Registration of a company in Cyprus, including its creation, operation and liquidation, is governed by the Law “On Companies”. The basis of the law was the British legislation with amendments and additions.

Company registration procedure in Cyprus

To register or purchase a company in Cyprus, you must provide the following information:

• Information on the company’s shareholders (copy of the passport, confirmation of the address – utility bill or copy of stamp from the national passport)
• Information on the company’s directors (copy of the passport, confirmation of the address – utility bill or copy of stamp from the national passport)

In addition to these items, you should describe in a free form the type of activity that the company plans to engage in. This description is useful for opening a bank account, too.

It often happens that a legal entity acts as a founder of a Cyprus company. In this case, to register a new or a ready-made Cyprus company, you must provide copies of the constituent documents of the parent company.

To complete the procedure, you must perform 4 steps:

Step 1. Before starting the registration of a company in Cyprus, you must choose the variants of its name. Cyprus law prohibits the registration of companies with the same name, so the selected name options should be checked. Verification takes one to two business days.

Step 2. The structure of the company is determined: secretary, director, shareholders and their share.

Shareholders. They can be individuals and legal entities of any state affiliation. The minimum number of shareholders is one.

Directors. The minimum number of directors is one. Directors may be individuals or legal entities of any nationality and citizenship.

To take advantage of the tax system, it is important that management and control is exercised from Cyprus, which means the director must be a resident of the Republic of Cyprus.

Secretary. The company requires a secretary. The secretary can be any legal entity or individual, and this person can be either a resident of Cyprus or a foreign resident.

Step 3. Registration of the company in the Registrar of Companies in Cyprus and legalization of corporate documents.

The establishment of a company whose name requires prior approval by the Registrar of Companies takes 2 to 4 weeks.

Step 4. Opening an account in a Cyprus bank.

To open an account in a Cyprus bank, individuals must submit the following documents:

• Completed application form
• Copy of the passport
• Confirmation of the address (utility bill or a copy of the stamp from the national passport)
• Income tax form (for the last 3 years)
• A reference letter from any bank in which you have an account
• Brief resume or free-style autobiography.
• Source of income (for example, it may be: salary, rental income, sale of movable/immovable assets, inheritance, etc.)
• Source of funds received.

Legal entities must provide the following documents to open an account in a bank in Cyprus:

• Completed application form
• Statutory and registration documents of the company (originals);
• Civil and foreign passports of directors and shareholders of the company with a residence permit (originals)
• A letter from any bank confirming the existence of a bank account (original)

The procedure for registering a company in Cyprus ends here. The owner receives a package of corporate documents and can use the company for its intended purpose.