Inheritance tax in Cyprus: is there any, and who else can tax your estate?
Cyprus has no inheritance tax: it was abolished for deaths from 1 January 2000. The catch is the country you left: the UK, Germany or the US can still tax your estate after you move. The UK can keep taxing what you own outside it for up to 10 tax years after you leave.
The maximum, after 20 tax years in a row as a UK resident.
Counted from your last tax year as a UK resident. Until it runs out, the UK can tax what you own anywhere.
Your UK home can be taxed in the UK however long ago you left.
Estate duty ended for anyone who died on or after this date; earlier deaths keep the old rules.
The heirs and any executor or administrator have this long after a death to file a statement of assets and debts (heirs, below).
The state's yearly tax on owning property ended from this date; bills for earlier years still stand.
Does Cyprus have inheritance tax, a gift tax or a wealth tax?
No. Cyprus has no inheritance tax, and no separate gift or wealth tax. Inheritance tax ended for deaths from 1 January 2000. A gift can still cost you capital gains tax on Cyprus property, a Land Registry fee or the 8% on crypto (details below).
Moved here from the UK? How long UK inheritance tax can still reach you: The UK
The detailsthe law's own words · what the Tax Department says · no separate gift or wealth tax, and what a gift still brings · the yearly property tax · Cyprus's tax treaties
In the law's own words. The repeal as the Estate Duty (Amending) Law of 2000 states it, in translation. 'The principal law' is the Estate Duty Laws of 1962 to 1997:
2. The principal law is repealed in relation to persons who died on or after 1 January 2000: Provided that the provisions of the principal law continue to apply to cases of persons who died before that date.
Estate Duty (Amending) Law 74(I)/2000, Official Gazette No. 3413
What the Tax Department says. The Tax Department says it no longer charges inheritance tax, and that heirs pay no inheritance duties, however large the estate. Old tax debts and open matters from the years before 2000 still stand, it adds.
No separate gift or wealth tax, and what a gift still brings. The Tax Department's list of direct-tax laws, published on 27 February 2026, has no tax on gifts as such and no tax on wealth. A gift can still bring other charges. Capital gains tax counts a gift of property in Cyprus as a disposal. The Land Registry charges a fee to register a gift of property, though none from parent to child. And the 8% on crypto gains names gifts among the disposals it taxes.
Which gifts capital gains tax exempts: Capital gains tax
The yearly property tax. Cyprus stopped charging immovable property tax, the state's yearly tax on owning property here, from 1 January 2017. Amounts due for 2016 and earlier years are still owed.
Immovable Property Tax (Amending) Law 86(I)/2016, Official Gazette No. 4572
Cyprus's tax treaties. Cyprus's tax treaties with the UK, Germany and the US cover taxes on income and gains, and with Germany also on capital. None of the three gives relief from inheritance tax.
Cyprus–UK Convention, Official Gazette No. 4238 (Ministry of Finance text) · Cyprus–US Convention, Official Gazette No. 1944 (Ministry of Finance text) · Cyprus–Germany Agreement, 2011 (Ministry of Finance text)
Does UK inheritance tax still reach you after you move to Cyprus?
Yes, for up to 10 tax years after you leave, and on a UK home for as long as you own it. Since 6 April 2025, it generally reaches everything you own once you've been UK resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years. After you leave, it can follow you for up to 3 tax years, rising to 10 after 20 UK years in a row (table below).
| UK-resident tax years, of the 20 up to your last one | At most this many tax years after it | |
|---|---|---|
| 13 or fewer | 3 | |
| 14 | 4 | |
| 15 | 5 | |
| 16 | 6 | |
| 17 | 7 | |
| 18 | 8 | |
| 19 | 9 | |
| 20 | 10 | |
Counted from your last tax year as a UK resident. After the last of these years, your assets outside the UK generally fall out of UK tax (details below).
With fewer than 10 of the 20, as an adult with no election, they fall out once you've left.
The detailsthe Act's own words · how to count your years · when the figure is exact, and when it ends sooner · if you left before April 2025 · deaths before April 2025 · UK assets, and companies that own UK homes · the 40% and the £325,000 · spouses · gifts before death · children, elections and moving back · no inheritance tax treaty with Cyprus · trusts and pensions
In the Act's own words. The test and the count as the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 states them since 6 April 2025; the table is the one above:
(1) For the purposes of this Act, an individual is a “long-term UK resident” at all times in a tax year if they were UK resident for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years.
(2) But an individual is not a long-term UK resident at any time in a tax year (“the current tax year”) if they were non-UK resident— (a) for any 10 consecutive tax years during the 19 tax years before the current tax year, or (b) for at least the required number of consecutive tax years ending with the tax year before the current tax year.
(3) To determine “the required number” for the purposes of subsection (2)(b), take the 20 tax years ending with the last tax year for which the individual was UK resident and find the number of those tax years for which the individual was UK resident (“the number of resident years”). The required number is the number in the second column of the following table corresponding to the number of resident years.
How to count your years. A UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. Whether you were UK resident in a year is decided as for income tax: by the statutory residence test from 2013-14, and by the earlier rules before that. A year split into a UK part and an overseas part, as the year you leave can be, counts as a full UK year. Your last UK year is the last tax year in which you were UK resident; if you were non-resident for the whole tax year in which you left, it is the year before. Count your UK years among the 20 tax years that end with it.
Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 6A · HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, IHTM47020
When the figure is exact, and when it ends sooner. The table gives the longest the reach can last. For an adult with no election, it is exact if at least 10 UK years ran without a break up to your last one, unless the rule for those who left before April 2025 (below) ends it sooner. It can end sooner if they were broken up, because each tax year the UK asks again whether you were resident in at least 10 of the previous 20. Ten tax years in a row abroad, within the 19 before the year in question, end it altogether. In HMRC's own example, someone whose last UK year was 2026-27, resident in 18 of the 20 years up to then, stops being a long-term UK resident on 6 April 2035.
Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 6A · HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, IHTM47020
If you left before April 2025. A transitional rule can end the reach sooner if you were not domiciled in the UK on 30 October 2024 and have not been UK resident in any tax year since 2025-26 began. Domicile here means domicile under general law: deemed domicile and domicile elections are ignored. In each tax year it treats you as not a long-term UK resident if you were UK resident in none of the previous 3 tax years, or in fewer than 15 of the previous 20. If you were UK-domiciled on 30 October 2024, or 2025-26 counts as a UK year for you, for instance because you left during it on a split year, the ordinary test and the table apply.
Deaths and gifts before 6 April 2025. For a death or gift before 6 April 2025, the old domicile rules still decide.
UK assets, and companies that own UK homes. UK assets generally stay within UK inheritance tax even when you are not a long-term UK resident. HMRC places a home where it stands, a bank account at the branch that keeps it, and shares where their register is kept, so a UK home, a sterling account at a UK branch and shares on a UK company's UK register are UK assets. Three kinds are left out for someone who is not a long-term UK resident: holdings in authorised unit trusts and shares in open-ended investment companies; certain UK government securities that are tax-free for a specified kind of holder; and non-sterling bank accounts, if just before death you were neither UK resident nor a long-term UK resident. Shares in a closely held company, or an interest in a partnership, can be caught too, to the extent their value comes from a UK residential property, and from 6 April 2026 from UK agricultural property; a holding of less than 5%, counting those of connected people, is ignored.
Sources (8)
Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 6 · Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 157 · Inheritance Tax Act 1984, Schedule A1, paragraph 2 · Inheritance Tax Act 1984, Schedule A1, paragraph 7A · Finance Act 2026, Schedule 12, paragraph 20 · HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, IHTM27074 · HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, IHTM27093 · HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, IHTM27121
The 40% and the £325,000. UK inheritance tax is 40% on the part of the estate above £325,000. That band is frozen until 5 April 2031. GOV.UK says up to £175,000 more can be tax-free where your home goes to your direct descendants, reduced by £1 for every £2 the estate is worth above £2 million. If you are not a long-term UK resident, it adds, only a home in the UK counts.
Spouses. A gift or bequest to a spouse or civil partner is normally exempt in full. If you are a long-term UK resident and your spouse is not, the exemption stops at £325,000, counting earlier exempt gifts to a spouse. A spouse who is not a long-term UK resident can elect to be treated as one if their partner was a long-term UK resident at some point in the 7 years before; after a death, the election can be made within 2 years. It brings the spouse's own assets outside the UK into UK tax, cannot be revoked, and lapses only after 10 tax years in a row outside the UK.
Gifts before death. An outright gift to another person drops out of UK inheritance tax if you live 7 more years; a gift into most trusts, or one you keep benefiting from, does not. Whether a gift of assets outside the UK is within UK tax at all depends on whether you were a long-term UK resident just before you made it. A gift you keep benefiting from is the exception: HMRC says foreign property given that way is taxed if you are a long-term UK resident when you die, or when the benefit ends, even if you were not when you gave it.
Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 3A · HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual, IHTM47060
Children, elections and moving back. For anyone under 20, the 10-of-20 test is scaled to their age: resident in at least half the tax years they have been alive, rounded up. So a child can be a long-term UK resident with fewer than 10 UK years; the table above still sets the longest it can last. A spouse's election makes you a long-term UK resident while it has effect, whatever the table says. After 10 tax years in a row abroad the test resets: if you then move back, only the year you return and later years count, GOV.UK says.
Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 6B · GOV.UK, "Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident"
No inheritance tax treaty with Cyprus. The UK's list of inheritance tax treaties does not include Cyprus. The UK–Cyprus tax treaty's relief rules cover UK income tax, corporation tax and capital gains tax only, so it gives no relief from inheritance tax. Its rules on exchanging information and collecting tax do reach every tax, inheritance tax included, so the UK can ask Cyprus for information and for help collecting an enforceable UK tax debt.
GOV.UK, "Inheritance Tax: Double Taxation Relief" · GOV.UK, "2018 UK-Cyprus Double Taxation Convention as amended by the 2018 Protocol"
Trusts and pensions. Trusts have their own rules since 6 April 2025: whether assets outside the UK held in a trust are within UK inheritance tax depends mainly on whether the person who set it up is, or was at death, a long-term UK resident. New rules on pensions apply to deaths from 6 April 2027.
Inheritance Tax Act 1984, section 48ZA · Finance Act 2026, section 71
Can Germany still tax your estate after you move to Cyprus?
Yes, if you keep a German home or your heir lives there: Germany can tax everything they inherit. If you're a German citizen, Germany taxes your whole estate until you've lived abroad more than five years in a row with no home there. After that it still taxes German real estate and some other German assets, and can reach all your German assets until ten years after the year you left (details below).
Years in a row abroad, with no German home, before a German citizen stops being fully taxable
Years after the year you left in which the extended rule for German citizens can still apply
Tax-free for each child when Germany taxes the whole inheritance
ErbStG §2 · AStG §2 · ErbStG §16
The detailsan heir in Germany · German citizens: the five years · a German home, citizen or not · the ten-year rule and who it catches · German real estate and other assets that stay taxable · rates and tax-free amounts · no inheritance tax treaty with Cyprus
An heir in Germany. German inheritance and gift tax covers everything passed on whenever the person who died, the giver or the heir counts as resident in Germany for this tax. You count if you have a home there, or your habitual abode: a continuous stay of more than six months always counts, unless it is purely for visits, holidays, a cure or similar and lasts no longer than a year. So an heir living in Germany is taxed there on the whole inheritance, even when the person who died lived in Cyprus. The tax generally arises at the death, and later in some cases, such as a compulsory-share claim when it is made. The same goes for gifts: someone living in Germany is taxed on a gift from Cyprus.
Inheritance and Gift Tax Act (ErbStG), §2 · Fiscal Code (AO), §9
German citizens' five years, and a German home, citizen or not. A German citizen still counts as resident in Germany for this tax until they have lived abroad continuously for more than five years without a home in Germany. That applies to a German citizen who dies or gives, and equally to a German citizen who inherits. Keeping a home in Germany that you will go on using can keep you resident there for this tax, citizen or not, however long you live abroad.
Inheritance and Gift Tax Act (ErbStG), §2 · Fiscal Code (AO), §8
The ten-year rule and who it catches. After the five years, a narrower rule in the Foreign Tax Act can apply until the end of the tenth year after the year your full German income tax liability ended. It applies only if, in the ten years before that liability ended, you were fully liable to German income tax as a German for at least five, and only if neither you nor the heir counts as resident in Germany. In the year of the death or gift you must also be caught by Germany's extended income tax rule: you live in a low-tax country, or in none, and keep substantial economic interests in Germany. The law defines those interests by your German business interests, your German income and your German assets; German income of more than €62,000 in the year, or German assets of more than €154,000, is enough on its own. Whether Cyprus counts as low-tax depends on that year's tax rates, and on whether a Cyprus regime, such as non-dom or the new-resident exemptions, counts as preferential, so it turns on your own facts. Someone who cannot show they are tax resident in any country is treated as resident nowhere, which alone meets the low-tax condition, the Federal Ministry of Finance says. Where the rule applies, it reaches every part of the inheritance whose income would not count as foreign income, which the ministry says can include German bank balances and holdings of less than 10% in German companies. It is switched off only if a tax like German inheritance tax, of at least 30% of the German tax on those assets, is payable abroad; with no inheritance tax in Cyprus, that way out is not open through Cyprus. Giving up German citizenship after the five qualifying years does not change it, the ministry says.
Foreign Tax Act (AStG), §2 · Foreign Tax Act (AStG), §4 · Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), letter of 22 December 2023, "Grundsätze zur Anwendung des Außensteuergesetzes"
German real estate and other assets that stay taxable. Even when nobody involved counts as resident in Germany, Germany taxes German assets, including farmland and forests, land and buildings, the property of a business run through a German establishment, a stake of at least 10% in a German company held by the person who died or gave, claims secured on German land, and rights to use any of these.
Inheritance and Gift Tax Act (ErbStG), §2 · Valuation Act (BewG), §121
Rates and tax-free amounts. The rate depends on the tax class and the size of the inheritance: 7% to 30% in class I, which covers children, 15% to 43% in class II and 30% to 50% in class III. When Germany taxes the whole inheritance, €500,000 is tax-free for a spouse or registered partner, €400,000 for each child or the child of a child who has died, €200,000 for other grandchildren, €100,000 for others in class I and €20,000 in classes II and III. When it taxes only German assets, the tax-free amount shrinks in proportion.
Inheritance and Gift Tax Act (ErbStG), §19 · Inheritance and Gift Tax Act (ErbStG), §16
No inheritance tax treaty with Cyprus. Germany has inheritance tax treaties only with Denmark, France, Greece, Switzerland and the US, and Sweden's ended on 1 January 2024; none is under negotiation, and Cyprus appears only among its income tax agreements. Germany credits a foreign inheritance tax only when it taxes the whole inheritance, and only under further conditions, among them that the tax was assessed and paid.
Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), letter of 7 January 2026, "Stand der Doppelbesteuerungsabkommen … am 1. Januar 2026" · Inheritance and Gift Tax Act (ErbStG), §21
Does US estate tax still apply if you live in Cyprus?
If you're a US citizen, yes: the US taxes your whole estate wherever you live. If you're not a citizen and your permanent home is no longer in the US, it taxes only your US assets. Giving up citizenship can move the tax onto your US heirs, at the top rate, now 40% (details below).
Exclusion for the estate of a US citizen or US-domiciled person dying in 2026
Top rate of US estate tax
Filing threshold for the US assets of a non-citizen living abroad, the IRS says
Public Law 119-21 · 26 U.S.C. §2001 · IRS (nonresidents)
The detailscitizens: the whole estate · not a citizen: where your home is · what counts as a US asset · the allowance for a non-citizen living abroad · gifts · giving up citizenship or a green card · no estate tax treaty with Cyprus
Citizens: the whole estate. US estate tax applies to the estate of every US citizen, wherever they live, and counts everything they own, wherever it is. Dual citizens are included, the IRS says. For deaths in 2026 the basic exclusion is $15 million, rising with inflation from 2027. The executor files a US estate tax return, Form 706, when the estate, with taxable gifts, is above the filing threshold for the year of death.
26 U.S.C. §2001 (United States Code, 2024 edition) · Public Law 119-21, enacted text · IRS, "Transfer certificate filing requirements for the estates of nonresident citizens of the United States"
Not a citizen: where your home is. For someone who is not a US citizen, the test is domicile: you acquire one by living somewhere, even briefly, with no definite intention of leaving, and you do not lose it by intention alone without actually moving. A non-citizen not domiciled in the US at death is taxed only on the part of the estate situated in the US.
Treas. Reg. §20.0-1 (eCFR) · 26 U.S.C. §2103 (United States Code, 2024 edition)
What counts as a US asset. Shares count as US assets only if a US company issued them. Debts owed by a US person or a US government count, with exceptions. Life insurance on your own life does not. The IRS adds US real estate and other property physically in the US, and says bank accounts not used in a US business and securities paying portfolio interest do not count.
26 U.S.C. §2104 (United States Code, 2024 edition) · IRS, "Frequently asked questions on estate taxes for nonresidents not citizens of the United States"
The allowance for a non-citizen living abroad. Instead of the exclusion, the estate of a non-citizen not domiciled in the US gets a credit of $13,000. The IRS requires a return, Form 706-NA, when the US assets, with taxable gifts, are above $60,000, a threshold not adjusted for inflation.
26 U.S.C. §2102 (United States Code, 2024 edition) · IRS, "Estate tax for nonresidents not citizens of the United States"
Gifts. US gift tax covers any gift by a US citizen or resident. A non-citizen who is not resident pays it only on gifts of property situated in the US, and generally not on gifts of shares or other intangible property.
Giving up citizenship or a green card. Someone who gives up US citizenship, or a long-term resident who stops being a lawful permanent resident, is a covered expatriate if any one of three tests is met on that date: average yearly US income tax over the previous five years above an amount that rises with inflation, $206,000 for 2025, the IRS says; net worth of $2 million or more; or failing to certify five years of US tax compliance. Some dual citizens from birth, and some who give up citizenship before 18½, can be exempt from the first two tests, never from the third. A covered expatriate's property is treated as sold the day before, for income tax, with part of the gain excluded. A US citizen or resident who later receives a gift or bequest from them pays US tax on it at the top rate, now 40%, above the yearly gift exclusion, less any foreign gift or estate tax paid, unless it was reported on a timely US gift or estate tax return or goes to a spouse or charity in a way that would be deductible. The IRS says its final rules apply to gifts and bequests received from 1 January 2025, reported on Form 708, and that only people who expatriated on or after 17 June 2008 are covered.
No estate tax treaty with Cyprus. The IRS's list of estate and gift tax treaties does not include Cyprus. The 1984 US–Cyprus treaty deals with income taxes and gives no relief from estate or gift tax.
IRS, "Estate & gift tax treaties (international)" · Cyprus–US Convention, Official Gazette No. 1944 (Ministry of Finance text)
What does an heir still have to do in Cyprus?
Nothing in Cyprus changes hands until the Tax Department signs off. Within six months of the death, heirs and any executor must declare everything the person and their dependants owned and owed, here and abroad. A legal heir pays no Land Registry registration fee on inherited property, only small charges (details below).
Selling inherited property later? How capital gains tax treats it: Capital gains tax
The detailswho has to act · the statement within six months, and whose assets it covers · the Tax Department's sign-off · the dead person's own taxes · registering property at the Land Registry, and if a will leaves it to someone else · crypto passed on at death · wills and who inherits
Who has to act. The law puts these duties on the estate's legal representatives: the executor or administrator, every legal heir, anyone who takes over or handles the dead person's assets, and anyone entitled to apply to court to prove the will or for letters of administration. An heir who has not been appointed anything is one of them.
Deceased Persons' Estates (Tax Provisions) Law 78(I)/2000, consolidated text (CyLaw)
The statement within six months, and whose assets it covers. Within six months of the death, they file with the Tax Department a statement of the assets and debts, in Cyprus or abroad, of the person who died, of everyone who depended on them, and of the surviving spouse if the spouse had no taxable income, with a copy of any will. The Tax Department's form for it is Τ.Φ. 78. Not filing, or filing late, is an offence, with a fine of up to €854.30, the Tax Department says, and up to €1,708.60 for a false statement.
Deceased Persons' Estates (Tax Provisions) Law 78(I)/2000, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, Form Τ.Φ. 701 (2025) · Tax Department, deceased estates page (in Greek)
The Tax Department's sign-off. A court will not prove a will or grant letters of administration until a Tax Department certificate of no objection has been filed. The legal representatives apply for it on Form Τ.Φ. 701 at a district office, and the certificate is Τ.Φ. 702, the Tax Department says. No asset of the person who died can be transferred, no money withdrawn from their accounts and no insurance policy cashed without the department's written approval, which can come with conditions. A bank must invite the department before opening their safe-deposit box. The department takes the forms in person or by post, not online, signed by all the heirs, by one person they authorise, or by the court-appointed administrator, and the person who died needs a tax number.
Deceased Persons' Estates (Tax Provisions) Law 78(I)/2000, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, deceased estates page (in Greek)
The dead person's own taxes. The legal representatives also take over the dead person's own tax affairs: they owe what the person owed in tax, as far as the estate covers it, and do what the person would have had to do, tax returns included. Those taxes are a first charge on each asset of the estate and can lead to a forced sale; a sale, lease, mortgage or pledge made in good faith, for value, before the death comes first.
Deceased Persons' Estates (Tax Provisions) Law 78(I)/2000, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law 4/1978, consolidated text (CyLaw)
Registering property at the Land Registry, and if a will leaves it to someone else. A legal heir pays no Land Registry fee to have inherited property registered in their name, with or without a will. A legal heir is someone who inherits by law under the Wills and Succession Law. If a will leaves property to someone who is not a legal heir, the fee is 0.3% of its value at 2013 prices. If that person was the testator's child, spouse or a relative up to the third degree, it is charged as for a gift: nothing from parent to child, 0.01% otherwise. Property in the occupied areas with no 2013 value is registered to them without a fee. The Land Registry also charges €10 per property for the application and €5 per property for each title deed, it says. Before registering, it asks for documents including Forms Τ.Φ. 704 and Ν313 from the Tax Department and proof that local municipal, sewerage and water charges are paid.
Department of Lands and Surveys (Fees and Charges) Law, Cap. 219, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Land Registry (Department of Lands and Surveys), inheritance page (in Greek)
Crypto passed on at death. The Tax Department counts an inheritance of crypto as a gift, and so as a disposal under the 8% on crypto gains. The law itself names gifts only. Who pays, on what value and in which tax year, the department has not said.
What the 8% reaches: Crypto tax
Tax Department, crypto FAQ (in Greek) · Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw)
Wills and who inherits. Where Cyprus law governs a succession, it reserves part of the estate, up to three quarters, for close family. For deaths since 17 August 2015, an EU regulation decides which country's law governs: by default the law of the country where the person habitually lived at death, unless their will chose the law of a country whose nationality they held. Whether either applies to you is a question for a lawyer.
Wills and Succession Law, Cap. 195, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on succession (EUR-Lex)
Have an adviser look at where your estate can still be taxed
Cyprus has no inheritance tax, so the open question is what the country you came from can still tax. How long you lived there matters, and so do your citizenship, where your heirs live and where your assets are. A licensed adviser can look at your case before you move or give anything away.
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