Cyprus company - accounting and tax questions

[FriendlyFace]

Hello - hope you're well.

Not sure if this is the appropriate forum area to post this. If not, moderators please move it.

I live in Greece, and have created a Cyprus LTD.

I have heard conflicting opinions on the matters below. If any of you know for sure what the correct answer is, I would appreciate a response.

Here are my questions:

1) Do I, as a Greek owning a Cyprus company, need to pay social security for myself (either in Greece or in Cyprus)? Btw, I don't have employees. I use freelancers exclusively.

2) Currently, I have a nominee director in Cyprus. Let's say I eventually move to Cyprus and live there for 183+ days of the year (not year round). Would I then also be the "director"? Or should the director live in the country of incorporation permanently?

3) Does a director (nominee or otherwise) need to get paid a minimum wage per year? And also do I need to take care of their social security?

4) The directors of the companies are required to keep the accounting books of the company. Are these "real books" (paper), or can this be done 100% online using an online accounting platform like Xero and filing to the Cyprus Ministry of Finance tax website?

5) I work exclusively online and get paid via Paypal. When we need to file our tax returns *which* of the following should we do?

a) Just declare the *overall* expenses and revenue. Two numbers total.

b) Declare every single little transaction - money paid or received (these would surely be in the thousands of individual transactions per year).

c) Something else?

Even if you can only answer one or two of the questions, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[LisaSimpson]

1/ yes you have to pay your own social security. For example, I know a woman she owns an Estonian company and she lives in Portugal. She subscribed to the Portuguese social security as an Independant.

2/ Normally, you don't need to live in Cyprus to be the director of a cyprus company.

3/ you don't need a minimum wage. In Cyprus, even if you don't pay yourself the tax authorities will not bother you.

4/ Your bookkeeping can be 100% online. The tax authorities of Cyprus could may ask you to either print something or to send them an excel file. The excel file is what is the most common.

5/ paypal it makes it complicated.
if you want a simple solution, use paddle.com
paddle collect and redistribute the VAT for you. Then, they send one transfer to you. They act like a reseller of you. they collect the money and transfer it to you. They accept paypal and credit cards. So, in your bookkeeping you only have 1 entry per month.

It is important if you have a Cyprus company because at the end of the year you must pay for an auditor to audit your bookkeeping and usually they charge by the number of transactions in your bookkeeping. The less you have and the cheapest the audit is.

On top of that, if you get paid $2 through paypal. It is going to be crazy if you have 2000 lines with $2 paypal in your bookkeeping. When there are 10000 lines in your bookkeeping and at the end of the year, when the cyprus auditor checks it, I wonder how much money it costs! I guess a lot !

 

[Spinat]

if you want a simple solution, use paddle.com
paddle collect and redistribute the VAT for you. Then, they send one transfer to you. They act like a reseller of you. they collect the money and transfer it to you. They accept paypal and credit cards. So, in your bookkeeping you only have 1 entry per month.

This sounds really good, for how long have you been using them? Do you know if they support all kind of countries?

 

[FriendlyFace]

1/ yes you have to pay your own social security. For example, I know a woman she owns an Estonian company and she lives in Portugal. She subscribed to the Portuguese social security as an Independant.

Thanks for the reply.

If I may ask, the woman subscribed to the Portugese social security as an independent "what" exactly?

Shouldn't the Portugese government classify her as an employee, sole trador, or something else?

Thanks!

 

[LisaSimpson]

Thanks for the reply.

If I may ask, the woman subscribed to the Portugese social security as an independent "what" exactly?

Shouldn't the Portugese government classify her as an employee, sole trador, or something else?

Thanks!

I don't know but you know that the social contribution of a member board is always lower than an employee social contrinution.
https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2014/04/portugal-thinking-beyond-borders.html

 

[FriendlyFace]

Ok, thanks again - I appreciate all your answers!

 

[punkstar69]

Did you finally made it, in terms of setting up and following a specific tax planning scenario @FriendlyFace ?
<- Greek here