On the 5th of April 2019 Cyprus Parliament has amended the Income Tax Law (“the Law”) to implement the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (“ATAD”) which will impact Cyprus tax resident companies and permanent establishments (“PEs”) of non-Cyprus tax resident companies for tax years 2019 and onwards, on the following areas:
- General Anti-Abuse rule (“GAAR”)
GAAR requires that, any arrangement which has been put into place for the main purpose or one of the main purposes of obtaining a tax advantage that defeats the object or purpose of the applicable tax law and which is not genuine having regard to all relevant circumstances, shall be ignored for the purposes of calculating the Cyprus corporate tax liability. An arrangement is non-genuine when it is not put into place for valid commercial reasons which reflect economic reality.
The Cyprus government has decided to expand the Cyprus Startup Visa scheme for another two years and grant up to 150 visas to non-EU and non-EEA nationals to enter, reside and work in for the establishment, operation and development of startups. The new scheme is valid from March 2019 to May 2021 and it is subdivided to two schemes: for individual and for team.
Since the 1st of July 2019 the service of certified translation of documents which was previously provided by the Translation Department of the Press and Information Office is transferred to the Sworn Translators. The function of Sworn Translator is introduced in Cyprus by the Registration and Regulation of the Services of the Sworn Translator Law, 45(Ι)/2019 (hereinafter referred to as the “Law”).
