Cyprus is a small island country with a population not exceeding 1 million inhabitants. Together with the Czech Republic and other countries, Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004. Accession to EU generated an impulse for creating favourable conditions for all businesses registered in Cyprus.

What makes Cyprus so interesting that it is being used as a base for business activities?

It is mainly:

• Steady legal environment based on anglo-saxon legal system
• A wide network of investment protection treaties
• A wide network of double taxation treaties
• Simple regulation of bookkeeping including bookkeeping for tax purposes, IFRS fully applied
• and last but not least, a reasonable 12.5% tax for legal entities and tax exemption for capital revenues, received dividends and dividends paid abroad.
  

Combination of all these attributes makes Cyprus a highly competitive location for business activities and for registered offices of serious business corporations.

Cyprus is also becoming very attractive because of the possibility to set up a trust by non-residents.
The most common legal form of business establishment is Ltd. which is a very simple company with shares, where the shareholders are registered with the business registry.