As stated in our article "A step by Step Guide for Forming a Company in Cyprus'', on August 28th 2017, incorporating a Cyprus Company is a very simple and easy procedure.

The Company law has been structured on the main pillars of the English common law, accrediting the legal framework of Cyprus for transparency and efficiency within business practices.

While the main advantages of the Cyprus Company have remained the same as per our last article, some minor changes have been taken place in registering a Cyprus Limited Company.

Updated Procedure of setting up a Cyprus Company

Company Name

  • As per our previous article, the applicant must choose the name of his/her Company providing at least three alternative Company names either in Greek or Latin characters with the word ''Limited'' at the end of each Company name.
  • The Registrar of Companies has entered into new extensive procedures of name check and the time period for approving or rejecting a Company name has been extended from 3 to 6 working days.
  • We highly recommend to the applicant before submitting his/her candidate names to at least ''Google'' the names for similarities with other Company names in the Internet.

Memorandum of Articles and Association

  • Again as per previous article, upon acceptance of the Company name by the Registrar of Companies, the lawyers will draft the Memorandum of Articles and Association after the client will submit detailed Company's activities, the amount of authorized and issued share capital alongside the Company's internal regulations etc.

Shareholders

  • No changes have been observed as per last article and each Company should appoint at least one Shareholder, whereby each shareholder may be either a physical person or a legal entity.
  • If you wish to keep the anonymity of the beneficial owners, the shares may be held by our in-house Company nominees (either individuals or legal entity's).

Board Members

  • It is very crucial that from tax planning perspective, the Company appoints the majority of its directors from Cyprus or foreigners who leave permanently in Cyprus.
  • As per Cyprus law requirements, the Company must also have at least one secretary whereby even though not mandatory we highly recommend a Cypriot resident or a foreigner who stays permanently in Cyprus for practicality reasons.
  • If you wish to keep the anonymity of the Board Members, the shares may be held by our in-house Company nominees (either individuals or legal entity's).

Registered Office

  • As per law requirements, it is mandatory that the Registered Office of the Cyprus Company must be any address located in Cyprus.
  • Our Company can provide you with a Register Office address upon request.

The Registrar of Companies will need 7 – 8 working days to issue all the statutory documents of the Company and give the Company with a unique Company registration number.

The statutory documents of the Company include the following documents:

  • Certificate of incorporation
  • Certificate of directors and secretary
  • Certificate of shareholders
  • Certificate of registered office address
  • Memorandum and articles of association
  • Share certificates
  • Company stamp

Upon submission of all statutory documents by the Registrar of Companies, our Company will proceed immediately in applying for the tax number of the Company with the Cyprus Tax Authorities.

Know Your Client (K.Y.C) Documentation required

We are required to follow extensive K.Y.C. procedures to meet the local and international Anti Money Laundering requirements. It should be noted that for each client the K.Y.C. procedure varies.

As a first point of required documentation, the following will be requested by our office staff:

  • Clear color passport copy with apostil
  • Utility bill i.e. electricity or water or gas utility bill as prove of address with apostil or original
  • Bank reference letter
  • Lawyer or Accountant reference letter
  • P.S. Services Ltd completed and sighed K.Y.C. questionnaire from the client
  • Curriculum vitae for each individual

If you already have a Cyprus Company under another provider, you can still transfer your operations to another service provider like our office, as long as a number of documents are transferred from the existing services provider to the future one.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.