Tax Residency and Non-Dom Checker

A professional moving to Cyprus, a founder splitting the year between countries, and a retiree weighing a permanent move are asking the same question: am I resident in the Republic within the definition in section 2 of the Income Tax Law.

The definition answers it in one of two ways. Presence of more than 183 days in the tax year makes you resident on its own. Failing that, the 60-day rule makes you resident where you have not spent more than 183 days in any one other state and, cumulatively, spend at least 60 days in Cyprus, carry on a business or hold employment or an office here that has not ceased by year end, and keep a permanent home here, owned or rented. Law 244(I)/2025 replaced the definition from the 2026 tax year and removed the further requirement, which applied up to 2025, that no other state treat you as its tax resident.

Residency is what opens the door. What most people are actually after is on the other side of it: the non-dom exemption, which keeps a resident who is not domiciled in Cyprus outside the special defence contribution on dividends and interest, for up to 17 years.

The tax year is the calendar year, and presence is counted by day. The day you arrive in Cyprus counts as a day in Cyprus, and the day you depart counts as a day outside it. Arriving and departing on the same day counts as one day in; departing and returning on the same day counts as one day out.

The 183-day rule needs nothing else. Spend more than 183 days of the year in Cyprus and you are resident, whatever your home, work or ties elsewhere.

The 60-day rule exists for people whose year is spread across countries. One gateway and three conditions, all in the same tax year. The gateway is that you have not stayed more than 183 days in aggregate in any one other state. Then, cumulatively: at least 60 days in Cyprus; a business carried on in Cyprus, or employment in Cyprus, or an office in a person tax resident in Cyprus, provided none of them is terminated during the year; and a permanent residential property in Cyprus, owned or rented.

Until the 2025 tax year there was a further condition, that no other state treat you as its tax resident, and it was the one that defeated most plans. Law 244(I)/2025 replaced the definition and removed it with effect from the 2026 tax year.

The special defence contribution is the Cyprus tax on dividends and interest; until the end of 2025 it reached rents too, before Law 245(I)/2025 took rental income out of it. Since 2015 it applies only to individuals who are both resident and domiciled in Cyprus. A resident who is not domiciled here, the non-dom, receives dividends and interest outside that tax altogether, which is the exemption the regime is known for. The definitions, the rates and the 2026 reform are set out in our guides to the 183-day and 60-day rules and non-dom status.

Domicile for this purpose is taken from the Wills and Succession Law. Broadly, you are treated as domiciled in Cyprus if your domicile of origin is here, subject to exceptions for those who have taken and kept a domicile of choice abroad, or once you have been Cyprus tax resident for at least 17 of the 20 tax years before the year in question. The second limb is the clock: it is why the exemption is often described as lasting 17 years.

The exemption concerns the special defence contribution. Income tax and General Healthcare System contributions have their own rules, and both are covered in the report.

A Cypriot domicile of origin does not always mean the exemption is lost: the exceptions turn on domicile of choice and on the years spent abroad, and they are decided on the facts of a life, not on a form. Where that is your case, the checker says so rather than guessing.

The residency rules are taken from the definition of resident in the Republic in section 2 of the Income Tax Law of 2002, Law 118(I)/2002, as amended, which contains both the 183-day rule and the 60-day rule and the day-counting provisions.

The non-dom rules are taken from the Special Defence Contribution Law of 2002, Law 117(I)/2002, as amended in 2015, which confines the contribution to individuals resident and domiciled in the Republic and defines domicile by reference to the Wills and Succession Law, with the 17 out of 20 years rule.

Checked against the consolidated texts on 17 August 2026. Tax law is amended often and rates are deliberately not stated on this page; the position should be confirmed before it is relied on, which is what the report is for.