete twenty years of non-residence.

What you actually file

Form TD38, with the domicile questionnaires TD038QA and TD038QB. A tax identification number comes first. That is the whole administrative exercise; it is short, and the Tax Department either accepts your domicile position or it does not.

What is not a requirement

• No minimum investment. Nothing to buy.
• No minimum income or net worth.
• No particular residence permit. A visitor permit holder who meets the four conditions qualifies the same as a permanent resident.
• No renunciation of your nationality.

The one charge that survives is the health contribution: 2.65% on dividends and interest, capped once annual income reaches EUR 180,000, so at most EUR 4,770 a year. That follows residency rather than domicile, so nothing about non-dom status reaches it.

The full text of who the defence contribution applies to is in the Tax Department's residency and domicility page, which is worth reading in the original before anyone quotes it at you.