One thing in advance!
I have created this page because Cyprus is unique in Europe with its possibilities through Cyprus Limited and Cyprus Non Dom and this is no longer a secret. Regardless of whether you want to live in Cyprus, setting up a Cyprus company offers a lot of advantages e.g. low corporate tax, worldwide acceptance of Cyprus Limited invoices, lower labor costs in Cyprus, self-estimated profit in the summer of the current fiscal year, instead of arbitrary advance payments etc.
For most entrepreneurs domiciled in Cyprus or with very high turnovers, the Cyprus LTD is a good choice, with its many advantages. One of the most frequently asked questions in recent years since living on the beautiful island of Cyprus is: Through which provider should I incorporate my Cyprus LTD? Who should I trust with the accounting of my Cyprus company?
At the same time, we have already seen or read a few times that some people had to change from disastrous providers with their Cyprus LTD, because its former service provider could not even meet the accounting deadlines, because there is far too little staff and it is only an intermediary who does not want to stand for anything that others have to answer for.
Therefore, in order to avoid answering the same questions over and over again, I decided to create this website with the 15 most important tips for finding a reputable service provider. These tips can at least greatly reduce the risk of finding bad or defective service providers.
These 15 tips will also help you in a possible comparison to find out what the differences between providers are and what you have to pay attention to, so that you are not bitten by the sharks. The tips also apply to service providers in general, e.g. for setting up a business, personal tax returns, tax advice in Cyprus, etc. Or simply if you live in a country other than Cyprus and want to set up a Cyprus Limited with substance.
1. are there enough accountants available?
Are there enough accountants at the Cyprus company service provider to take care of the company and to pay the taxes on time? Cyprus is extremely business-friendly and a very liberal country, but quite strict about meeting tax deadlines. For example, each week of late filing of personal tax returns costs €900 in penalties.
Therefore, make sure that the person or company you hire to do the incorporation and/or accounting has enough manpower to meet the deadlines. Just visit cyprus company incorporation hugge consult.
2. is the „law firm“ that sets up a Cyprus company a member of the bar association?
Many service providers are not members of the Bar at all. I would stay away from such service providers.
3. Is the „law firm“ a member of the Chamber of Tax Advisors?
Is the firm a member of the Chamber of Tax Consultants? Is the person actually a tax advisor or merely an accountant?
4. does the provider of the company formation Cyprus offers have independent certifications?
Example of independent certification would be TÜV Nord Cyprus (yes, they actually exist in Cyprus), ΣΕΛΚ (IPAC – The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus).
These certifications are voluntary and require quality standards (regulations) of the certifying company.
5. are there genuine Cyprus company customer reviews on the internet or from an independent review portal?
Independent reviews tend to be another helpful indicator that it might be a good service provider, but some service providers, with e.g. Provenexpert seal embedded, I would never recommend…
Cyprus Limited Experience – Experience with Company Formation in Cyprus
I have had very good experience with Cyprus Limited, which we have had for many years. It is usually not possible to find independent Cyprus Limited experiences on different law firms, agencies and tax advisors from the provider’s website. In these cases, these 15 tips on what to look for can be enormously helpful.
What else you need to know about Cyprus Limited experiences: Many websites are only intermediaries and work with a local tax advisor and are, so to speak, only sellers who work on commission, this does not necessarily have to be bad, but means that you sometimes have different contact persons who only speak English and have nothing to do with each other, which can complicate communication because different service providers.
There are very small, medium and large companies that help with company formation Cyprus. Some have one or more employees for each area, others do everything alone or with 2-3 employees, i.e. initial advice to non-clients, client advice, accounting, incorporation, etc.
6. is there an office? Are there fixed office hours?
In my opinion, fixed office hours should be available on the website, because one would like to be able to reach one’s tax advisor, tax office, accountant or agency at least Monday to Friday during normal business hours.
If no fixed office hours are called with the Kanzlei or agency, one must really think about it, how there is worked. Here one should also look particularly whether at all a firm office is present or whether alone in the Homeoffice one works, whether the person or the enterprise is at all able to become fair its conceptions.
7. can I reach someone in case of emergency?
Hopefully it will not happen, but in case of an emergency it will become clear whether someone of the company / the person in charge can be reached or not.
8. how long does the tax consultant exist? How long has the company been in existence?
Our tax consultant www.zypern-limited.com Privacy Management Group has been specializing in company formation in Cyprus for over 20 years and is well staffed. How long has the tax consultant been in business? And how is it staffed? Does it already have many years of experience in the relevant industry or is it mainly specialized in offline companies and therefore possibly the wrong contact for some industries?
How long has the company behind it been in existence? For example, does the 1-3 man company have years of experience and time of continuing education to really advise well beyond the standard stuff (incorporation, accounting, bookkeeping) such as Amazon FBA, cryptocurrencies as a non-dom via a dividend company, dropshipping, importance in practice of CFC Rules for non-doms, etc.?
Establish Cyprus Holding?
For the sake of completeness, I would also like to briefly write something about Cyprus Holding here, this has some special advantages compared to other holding locations.
These include: traditionally pronounced entrepreneurial friendliness, advantageous double taxation agreements, comparatively low corporate income tax with the agreement of all EU partner states and despite the implementation of the CRS and national CFC rules, Cyprus is thus the last legal „tax haven“ in Europe. I recommend for more information on this topic to read the information here on the pages of our tax advisor in Cyprus: Cyprus Holding Company Formation and this link for examples on the topic of forming a holding company.
9. can I always access information? Can I always get advice?Is this advice always free of charge? Is the accounting included?
When choosing a service provider to incorporate a company in Cyprus, I also recommend paying attention to whether there are hidden costs waiting for you.
This is the biggest problem with most providers, they hide their fees, for example, „plus chamber of commerce fees“ (just under 1000 euros) and many do not even talk about balance sheet, the surprise comes only 2 years later because annual financial statements and accounting is not the same!
The balance does not deliver calls straight to the tax auditors in the house and naturally also punishments. Simply many offers are not to be taken seriously.
The next point:
Is there free legal advice or do I have to pay extra for everything? Or is a fee charged for each hour, e.g. 190 € client fee? Some service providers charge a flat rate including tax advice for the LTD and the natural person including accounting, others are partly not even able to do the accounting, because they only let accountants do it and are not even authorized to perform an accounting.
Agencies usually only refer to the Cyprus accountant, if there are problems he can answer friendly in the interest of the customer, but the problem can only be solved by the accounting department itself and since this has nothing to do with him, the process is unnecessarily complicated and since time is money …
Also on the subject of clean permanent establishment and VAT ID is extremely important. A serious service provider does not conceal this.
How serious is the website?
Do you find a lot of relevant information in advance on the website or do you get it on request by e-mail as a PDF, so that you can familiarize yourself / read up on the subject outside of business hours?
Is there perhaps even a WhatsApp callback service or something similar, so that you can get help with questions or problems after business hours if you need it?
Is the company or its employees well connected with important authorities?
In Cyprus, the distances are always shorter if you have the right contacts. Many things work faster and are easier to handle if the law firm / agency / tax advisor has long-standing good trustworthy contacts to authorities (e.g. social authorities, tax authorities) and banks. In worst case scenarios these contacts are extremely valuable!
10. what else is offered?
The ideas and tastes naturally differ in services, some are satisfied with the establishment of the LTD with VAT number, personal tax number, etc.. Others attach importance to the fact that the service provider is also helpful in the search for rental properties or in the application for electricity, telephone. This must be taken into account when evaluating a provider. What is important to you? Some companies also offer German-speaking advice, but many do not.
11. is the establishment of the Cyprus Limited useful?
As a rule, yes. However, if you only have business activities that can be handled through a tax-free foreign company, you do not necessarily need a Cyprus LTD. The Cyprus LTD is the best choice if one wants to invoice worldwide customers recognized by the tax authorities or other business activities require it or where the EU company is more suitable to establish an EU company, be it Google Adsense (YouTube Adsense), Amazon Kindle or Amazon FBA. Also for a Paypal Business account an EU company is very useful, because unfortunately Paypal does not harmonize with typical offshore companies.
12. find black sheep through Google
I already mentioned that not meeting deadlines can be expensive. Also a wrong / unserious can be very expensive, here the damage can sometimes go into the five-figure to six-figure range …
Some websites suggest the cheap establishment of a company abroad, but do not provide any services, e.g. the legally required accounting and audit is missing.