Local businesses moving to Cyprus due to steep taxes
Greek companies reportedly pay five times the amount in contributions and taxes for the same turnover as their counterparts in Cyprus.
The huge gap in contributions has reportedly prompted thousands of self-employed professionals (engineers, doctors, businessmen consultant, accountants and others) to set up offices in Cyprus and move their base to the Eastern Mediterranean island.
The trend also highlights the fact that high taxation is an anathema to foreign investors, and is the primary reason why Greek businessmen seek better tax conditions on foreign shores even though their businesses in many case are doing well.
“There is simply nothing left and this is coming from someone who always happily paid his taxes,” a 50-year-old who is involved in construction told Kathimerini.
A case in point is that of a lawyer – one of many professionals that moved their bases to Cyprus that Kathimerini spoke to – who declared an income of 180,000 euros and paid 71,000 euros in tax. The amount he paid rose to a total of 120,400 euros when social insurance contributions (14,400 euros) and other taxes he paid throughout the year (35,000 euros) are factored in. In Cyprus he would have paid a total of roughly 29,000 euros.
There are no official figures on the number of Greek companies that have moved their headquarters to Cyprus.
