Cyprus has developed into an international maritime center offering competitive advantages to ship owners and ship managers. Today, the Cypriot maritime registry is one of the largest in the EU and worldwide. We believe that Cyprus competitive advantages to the shipping and market participants and will continue to play a prominent role as a leading shipping and ship management center, and will successfully maintain and enhance even further its sound maritime infrastructure, business friendly tax regime, ship registration and tonnage tax rates.
There are many reasons why Cyprus has become one of the most attractive places in the world for locating or carrying out shipping activities. In particular, ship owners, management and employees can take advantage of the taxation incentives that are offered not only by the domestic legislation, but also through the wide and increasing network of Double Tax Treaties of Cyprus.
Advantages
Cyprus has an EU-approved “Open Registry” regime, one of the only two ‘Open Registries’ in the EU, with a very wide and legally endorsed Tonnage Tax System (TTS), which was introduced with the Merchant Shipping Law in 2010 and covers the three main “maritime transport” activities, namely ship-owning, ship-management (crew and technical management) and chartering.
Owners of Cyprus flagships fall under the tonnage tax regime, whereas ship owners of foreign flag ships, charterers and ship managers may choose to be taxed under the tonnage tax system (TTS) under certain conditions. Over 150 ship-owning, ship-management, chartering and shipping related companies control a merchant fleet of 2,300 vessels with a 50 million gross tonnage, while employing approximately 4,500 employees and 55,000 seafarers.
Cyprus maintains a wide range of competitive maritime advantages supported by quality business services:
- The latest EU-approved Tonnage Tax System (TTS) with no direct link to corporate tax
- Competitive ship registration costs and fees
- No crew/officer nationality restrictions
- 28 Merchant Shipping Bilateral Agreements
- Signatory to all international maritime conventions on safety, security and pollution prevention
- Full protection for financiers and mortgagees
- White List of Paris and Tokyo MOU
Our firm’s high-qualified experts are continuingly following up with the latest maritime scheme updates. We are committed to provide tailored solutions and advise to your needs. Our team, together with a network of professionals around the world, focuses to support any level of Maritime enterprise.
Our services include:
- Registration of the Cyprus shipping company who will acquire the vessel in its name.
- Registration of the vessel with the Department of Merchant Shipping
- Tonnage tax compliance
- Keep proper books of account for all transactions in accordance with International Accounting Standards
- Assist in opening bank accounts
- Prepare annual audited financial statements and file them to the appropriate authorities in Cyprus.
Administration and maintenance support
