Self-employed — progressive income tax (2026 bands) + social insurance + GHS
Effective burden at €60k
30.9%
What you pay
- Social insurance (self-employed, 16.6%) — 16.6% of revenue (max 11,438/year) (deductible from profit)
- General Healthcare System (GHS/GeSY, 4%) — 4% of revenue (max 7,200/year) (deductible from profit)
- 03
Personal income tax (2026 bands)
Progressive scale · base: annual profit · allowance 22,000 EUR
Annual profit · EUR Rate ≤ 10,000 20% 10,000–20,000 25% Annual profit · EUR Rate 20,000–50,000 30% > 50,000 35%
Eligibility
- Requires tax residency
- The single personal income tax regime for self-employment/freelance income in Cyprus — there is no separate flat or lump-sum freelancer regime. Progressive bands apply to net profit (professional income less allowable business expenses). Tax residency via the 183-day rule or the 60-day rule. The non-domicile regime and the 50% first-employment exemption do NOT change the tax on self-employment trading income (the 50% exemption is for EMPLOYMENT income only; non-dom only exempts passive dividend/interest income from Special Defence Contribution).
Net income examples
| Gross/year | Net/year | Burden |
|---|---|---|
| 30,000 EUR | 23,456 EUR | 21.8% |
| 60,000 EUR | 41,448 EUR | 30.9% |
| 120,000 EUR | 79,145 EUR | 34.0% |
Computed by our open tax engine — assumes no deductible expenses, full-year tax residency. Rules as of Jan 1, 2026.
Important context
OFFICIAL DATA. 2026 PIT bands from the Tax Department's own calculator: tax-free to 22,000, then 20% (22-32k), 25% (32-42k), 30% (42-72k), 35% above 72k — modelled as a 22,000 allowance plus bands measured above the allowance (10k/20k/50k widths). Social insurance is 16.6% of professional income, on ACTUAL income but not below the occupation-category minimum notional income and not above the max insurable earnings cap (2025: EUR 1,281/week = EUR 66,612/yr, so max annual SIF = 16.6% x 66,612 = 11,057.59; modelled as maxAnnual). GHS is 4% of income capped at EUR 180,000/yr (max GHS = 7,200; modelled as maxAnnual). LIMITATIONS the DSL cannot express, flagged for manual review: (1) social insurance also has an occupation-category MINIMUM notional income (IT/consultant = category 2 'Accountants, Economists, Lawyers and other Professionals': EUR 469.79/week if <=10 years, EUR 950.25/week if >10 years) — for incomes above ~EUR 49k this floor never binds, so it is omitted; (2) the deductibility of social insurance + GHS from taxable income is capped at 1/5 (20%) of chargeable income under Income Tax Law Art.14 — this proportional cap cannot be modelled as an annual cap, so the scheme allows full deduction; at EUR 40-60k the 20% cap barely binds (understating tax by <EUR 100), within tolerance; (3) the 2026 self-employed insurable-earnings table was not yet published at verification — the 2025 EUR 66,612 cap is used (the 2026 employee cap is EUR 68,904). Not modelled: the non-domicile SDC exemption (affects only passive income), the 50% first-employment exemption (employment income only), and the Cyprus-company route (15% corporate tax from 2026 + 0% SDC dividends for non-doms + 2.65% GHS on dividends) — the 15% corporate rate could not be confirmed from an official government page (gov.cy behind a WAF; mof.gov.cy corporate rate page did not render a machine-readable figure), so the company route is intentionally omitted rather than modelled on an unverified rate.