Profit from qualifying software and patents can be taxed at an effective rate as low as 3% in Cyprus. Your real rate depends on how the IP was built and documented. Watch the 4-minute explainer, then talk it through with Thanos for free.
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Thanos Sideris explains the regime in under 4 minutes. Subtitled, works with the sound off.
IP Box structuringWe approached Thanos because we wanted to restructure our software business and make use of the Cyprus IP Box regime. Thanos and his team guided us through the whole procedure, from reviewing our existing structure and intellectual property to coordinating the implementation and supporting documentation. The new structure reduced our effective tax burden significantly, with savings of around 45% compared with our previous setup. Thanos made a complicated process very easy to understand and manage.
Corporate restructuringI worked with Thanos on the restructuring of our company when we needed to reorganise the business and create a cleaner corporate structure for the future. Thanos reviewed our existing setup, explained the available options and guided us through the restructuring step by step together with his team. What I appreciated most was that the advice was practical and commercially focused rather than theoretical. The whole process was handled quickly and efficiently.
Cyprus company formation & managementI contacted Thanos when I decided to establish a company in Cyprus. He and his team handled the process from the initial consultation and company structure through to incorporation, registered office, company secretary and the practical steps required to get the business operational. Having one person coordinating the entire process saved me a lot of time and back-and-forth. Thanos was available throughout and explained exactly what was required at every stage.
Accounting, tax & complianceI have been working with Thanos and his team since setting up my company. They now handle our accounting, tax compliance and ongoing corporate administration in Cyprus. Whenever we have a deadline, filing requirement or question about how a transaction should be treated, I can speak directly with the team and get a clear answer. They have taken a lot of the administrative work away from me, allowing me to focus on running the business.
Valuation & international damages claimWe engaged Thanos for a complex valuation and damages assessment connected with an international shareholder claim against a multi-billion-euro blue-chip company. The assignment required analysing the business, financial information and the economic loss suffered by the shareholders. Thanos and his team worked through the numbers, valuation assumptions and supporting documentation and produced an analysis that could be used in the dispute. It was a complicated engagement, but they handled it professionally from beginning to end.
Business valuation for investorsWe worked with Thanos and his team when we needed an independent valuation of our business for an investor presentation. Thanos reviewed our financial performance, forecasts and underlying assumptions and converted them into a clear valuation that we could actually explain to investors. The final work was detailed enough to support the numbers but presented in a straightforward way. The quality of the analysis and communication throughout the process was excellent.
The saving described by one client reflects that client's own facts and structure. Results vary and are not guaranteed. See fees and terms.
Two numbers and a slider. The result is an estimate; the free call turns it into your real rate.
Estimate only. Assumes 15% corporate tax, the 80% IP Box deduction, the 30% nexus uplift and a GHS cap of €4,770 per year. Your actual position depends on how the IP was built, owned, contracted and documented.
The Cyprus IP Box gives an 80% exemption on qualifying profits from eligible intellectual property. Only the remaining 20% is taxed at the corporate rate of 15%, producing an effective rate as low as 3% on qualifying IP income, depending on how much of your profit qualifies. It covers patents, copyrighted software and other qualifying assets, and follows the OECD modified nexus approach, so the benefit is proportional to the R&D you actually funded.
Thanos is the person you speak to, and the person who runs the whole process. He takes the first call himself, checks whether your software or patents qualify, designs the structure, prepares the tax ruling application, and sees the IP Box claim through every year after. One point of contact, no hand-offs, no call centre.
He won't sell you a rate. On the first call he tells you whether the IP Box fits your business, and if it doesn't, he says so.
Your Cyprus IP Box adviser · Paralimni, Cyprus
Message him directly. He replies himself, usually the same working day.
Book a free 30-min consultationYou always know what happens next, and what it costs, before you commit to anything.
Thirty minutes by video with Thanos. He looks at what you're building, where development happens and how you earn. You find out whether it's worth pursuing.
We identify your qualifying IP, map your development spend, and calculate the effective rate you could realistically achieve.
A written plan: company and substance, contracts, cost tracking, commercial model, and whether a tax ruling is worth it.
We set it up, apply for the ruling if you want one, and prepare the IP Box claim and documentation every year.
The consultation is free. Everything after it is covered by a fixed fee, agreed in writing before any work starts. See fees.
No percentage of your tax saving, no success fees, no hidden charges. Every engagement is a fixed fee agreed in writing before any work starts.
Thirty minutes by video. No obligation, no follow-up pressure.
Quoted in writing before any work starts, based on scope: eligibility review, nexus analysis, transfer pricing study, ruling application. You see the number before you commit.
Paid to the Cyprus Tax Department, not to us. €1,000 on the standard route, €2,000 expedited.
Third-party costs such as company incorporation, registered office, or audit are quoted separately and itemised in the written proposal. The calculator above is an estimate for illustration and is not a quotation or a guarantee of any tax outcome.
Results depend on each client's own facts and are not guaranteed.
In the client's own words: see Delfina's review below.
Tell us what you're building, where your developers are and how you earn. We'll tell you what your outcome could realistically look like.
Book a free 30-min consultationA company that is tax resident in Cyprus, owns qualifying IP, and funded the development of that IP itself or through unrelated contractors. In practice that's mostly SaaS and software companies, AI and app developers, game studios, and businesses holding patents. You don't need to be Cypriot and your developers don't need to be in Cyprus, but the company does need real substance here.
Patents from any jurisdiction, copyrighted software, utility models, plant breeders' rights, orphan drug designations, and supplementary protection certificates. Software doesn't need to be registered: copyright arises automatically when the code is written. Trademarks, brand names and marketing-related IP do not qualify.
Maybe, but don't assume it. 3% is the lowest effective rate the regime allows: 20% of qualifying profit taxed at the 15% corporate rate. It applies only to profit that qualifies, and only to the extent your development spend supports it. In real cases the rate on IP-related profit lands anywhere between 3% and 15%. The calculator gives an estimate; the consultation gives you a realistic number. Anything still quoting 2.5% is using the pre-2026 rate.
Location isn't a barrier. We work with founders and companies from anywhere, and consultations are by video. What matters is that the company owning the IP is tax resident in Cyprus with genuine substance here, and that your personal and home-country tax position is planned alongside it.
A 30-minute video call. We ask what you're building, where development happens and who does it, and how you earn revenue. You leave knowing whether the IP Box is worth pursuing for you and what the next step would be. No obligation and no follow-up pressure.
The consultation is free. Our professional fees are fixed and quoted in writing before any work starts, based on scope. If you apply for a tax ruling, the Cyprus Tax Department charges €1,000 (standard) or €2,000 (expedited); that fee goes to the authority, not to us. See the fees section above.
It depends on what already exists. A Cyprus company with clean development records moves much faster than starting from scratch with a new company and an IP transfer. If you want a tax ruling, the expedited route targets a decision within 21 working days of a complete file; the standard route typically takes a few months. You get a timeline in the written proposal.
Yes. It's written into Cyprus income tax law, sections 9(1)(e) and 9(1)(ea) of Law 118(I)/2002. The current version took effect on 1 July 2016, was designed to meet OECD BEPS Action 5 and EU Code of Conduct criteria, and came through the 2026 tax reform unchanged. What makes an individual claim hold up is substance and documentation, which is exactly what we set up.
We tell you on the call, which is the point of it being free. Often the answer is partial: some income qualifies, some doesn't, and the effective rate lands somewhere between 3% and 15%. If the IP Box isn't the right tool, we'll say so and point you to what might be, such as other Cyprus incentives or the personal non-dom regime.
No, as long as they aren't your own group companies. R&D outsourced to unrelated third parties counts toward qualifying expenditure even when the developers sit outside Cyprus, provided the agreements and documentation are right. Outsourcing to a company you own is what damages the calculation.
Usually. That's embedded IP income: the portion of product or service revenue attributable to the qualifying asset. You need a consistent, defensible method for identifying the IP-related profit and allocating costs. Building that method is most of the work.
Acquired IP can still qualify, but the acquisition cost dilutes the share of profit that gets the 80% deduction. Further qualifying R&D on the acquired asset improves the position. Separately, the acquisition cost can be amortised over its useful life, up to 20 years.
If you're a Cyprus tax resident with non-dom status, dividends are generally outside both income tax and the Special Defence Contribution. You pay the General Healthcare System contribution at 2.65%, capped at €4,770 a year. If you're tax resident elsewhere, the dividend is taxed under that country's rules, so the personal side must be planned alongside the corporate one.
Enough that the development, management or exploitation of the IP genuinely happens here: real decision-makers, a real office, real activity. There's no fixed headcount; it's judged on the facts.
Thirty minutes by video. No cost, no commitment. It helps if you can tell us three things:
The technical background: how the deduction is calculated, the OECD rules, worked numbers, and the law it comes from. You don't need it to book a call. It's here so you can check our claims.
Everything needed to claim the benefit and defend it later. Not just an opinion letter.
Almost every problem comes from treating the IP Box as a shortcut instead of a framework.
It's the best case. Your real rate depends on what qualifies and on your nexus profile, anywhere from 3% to 15%.
The regime is built for innovation-driven IP: software and patents. Not trademarks, not brand licensing.
No contracts, no cost tracking, no link between R&D spend and the asset. Then someone tries to reverse-engineer a position at year end. That's how exposure happens.
Moving IP into Cyprus or licensing internationally can trigger withholding tax, transfer pricing alignment or home-country rules. The IP Box is part of a plan, not a standalone tactic.
It doesn't count the same as in-house or unrelated outsourcing. Nexus restricts it, the fraction weakens, and the effective rate climbs.
The benefit is tied to the R&D expenditure you actually incurred developing the asset. Buying IP doesn't earn it. Building it does.
Qualifying expenditure is R&D incurred directly by the company, or outsourced to unrelated parties, even if those developers sit outside Cyprus. It can be uplifted by 30%, but never above overall expenditure. Overall expenditure is everything spent developing the asset, including outsourcing to related parties and the acquisition cost of the IP.
Same asset, same revenue, same profit. A €50,400 gap decided entirely by how development was organised. That decision is usually made years before anyone thinks about tax.
80% of qualifying profits from qualifying IP assets are exempt from corporate income tax. At the standard rate of 15%, that gives 15% × 20% = 3% on qualifying IP income.
The exemption applies to royalties and licence fees, profits on the disposal of qualifying IP, embedded IP income, the part of product or service revenue attributable to the qualifying asset, and damages received for infringement of qualifying IP rights.
Rule of thumb: if the business is built on code, product and development, the IP Box is probably relevant. If it's built on a brand, it isn't the right tool.
People hear "IP income" and think licence fees. That's one route. Most SaaS and game businesses earn embedded IP income instead, subscriptions, access fees, in-app purchases. No royalty invoice anywhere, and the regime can still apply, because the reason the money arrives is the software.
The catch: embedded income needs a defensible method. You have to explain, consistently and repeatably, how you identified the IP-related profit and allocated costs to the asset. Invent it at year end and it won't survive an audit.
A Cyprus company owns patented technology and earns €1,000,000 a year in royalty income. Its development spend breaks down like this.
Qualifying expenditure = €600,000 + €200,000 = €800,000
With the 30% uplift: €800,000 × 130% = €1,040,000, capped at overall expenditure of €1,000,000
Nexus fraction = €1,000,000 ÷ €1,000,000 = 100%
Exempt income = 100% × €1,000,000 × 80% = €800,000
Taxable income = €1,000,000 − €800,000 = €200,000
Tax payable = €200,000 × 15% = €30,000, an effective rate of 3%
Once the structure is set and the facts are clean, you apply to the Cyprus Tax Department for an advance tax ruling. Two routes.
Typically a few months, depending on the tax authority's workload. Fine when nothing is waiting on the answer.
The tax authority aims to decide within 21 working days, provided the file you submit is complete. If timing matters, this is the one.
Every EU country with an IP regime had to rebuild it around the same OECD rules. What separates them now is the rate, and how wide the door is.
Indicative 2026 best-case effective rates. Real outcomes depend on structure and each country's nexus calculation.
The Cyprus Tax Department can request this documentation during an audit. Without it, the benefit can be disallowed.
Content last reviewed: 19 September 2026.
Thirty minutes with Thanos, free, no commitment. He'll tell you whether the IP Box fits your business.
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