Which tax exemption do I get for a job in Cyprus?
If you take up a job in Cyprus after years abroad, 50%, 25% or 20% of your pay can be exempt from income tax. Which one you get depends on conditions set out in full in the sections below — and you can get at most one a year.
Of your pay, with no cap, for up to seventeen tax years, in each year your pay is over €55,000 (in the year you start, over your first twelve months). Who qualifies: see the 50% section below.
Up to €25,000 a year, for up to seven tax years from the year you start, in each year your pay or profit is over €30,000. Who qualifies: see the 25% section below.
Up to €8,550 a year, for up to seven tax years from the year after you start. Who qualifies: see the 20% section below.
Each condition these questions test is summarised in the comparison table below and set out in full in each exemption's section.
Answer the questions above to see which exemptions fit.
If your job started before 30 June 2023, older versions of these exemptions may apply. See what applies. If it started on 30 June 2023 itself, the current rules apply: choose July 2023 above to see your result.
€0 of your pay a year is exempt
None of the three, on what you entered.
- 50%YesNoNot at this pay€0
Tax years : the first on your pay over your first twelve months, then each year your pay is over €55,000.
Self-employed income doesn't qualify for this one.
You were employed in Cyprus in the fifteen tax years before.
You were tax resident in Cyprus in the fifteen tax years before.
Your pay needs to be over €55,000 in your first or second twelve months here; statutory leave can change that (What counts as pay, further down the page). A pay rise counts only if your employment terms are amended to include it and you are told before those two years are up.
- 25%YesNoNot at this pay€0
Tax years , in each year your pay (or profit) is over €30,000 and — from your second year — you are tax resident.
Only for work starting from 2025.
Only for people who were Cyprus tax resident before and then not resident for the seven tax years before they start.
You need all 84 months abroad, or 36 of them with a recognised degree.
Your pay (or profit) needs to be over €30,000 in your first twelve months, and in each year you claim it.
- 20%YesNo€0
Tax years , while you stay in this first job.
Only for jobs starting by the end of 2027.
Self-employed income doesn't qualify for this one.
You were employed in Cyprus in the fifteen tax years before.
You need 36 months in a row of full-time work abroad right before.
You can claim one exemption per tax year.
In a year your pay is €55,000 or less, the 20% can stand in for the 50% — if that year falls within the 20%'s years shown above and you are still in your first job.
What it does to your take-home pay: income tax calculator
Not asked here: for the 50%, whether a pay rise or cut was arranged to get it; for the 20% and 50%, work for your own company; and director's fees — see what changes it.
How do the three exemptions compare?
The first table is what each one gives, the second who can get it. If you are not yet sure any of the three is open to you, start with the second.
| Question | 50% | 25% | 20% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of pay exempt | 50% | 25% | 20% |
| Most pay exempt a year | No cap | €25,000 | €8,550 |
| Pay test | Over€55,000 | Over€30,000 | None |
| For how long | 17tax years | 7tax years | 7tax years |
| First year it applies | The year you start | The year you start | The year after you start |
| Question | 50% | 25% | 20% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Not resident, and not employed in Cyprus, for fifteen tax years before | Tax resident here before, then not resident for seven tax years, plus years of work abroad | Three years of full-time work abroad right before; first job in Cyprus in fifteen years |
| Job must start | From2022onwards | 2025–2030 | By the end of2027 |
| Self-employed? | No | Yes | No |
| Must you be resident in Cyprus? | No | Yes, each year you claim it except the first | No |
| Change of employer | Keeps it | Keeps it | Ends it |
Conditions as they apply to a job starting on or after 30 June 2023. This table is a summary: every condition, in full, is in the sections below — 50%, 20%, 25% and Changes.
You can claim only one of these in a tax year. In a year the 50% does not apply because your pay is €55,000 or less, the 20% can stand in if you meet its conditions and the year falls within its seven.
Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A)) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 25% exemption (art. 8(21B))
Who gets the 50%?
The 50% is for people who come to work in Cyprus after at least fifteen years of being neither tax resident nor employed here, and earn over €55,000.
Your pay must be over this — in your first or second twelve months to qualify at all (statutory leave can change that: see What counts as pay), and then in every year you claim it (in the year you start, over your first twelve months).
- You were not a Cyprus tax resident in any of the fifteen tax years before the year your job starts.The year you start doesn't count either way.
- You were not employed in Cyprus in those fifteen tax years.By any employer, including a foreign one, and however briefly.
- You are employed — self-employed income doesn't qualify.
- Your pay is over €55,000 in your first twelve months or your next twelve months.Statutory leave can change that: see What counts as pay, below.
Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A)) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 50% exemption (art. 8(23A))
If your pay passes €55,000 only after your first two years, you get no year of the 50% at all, unless statutory leave held it down (see What counts as pay). A rise inside the two years counts only if your employment terms are amended to include it and you are told before the two years are up — back pay granted later is ignored.
Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A))
What counts as pay
Salary plus benefits in kind and allowances. Bonuses count if your contract provides for them and they follow a bonus scheme or measurable criteria. Statutory sick, maternity, paternity or parental leave in your first two years doesn't stop you qualifying: for the two-year test only, you are treated as paid your usual salary. It does not give you the 50% for a year in which your actual pay is €55,000 or less. The leave rule has three conditions. First, it must be possible for your job to carry on after the leave. Second, either your contract stays in force and you can show you meant to return, or you start a new job by the first of the month after the leave ends. Third, you then go back to work or start that job.
Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A))
The first year
In the year you start, the test is your pay over your first twelve months, not what you earn by December — so a September start on a high salary still gets it that year.
Seventeen years
The seventeen tax years count from the year you start and are never extended — not for low-pay years, not for years abroad. They end sooner if the law is repealed. The 50% is granted once in a lifetime.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A))
Who gets the 20%?
The 20% is for people who worked abroad for three years right before their first job in Cyprus. It has no pay test, and it starts the year after you do.
- Right before, you worked full time outside Cyprus for at least 36 months in a row, for one or more employers not resident in Cyprus.No more than four months between the end of that job and the start of the Cyprus one.
- It is your first job in Cyprus in fifteen tax years.You were not employed here in the fifteen tax years before your start year.
- Your job starts by the end of 2027.
- You are employed — not self-employed.
It belongs to your first job
The 20% applies only to pay from that first job. The Tax Department says that if you move to another employer, it stops, and the seven years end early.
Any pay
No salary floor and no ceiling: the 20% works on any pay, exempting up to €8,550 a year.
Who gets the 25%?
The 25% is for people coming back. If you have never been a Cyprus tax resident, it is not for you.
- You were a Cyprus tax resident at some point.Then not resident in any of the seven tax years before the year you start.
- You worked full time abroad, for an employer not resident in Cyprus, for all 84 months before you start.Or for at least 36 of them, with a university degree recognised by KYSATS, the Cyprus council for recognising qualifications.
- Your work in Cyprus starts between January 2025 and the end of 2030.
- You earn over €30,000 from it in your first twelve months.
Each year after that
You get it for each of seven tax years, starting with the year you start, in which your pay or profit is over €30,000 and you are tax resident in Cyprus — the first year needs no residence. It covers self-employed profits as well as a salary. It is granted once in a lifetime.
Whether you are tax resident in a given year: tax residency.
What if my pay drops, I change job or I leave?
Each of the three has a condition you have to keep meeting after you start.
Your pay drops
With the 50%, a year at €55,000 or less gets no exemption, and the next year over €55,000 gets it again — as long as you qualified in your first two years. The 20% can stand in for the low year if you meet its conditions and the year falls within its seven. If your pay moves up and down, the Tax Department can ask you and your employer to show it wasn't arranged to get the exemption. With the 25%, a year in which your pay or profit is €30,000 or less gets no exemption, and it still counts as one of the seven. The 20% has no pay test, so a drop in pay does not affect it.
Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A)) · Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw)
You change employer
The 50% carries on: it covers pay from any employment in Cyprus. So does the 25%: the law gives it on pay from any employment in Cyprus. The 20% does not: it ends with your first job.
Income Tax (Amending) Law 51(I)/2023, Official Gazette No. 4951, 30 June 2023 · Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 20% exemption (art. 8(21A))
You leave and come back
With the 50% or the 25%, you can pick it up again for the years still left, but the clock doesn't stop while you are away.
Tax Department, FAQs on the 50% exemption (art. 8(23A)) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 25% exemption (art. 8(21B))
Working for a company you set up yourself? The Tax Department refuses the 20% and the 50% where it doesn't accept a real employment — for example if the company is dormant, too small to justify your pay, or not registered as an employer. If you also have a salaried job in Cyprus, the Tax Department adds any executive-director fees to that pay; it does not count a non-executive director's fees as pay from employment.
Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A))
Dividends, interest and the defence contribution: non-dom.
How do I claim it?
There is no application and no approval. If you are on a Cyprus payroll, you claim it through your employer:
Tell your employer
Fill in form T.F.59 and give it to your employer; without it, they can't apply the exemption to your pay.
Keep the proof
You don't send anything up front, but you must keep documents that show you qualify.
It shows on your return
On your annual tax return the 50% and the 20% are entered with your salary; the 25% is listed under deductions.
Sources for these steps (5)
Tax Department, FAQs on the 50% exemption (art. 8(23A)) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 20% exemption (art. 8(21A)) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 25% exemption (art. 8(21B)) · Tax Department, form T.F.59 for 2026 (employee declaration to the employer) · Tax Department, guide to the 2025 individual tax return
Proof the Tax Department names
- Payslips from your job abroad
- Your employment contract with the foreign employer
- Proof of social insurance paid abroad
- A rental contract abroad
- A tax residence certificate from abroad for the last 3 years (20%), 15 years (50%) or 7 years (25%)
- For the 25%: your degree recognition and proof of social insurance for the months abroad
Unsure whether you qualify for the 50%? The Tax Department says you can ask it for a formal ruling.
Tax Department, FAQs on the 20% exemption (art. 8(21A)) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 50% exemption (art. 8(23A)) · Tax Department, FAQs on the 25% exemption (art. 8(21B))
My job started before 30 June 2023 — what applies to me?
For a job that started earlier, older versions of these exemptions can apply — or, for the 20%, a condition that is read two ways. The checker doesn't cover them.
The 50%, for jobs started between January 2022 and 29 June 2023
If you started in that window and don't meet today's 50% conditions, an earlier version may still apply to you. It differs in at least three ways: ten years of non-residence instead of fifteen; the job must be your first salaried job in Cyprus ever, not counting casual work of up to 120 days in a tax year; and it covers only pay from that first job, ending when that job ends. The Tax Department's page on the 50% (in Greek) sets out all its conditions.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, 50% exemption for a first job in Cyprus
The current 20%, for jobs started from late July 2022 to 29 June 2023
It can apply to you too, on the conditions above — except one that is read two ways. What counts as your first job in Cyprus: the law looks back fifteen tax years for any salaried work here; the Tax Department asks whether it was your first salaried job here ever, ignoring casual work of up to 120 days in a tax year. Its answers on the 20% set out its reading.
The old 20% (jobs started from 2012 to late July 2022)
If you have it, it is 20% of your pay or €8,550, whichever is less, for at most the five tax years after the year you started — a 2021 start has it up to and including 2026.
The old 50% (jobs started up to late July 2022, pay over €100,000)
If you have it, it runs for ten tax years counted from the year you started, in years your pay is over €100,000 — a job that started in 2017 or later can still be inside them in 2026.
Income Tax Law 118(I)/2002, consolidated text (CyLaw) · Tax Department, Circular 4/2024 (50% exemption, art. 8(23A))
The Tax Department's own page for each exemption sets out every version, in Greek: 20% · 50% · 25%.
Check your exemption before you sign
The year your job starts and your pay in the first two years can decide what you get, and some of it can't be fixed afterwards. A licensed adviser can look at your dates before you commit.
- Tell us your situation — a few questions.
- The founder reads it and passes it on only to a licensed adviser.
- The rest is between you and the adviser. There is no obligation.