At a glance: what every resident should know
The essentials of Cyprus taxes and public money, one number each. Every number comes from one of our stories or the 2027 budget page, with its source, and links to it.
What do you pay?Enter your gross salary and see your take-home pay, what reaches the state and what it pays for.Open the calculatorWhat you pay
- 24%of an average gross salary (€31,260 a year) reaches the state through income tax, contributions and VATA quarter of your pay
- €0income tax owed on a median salary under the 2026 bands. Under the 2025 bands it was €282.The 2026 tax reform: what changed in January
- 25–70the ages at which every Cyprus tax resident must file a return from the tax year 2026, whatever their income. In 2025 the Tax Department received 383,686 returns from individuals.Do I have to file a tax return?
- 6 in 10people with an income pay no income tax after the 2026 reform, by an estimate from researchers at the Central Bank. Without the reform it would be about half.Who actually pays income tax
- 37%of the price of a litre of petrol is tax: 65 cents out of €1.73 at the end of September 2026. For a pack of cigarettes it is 74%.The tax you never see
- 26%of the cost of employing a single person on the average wage went in income tax and contributions in Cyprus in 2025, the lowest in the EU. The EU figure was 40%.The lightest tax on work in the EU
- 3 of 20municipalities have every charge a household pays published somewhere. For a flat valued at €200,000 that uses 120 cubic metres of water a year, the bills come to €568, €618 and €623.Your municipal bill
- €264for 800 kWh of electricity over two months, an average household's use, on bills read in October 2026. At the standard 19% VAT the same bill would be €299.Your electricity and water bill, in euros
Where the money goes
- €14.75 bntaken in by the Cyprus state in 2024. It spent €13.31 bn and kept €1.44 bn as a surplus.Fourteen billion in, thirteen out
- €24of every €100 of public spending went on pensions in 2024, the largest single item. Health was second at €16.What €100 buys
- €1.25 bnsurplus of the Social Insurance and GESY funds in 2025. The rest of the state, taken together, ended the year slightly in deficit.Two pots, not one
- €11.7 bnin the Social Insurance Fund's reserve at the end of 2025. €11.3 billion of it is on deposit with the state, which has used the money for its own spending.The pension promise
- 46%of GESY's contributions in 2024 came from the state's general budget: €769 million out of €1,674 million. Households paid 31% and employers 23%.What GESY costs, and who pays
- 88%of the public debt was held outside Cyprus at the end of 2025. Residents, mostly local banks, held the rest.Who holds the debt
What is changing
- €14.41 bnin the 2027 state budget bill, tabled in Parliament on 24 September 2026. Without debt repayments, interest, lending and share purchases it is €11.16 bn, €470 million more than voted for 2026.The 2027 budget
- +42%for the Ministry of Defence in the 2027 budget bill: €895 million, up from €628 million voted for 2026.Defence, the fastest-growing line
- 5.8 cin every kilowatt-hour on a household bill in 2025 paid for emission allowances, before VAT. That was about a fifth of the price.The carbon bill
- €168 mto buy water in the 2027 budget bill. In 2016 the same line was €44 million.Water and the budget
- 6.9%of the economy collected in company taxes in 2024 as Eurostat counts them, the highest of the 26 EU countries with data. The typical country collects 3.0%.The company tax bet
- €4.64 bnowed to the Tax Department at the end of 2025, including interest and charges. The department collected €8.07 bn in the whole year.The tax nobody collected
Each number leads to a story. See all the stories