Company formation in Cyprus, from the name to the bank account.

Company formation is where most of the people who come to us start.

• Founders moving to Cyprus. You are bringing a real business here and want the company, the registrations and the bank application done in one sequence.
• Consultants and freelancers. You invoice clients in the EU and beyond and want an EU company with a tax number before the first invoice.
• Online shops. You sell to consumers across the EU and will need VAT, VIES and OSS as well as the company itself.
• A business abroad opening an EU base. Your group needs a Cyprus company that is managed and controlled from here, with the substance that banks and tax authorities look for.
• Co-founders. Two or more owners who want the share capital, the shareholdings and the directors set out properly from the first day.

Substance is the word banks, payment providers and tax authorities use for the question "is this company really run from Cyprus?". A company that is managed and controlled from Cyprus, with an office where the business needs one, a Cyprus-resident director where that is required, its accounting records kept here and its own bank or EMI account, answers the question.

A company without those things is harder to bank and harder to defend. We tell you what a given set-up needs before you commit to it, and we do not set up companies that are designed to have no substance.

Where the question is one of tax or legal position rather than practical arrangement, our audit partner or our partner advocate can advise.

The exact list depends on your case and is sent to you at step 2, "We ask you what we need". The Registrar, our partner advocate and the identity checks usually call for these.

• Passport copies for each director, shareholder and beneficial owner, with proof of address for each.
• A short description of the business and where its funding comes from. The identity checks are built on it.
• Two or three proposed names, so the advocate's application has a fallback if the Registrar refuses the first.
• The details for the Memorandum and Articles: what the company will do, the share capital and who holds which shares, the directors and the secretary, and the registered office address. The first officers go on form HE3 and the address on form HE2, filed with the incorporation.
• Permission from the relevant authority, only where the name contains a restricted word or the nature of the business needs pre-approval.
• Certified copies, only where a document comes from abroad and the Registrar or a partner asks for certification. We tell you by whom and how.

The Memorandum and Articles, signed in Greek, and the sworn HE1 declaration are prepared by our partner advocate; you do not supply them.

• A name too close to an existing company. The Registrar refuses it and the file waits. We check the public register first and apply with alternatives ready.
• A director abroad, a company meant to be Cyprus tax resident. From 2026 a company is tax resident where it is managed and controlled. If the real decisions are taken in another country, that country can claim the company too. Plan where the board sits before the bank account and the first contract.
• Starting the identity checks last. They set the pace for everything after them, so they come first, before the name application goes in.
• Applying to a bank before the company has substance. Providers ask about the office, the resident director where there is one, the accountant and the registrations. A company designed to have none is harder to bank and harder to defend.
• VAT before the tax number. The Tax Identification Code is needed for the VAT registration, so the order is CY Login, the UBO Register, the tax number, then VAT.
• Forgetting the 90 days. A new company registers its beneficial owners in the UBO Register within 90 days of incorporation, whoever the registered shareholder is.