Cyprus crypto tax: what the 8% covers and how you pay it
If you're tax resident in Cyprus, you pay a flat 8% on the gain each time you sell, swap, spend or give away crypto, from 1 January 2026. A rise in price while you hold isn't taxed, the Tax Department says. Mined coins and staking rewards follow other rules, and non-dom status doesn't change any of it.
On the gain, from 1 January 2026. Not on coins you mined.
Each sale, swap, payment or gift counts (what it reaches, below).
Disposals from this date fall under the 8%, whenever you bought the coins.
Generally, the first half of the year's provisional tax.
The rest of the year's provisional tax.
Which crypto transactions are taxed at 8% in Cyprus?
Four things, by law: selling crypto, swapping it for other crypto, paying with it and giving it away. The Tax Department also counts an inheritance as a gift and doesn't tax a rise in price while you hold. Mining, staking and some everyday cases work differently or have no official answer yet (see the list).
- Law: 8%
Selling, swapping, paying with or giving away crypto
The four disposals the law lists. Swapping into an e-money token such as Tether is one too: the Tax Department lists those tokens as crypto-assets. - Department: 8%
Crypto passed on at death
The Tax Department counts an inheritance as a gift. The law names gifts only, and the department has not said who pays, on what value or when. - Department: no tax
A rise in price while you hold
Unrealised, and not taxed, the Tax Department says. - Law: not 8%
Selling coins you mined
Outside the 8% by law; the Tax Department taxes the gain at the normal income tax rates. - Department: not 8%
Staking rewards
The Tax Department taxes them at the normal rates as they build up, and a later disposal at 8%. - Not settled
Moving crypto between your own wallets or accounts
No official answer yet. - Not settled
Coins lost, stolen or hacked
No official answer yet on whether this gives you a loss you can use. - Not settled
Airdrops, lending interest, DeFi yield, coins from a fork
No official answer yet.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
Mined coins or staking rewards? How they are taxed: Mining and staking
The detailsthe law's own words · what counts as a crypto-asset · NFTs: two readings · tokenised shares and bonds · trading as a business · before 2026
In the law's own words. The rule as the Income Tax Law states it from 1 January 2026, in translation:
(1) Gains of any person arising from the disposal of crypto-assets are subject to tax at a rate of eight per cent (8%).
(2) Notwithstanding section 13, any losses arising from the disposal of crypto-assets may be set off only against gains from the disposal of crypto-assets arising in the same tax year, and are neither carried forward and/or set off against the same person's gains of subsequent years, nor surrendered to another company under subsections (4) to (11) of section 13.
(3) For the purposes of this section: (a) The term 'crypto-assets' is interpreted in accordance with paragraph 5 of subsection 1 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. (b) The term 'disposal of crypto-assets' means the sale of crypto-assets, the gift of crypto-assets, the exchange of one crypto-asset for another crypto-asset and the use of a crypto-asset as a means of payment.
(4) The provisions of this section do not apply to the disposal of crypto-assets acquired through carrying on mining activity.
(5) Any gain arising from transactions in crypto-assets which does not fall within the provisions of this section is taxed under PART III and PART V of this Law.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Income Tax (Amending) (No. 4) Law 244(I)/2025, Official Gazette No. 5070
What counts as a crypto-asset. The law takes the EU's definition: a digital representation of a value or of a right that can be transferred and stored electronically, using distributed ledger technology or similar technology. The Tax Department reads it as broad, naming cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, utility tokens, asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens such as Tether.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA), EUR-Lex · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
NFTs: two readings. The law points only to the EU definition of a crypto-asset, and the EU regulation itself treats unique, non-fungible tokens as crypto-assets, leaving them out only of its own scope, in a rule the law does not cite. On those words, an NFT falls under the 8%. The Tax Department reads it the other way: as a general rule, it says, NFTs are not crypto-assets for this tax. Neither reading is settled; a tax ruling is the way to the department's position on your own tokens.
Tokenised shares and bonds. Whether a token that is a financial instrument, such as a tokenised share or bond, counts as a crypto-asset for the 8% is not addressed: the EU regulation leaves such tokens out of its own scope, the law takes only its definition, and the Tax Department says nothing on them.
Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA), EUR-Lex
Trading as a business. The Tax Department says the 8% covers every disposal within its scope, whether or not you make it in the course of a business. It is not optional either: the department applies it to every such disposal, with no right to choose.
Before 2026. The law added the 8% rule, and crypto gains as a kind of income, from 1 January 2026. How crypto gains before then were taxed was never set out in a published rule. The Income Tax Law taxed the profits of a business, and capital gains tax does not reach crypto-assets; on which side a person's earlier gains fell, no official text says.
What capital gains tax does reach: Capital gains tax
Income Tax (Amending) (No. 4) Law 244(I)/2025, Official Gazette No. 5070 · Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Capital Gains Tax Law 52/1980, consolidated text (CyLaw)
How is the 8% worked out on a crypto gain?
Your gain, the Tax Department says, is generally what you get for the crypto, or its market value if you swap, spend or give it away, minus what you paid and the direct costs of the deal. That holds for coins bought before 2026 too: no reset to their 2025 value, and no other costs come off. By law, a crypto loss only offsets crypto gains of the same tax year.
Moving here with coins you already hold? What the Tax Department says about exit tax: Who pays
The detailsthe method, case by case, and sales between connected persons · coins bought before 2026 · oldest first · market value · nothing else comes off · fees paid in crypto · losses · the department's example · GESY and the defence contribution
The method, case by case. The Tax Department works out the gain on each kind of disposal as follows. A sale: the sale price, less what you paid and the direct costs of the transaction; between connected persons, the price must be the market value. A gift: the market value at the time of the gift, less what you paid and the direct costs. A swap: the market value, at the time, of the crypto you give up, less what you paid for it and the direct costs. A payment: the market value of the crypto when you pay, less what you paid for it and the direct costs.
Coins bought before 2026. The Tax Department applies the 8% to disposals from 1 January 2026 whatever the date you bought the coins, and works the gain out from what you paid for them, whenever that was.
Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek) · Income Tax (Amending) (No. 4) Law 244(I)/2025, Official Gazette No. 5070
Oldest first. Where coins you dispose of were bought at different times and at different prices, the Tax Department counts the ones bought earliest as disposed of first.
Market value. Neither the law nor the Tax Department says how market value is measured for a swap, a gift or a payment: which price source, or how it is turned into euros. The department gives a euro rate only for valuing staking rewards.
Nothing else comes off. Apart from what you paid and the direct costs of the transaction, the Tax Department allows no expense against the gain, even one linked directly to the disposal, because the 8% is a special way of taxing it.
Fees paid in crypto. Whether a network fee paid in crypto is itself a disposal, as a payment, or a direct cost you can deduct, or both, neither the law nor the Tax Department says.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
Losses. A loss on disposing of crypto-assets can be set only against gains on disposing of crypto-assets in the same tax year, and is not carried forward to later years. The Tax Department adds that losses from anything else, a business or rents, say, cannot be set against crypto gains either, whether from the same year or carried forward.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
The department's example. In the Tax Department's example, someone with €150,000 of crypto gains in 2027 pays €12,000 on them at 8%, while their consulting profits of the same year are taxed under the normal rules and rates.
Tax Department, presentation on Law 244(I)/2025 (March 2026)
GESY and the defence contribution. No official guidance says whether the GESY contribution is collected on these gains. The GESY Law charges it on income from the sources the Income Tax Law lists, other than pay and pensions, and that list now includes crypto gains under the 8%; neither the Tax Department nor the Health Insurance Organisation has said how this applies to them. No published text says whether the defence contribution reaches crypto gains either: the charges its law names are on dividends, interest and deemed or disguised dividend distributions.
General Healthcare System Law 89(I)/2001, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Special Defence Contribution Law 117(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw)
How are staking rewards and mined crypto taxed in Cyprus?
Mined coins are outside the 8% by law; the Tax Department taxes their gain at the normal income tax rates when you dispose of them. Staking rewards it taxes at the normal rates as they build up. Sell them later and, it says, only the rise since then is taxed at 8%.
What the normal rates are: Income tax
The detailsmining in the Tax Department's words · how staking rewards are valued · airdrops, lending, DeFi and forks
Mining in the Tax Department's words. The Tax Department treats mining as a business. It taxes the profit when you dispose of the coins you mined, not while you mine or when you receive them, on the price or market value at disposal less the cost of mining those coins, the direct costs of the disposal, and other expenses spent wholly and exclusively to earn that gain. The cost of mining covers what you spent wholly and exclusively on mining the coins you dispose of, and the capital allowances on your mining equipment that belong to them.
How staking rewards are valued. The Tax Department values the rewards at the earlier of two dates: when the staking ends, that is when you leave the arrangement and receive the crypto, or the end of the tax year, at the rate between the reward token and the euro on that date. Rewards it has already taxed at an earlier year end are deducted at the next valuation. When you later dispose of the rewards, the gain is the price or market value less the value at which they were taxed.
Airdrops, lending, DeFi and forks. The law's only rule here is that a crypto gain outside the 8% is taxed under the Income Tax Law's general rules; it does not say whether these receipts are such gains, and the Tax Department has not addressed them.
Who pays Cyprus crypto tax: residents, non-residents and people moving here?
Tax resident here? Then your crypto gains are taxed here wherever you make them, non-dom or not. Not resident? The Tax Department taxes crypto you dispose of while you're physically in Cyprus, subject to any tax treaty. Moving here with coins? It counts your gain from what you first paid and credits exit tax you paid on leaving another country, within a limit.
Not sure where you are tax resident? How residence is decided: Cyprus tax residency
The detailstax residents · non-residents: what the law says, presence, treaties, their return · non-dom · moving here with coins: the department's example · leaving Cyprus · companies
Tax residents. The Income Tax Law taxes a Cyprus tax resident on income from sources in Cyprus and abroad, and lists crypto gains under the 8% among it. The Tax Department addresses the rule to individuals who are tax resident here.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
Non-residents, and their return. The law also lists crypto gains under the 8% among what a person who is not resident here is taxed on, without saying when such a gain counts as Cypriot. The Tax Department reads it as reaching an individual who disposes of crypto while physically present in Cyprus, with any double tax treaty with their country of residence taken into account. It has not said what counts as being present, for a trade placed online during a short stay, say. A non-resident with such a gain files a Cyprus tax return for the year.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek) · Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law 4/1978, consolidated text (CyLaw)
Non-dom. Domicile plays no part in the 8%: the law charges any person, and the Tax Department's answer on who it reaches names tax residence and physical presence, and no domicile condition. Domicile matters for the defence contribution.
What non-dom takes off: Non-dom
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Special Defence Contribution Law 117(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
Moving here with coins: the department's example. The Tax Department says that when you dispose of coins you held on moving to Cyprus, the gain is worked out from what you originally paid, and any exit tax you paid in another state on the gain that arose there is credited against the Cyprus tax. The credit is the lower of that exit tax and 8% of the gain up to your arrival. Its example: coins bought for €500,000, worth €1.2 million when you moved, as the other state valued them, €30,000 exit tax paid there, then sold for €2 million. The gain is €1.5 million and the tax before the credit €120,000; the credit is €30,000, the lower of the exit tax and €56,000, which leaves €90,000.
Leaving Cyprus. An individual who moves crypto out of Cyprus, or stops being tax resident here, pays no Cyprus exit tax, the Tax Department says. How a disposal in the year you arrive or leave is treated, it has not set out.
Companies. The 8% reaches companies too, mined coins aside, and the Tax Department says the treatment is the same as for individuals; unlike an individual, though, a company can face Cyprus exit tax when it moves crypto out.
What else a company pays: Company tax
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
How do you declare and pay crypto tax in Cyprus?
You declare crypto gains in your income tax return; gains under the 8% go in a separate part the Tax Department says comes with the 2026 return. During the year you pay provisional tax, it says, generally in two halves: by 31 July and 31 December. Generally, what is still due is paid with the 2026 return by 31 July 2027.
- 31 July
In the year of the gain
Generally: submit your own estimate of the year's taxable income and pay half the provisional tax.
- 31 December
The same year
Pay the rest of the provisional tax; until this date you can also revise your estimate.
- 31 July 2027
The 2026 return
Generally: file it and pay what is still due.
Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law 4/1978, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
The detailsthe return and its crypto part · who must file, and the 31 January deadline for audited accounts · if your first income other than from employment comes after 30 June · paying the balance · reporting by crypto service providers · asking for a ruling
The return and its crypto part. The Tax Department says crypto gains go in your income tax return, whether they fall under the 8% or the general rules, and that gains under the 8%, business ones included, will be declared separately in a part of the return to be created for 2026 and later years. It names no form number, and the 2026 return is generally filed in 2027.
Who must file, and the 31 January deadline for audited accounts. A Cyprus tax resident files a return for each year in which they have income of a kind the Income Tax Law lists, crypto gains under the 8% included, and in any case if on 31 December they are 25 or over but under 71; the Council of Ministers can exempt categories of people by decree. The return is due by 31 July of the following year, so 31 July 2027 for 2026. Someone obliged to keep books and have their accounts audited or reviewed by a statutory auditor has until 31 January of the year after, 31 January 2028 for 2026, and a decree can set a later date.
Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law 4/1978, consolidated text (CyLaw)
If your first income other than from employment comes after 30 June. An individual who first begins to earn income other than from employment after 30 June in a year submits the estimate by 31 December and pays that year's provisional tax in one instalment by then.
Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law 4/1978, consolidated text (CyLaw)
Paying the balance. If the provisional tax falls short of the year's tax, the rest is due by the return deadline: 31 July of the following year, or 31 January of the year after for those with the later return date. Interest and charges can apply.
Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law 4/1978, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek)
Reporting by crypto service providers. Under the EU rules known as DAC8, which apply in Cyprus from 1 January 2026, crypto-asset service providers that report here send the competent authority in Cyprus, by 30 June after each calendar year, each reportable user's name, address, country of residence and tax number, with the totals they bought and sold against money for each crypto-asset. The first year covered is 2026. The Cyprus authority passes the information to other EU member states within nine months of the year's end.
Asking for a ruling. The Tax Department's published answers are not a ruling. For its official position on the rule, a taxpayer can apply for a tax ruling, for a fee, by email to taxruling@tax.mof.gov.cy.
Have your crypto gains looked at before you file
What you owe turns on what you disposed of, what you paid, whether the coins were mined or came as staking rewards and where you were resident, and the tax is generally paid in advance by 31 July and 31 December. A licensed adviser can look at your case before you move, sell or file.
- Tell us your situation — a few questions.
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