Cyprus securities gains exemption: section 8(22), and its one hole
Sell shares, pay nothing. Unless the company owns Cyprus land, which is where it stops.
Last verified 2026-10-22Next review 2027-01-222 official sources
Whether Cyprus works for you depends on how you earnTalk it through
Cyprus securities gains exemption means a Cyprus tax resident who sells shares or bonds at a profit pays no Cyprus income tax on the gain. It is section 8(22), it is unconditional, and it has exactly one hole in it.
Cyprus securities gains exemption: the rule itself
Gains from the disposal of securities are exempt from income tax. There is no holding period, no minimum, no cap and no requirement to be non-domiciled. A domiciled Cyprus resident gets the same treatment as a new arrival.
Cyprus also has no capital gains tax of general application. The capital gains charge exists only for immovable property here, so a share gain falls outside both.
The hole
Shares in companies that own Cyprus immovable property. Those are pulled into the 20% capital gains charge rather than left under the income tax exemption, and from 2026 the look-through starts at a 20% holding rather than 50%.
So a minority stake in a Cyprus company whose value sits in land or buildings is now caught where it previously was not. If you hold shares in a Cyprus property company, that change is worth checking against your own position.
What else sits outside the exemption
- Crypto. Taxed at a flat 8% on disposal from 2026, in its own section, with losses usable only against crypto gains of the same year and no carry-forward. Mining is excluded from that treatment.
- Trading rather than investing. Where dealing in securities is the trade itself, the profit is business income. The exemption is for disposals, not for a dealing business.
- Your previous country. Exit taxes and deemed disposals on leaving are decided there, not here, and a Cyprus exemption does not undo them.
Why this matters more than the dividend rate
For a founder, the headline attraction of Cyprus is usually the dividend treatment. But the event that actually involves serious money is selling the company, and that is a securities gain. On an ordinary share sale the Cyprus position is nil income tax and no capital gains charge.
Whether that result holds for you depends on where the buyer is, what the company owns, and what your previous country says about when you left. None of which is answered by this page, and all of which is worth answering before a sale rather than after.
The exemption is in section 8(22) of the consolidated Income Tax Law.
Common questions
- Are share gains taxed in Cyprus?
- Gains from disposing of securities are exempt from income tax under section 8(22) of the Income Tax Law. The exception is shares in companies owning Cyprus immovable property, which fall under capital gains tax.
- Does this cover foreign shares?
- The exemption is for gains on securities and is not limited to Cyprus-listed ones. What the other country does on its side is a separate question.
- Does it cover crypto?
- No. Crypto disposals are taxed separately at a flat 8% from 2026 under section 20E, with losses usable only against crypto gains of the same year.
Whether Cyprus works for you depends on how you earn
Where you live is only half of it. We can walk through your position with you, including the cases where Cyprus tax residency does not give the result people expect. This is general information, not tax advice for your circumstances.
Sources
Every legal, fee and procedural statement on this page is taken from the sources below and was checked on 2026-10-22. Where they change, this page changes.
- Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (cylaw.org) — Tax residency (section 2), dividend exemption (section 8(20)), IP Box (section 9(1)(κ)) and rates
- Law 244(I)/2025 amending the Income Tax Law, Official Gazette No. 5070 of 31 December 2025 (cylaw.org) — 15% corporate tax, the 2026 60-day rule, personal tax bands and the 8% crypto rate, from 1 January 2026
Related
This page is general information about Cyprus rules as published by the authorities named above. It is not legal or tax advice for your circumstances, and immigration outcomes depend on your nationality, documents and individual case. See our legal and tax information disclaimer.