Media
Reuse Foroi's charts and text on Cyprus taxes and public spending, free under CC BY 4.0. How to credit, chart images, share cards, logos and contact.
Credit line
Source: Foroi (foroi.info), CC BY 4.0
What Foroi is
Foroi (foroi.info) explains where Cyprus's public money comes from, where it goes and what one person's share is, in short stories built on official figures. Each story makes one claim, shows the number behind it, states each side of the argument fairly and says how we know. It is independent, in English, Greek and Russian, and it is not tax advice. More on the About page.
The licence
The charts and the text are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). You may republish, translate, crop and adapt them, in print, online or on air, commercially or not, as long as you give credit and do not suggest that Foroi endorses your use.
The figures underneath belong to their publishers: Eurostat, the Statistical Service of Cyprus, the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Department and others, each named under the chart it feeds. Reusing the numbers themselves follows those publishers' terms. The municipal boundaries come from the Department of Lands and Surveys under CC BY 4.0.
How to credit
Next to the chart or quote, write:
Source: Foroi (foroi.info), CC BY 4.0
Online, link "Foroi" to the story you used. If you change a chart, say so: "Adapted from Foroi". If you quote a number, give the year it refers to, as the chart does.
Chart images
Under every chart there are two buttons. Copy image puts a PNG on the clipboard to paste into an article, a slide or a message; on phones that cannot copy images it opens the share sheet instead. Download PNG saves the file.
The image is the whole figure: the title, the explanatory sentence, the chart and its legend, and the source line. A credit line is added at the foot with the story's name and address, the licence and a QR code to the story. It is always drawn in the light theme, at 1,920 pixels wide, whatever theme you are reading in.
Interactive charts are exported as they stand: the salary tool at the salary you entered, the thirty-year slider at the year you chose.
Logo and wordmark
The wordmark is the Greek word for taxes. Please do not redraw, recolour or stretch it.
Icon, SVG
SVG
Icon, PNG 512 × 512
PNG
Wordmark for light backgrounds, PNG
PNG
Wordmark for dark backgrounds, PNG
PNGShare cards
Each story has a card that appears when its link is shared: the title, the key number and what it is. They are below, ready to download, with a suggested caption built from the story's own words.
A quarter of your pay
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24% of an average gross salary (€31,260 a year) reaches the state through income tax, contributions and VAT Source: Foroi, “A quarter of your pay”, https://foroi.info/stories/a-quarter-of-your-pay
The tax you never see
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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%. Source: Foroi, “The tax you never see”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-tax-you-never-see
The 2026 tax reform: what changed in January
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€0 income tax owed on a median salary under the 2026 bands. Under the 2025 bands it was €282. Source: Foroi, “The 2026 tax reform: what changed in January”, https://foroi.info/stories/what-changed-in-january
Do I have to file a tax return?
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25–70 the 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. Source: Foroi, “Do I have to file a tax return?”, https://foroi.info/stories/do-i-have-to-file-a-tax-return
Who actually pays income tax
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6 in 10 people 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. Source: Foroi, “Who actually pays income tax”, https://foroi.info/stories/who-actually-pays-income-tax
The lightest tax on work in the EU
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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%. Source: Foroi, “The lightest tax on work in the EU”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-lightest-tax-on-work
Your municipal bill
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3 of 20 municipalities 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. Source: Foroi, “Your municipal bill”, https://foroi.info/stories/your-municipal-bill
Your electricity and water bill, in euros
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€264 for 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. Source: Foroi, “Your electricity and water bill, in euros”, https://foroi.info/stories/your-electricity-and-water-bill
Waiting for GESY: the wait nobody measures
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32% of GESY users named waiting times for doctors or surgery as the system's biggest weakness, in a survey for the Health Insurance Organisation in April 2024. No official body publishes how long people wait. Source: Foroi, “Waiting for GESY: the wait nobody measures”, https://foroi.info/stories/waiting-for-gesy
A pension if you came later
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€1,093 a month at 65, paid 13 times a year, for someone on €40,000 a year who starts paying in at 40. From 22 it would be €1,880. Our illustration under current law, in 2026 money. Source: Foroi, “A pension if you came later”, https://foroi.info/stories/a-pension-if-you-came-later
Fourteen billion in, thirteen out
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€14.75 bn taken in by the Cyprus state in 2024. It spent €13.31 bn and kept €1.44 bn as a surplus. Source: Foroi, “Fourteen billion in, thirteen out”, https://foroi.info/stories/fourteen-billion-in-thirteen-out
Two pots, not one
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€1.25 bn surplus of the Social Insurance and GESY funds in 2025. The rest of the state, taken together, ended the year slightly in deficit. Source: Foroi, “Two pots, not one”, https://foroi.info/stories/two-pots-not-one
The pension promise
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€11.7 bn in 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. Source: Foroi, “The pension promise”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-pension-promise
What GESY costs, and who pays
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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%. Source: Foroi, “What GESY costs, and who pays”, https://foroi.info/stories/what-gesy-costs
What €100 buys
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€24 of every €100 of public spending went on pensions in 2024, the largest single item. Health was second at €16. Source: Foroi, “What €100 buys”, https://foroi.info/stories/what-100-euro-buys
Thirty years in one slider
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22 of 31 years since 1995 in which the state spent more than it collected. The last four were all surpluses. Source: Foroi, “Thirty years in one slider”, https://foroi.info/stories/thirty-years-in-one-slider
Who holds the debt
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88% of the public debt was held outside Cyprus at the end of 2025. Residents, mostly local banks, held the rest. Source: Foroi, “Who holds the debt”, https://foroi.info/stories/who-holds-the-debt
A smaller state than Europe's
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38% of the economy is spent by the Cyprus state. Across the European Union as a whole it is 49%. Source: Foroi, “A smaller state than Europe's”, https://foroi.info/stories/a-small-state-in-a-big-state-union
Water and the budget
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€168 m to buy water in the 2027 budget bill. In 2016 the same line was €44 million. Source: Foroi, “Water and the budget”, https://foroi.info/stories/water-and-the-budget
The town hall that spends five cents in the euro
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5% of public spending in Cyprus is done by municipalities, communities and district organisations. Across the EU it is 23%. Source: Foroi, “The town hall that spends five cents in the euro”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-town-hall-that-spends-five-cents
Three numbers, one budget
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€14.41 bn the 2027 budget bill as tabled in Parliament on 24 September 2026. It is one of three figures in circulation. Source: Foroi, “Three numbers, one budget”, https://foroi.info/stories/three-numbers-one-budget
One pay bill, four percentages
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€4.16 bn paid to public employees in 2025, across the whole of the state. It was €3.17 bn in 2022. Source: Foroi, “One pay bill, four percentages”, https://foroi.info/stories/one-pay-bill-four-percentages
Defence, the fastest-growing line
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+42% for the Ministry of Defence in the 2027 budget bill: €895 million, up from €628 million voted for 2026. Source: Foroi, “Defence, the fastest-growing line”, https://foroi.info/stories/defence-the-fastest-growing-line
The defence contribution that is not kept for defence
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€465m collected by the Special Defence Contribution in 2025, mostly on dividends. The budget expects €357 million in 2027 and €177 million a year from 2028, after the cut on dividends. Source: Foroi, “The defence contribution that is not kept for defence”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-defence-contribution
Promised and delivered
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53% of the 2026 state budget had been spent by 31 August, with two thirds of the year gone. It was 53% at the same point in 2025. Source: Foroi, “Promised and delivered”, https://foroi.info/stories/promised-and-delivered
Ministry by ministry
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€830 m of the ministries' final budgets for 2025 was not spent. That is 8% of what Parliament allowed, and no ministry went over. Source: Foroi, “Ministry by ministry”, https://foroi.info/stories/ministry-by-ministry
The ten biggest projects
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€971 m the full cost of the ten largest projects in the state budget. By the end of June 2026, €245 m of it had been paid. Source: Foroi, “The ten biggest projects”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-ten-biggest-projects
The company tax bet
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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%. Source: Foroi, “The company tax bet”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-company-tax-bet
The tax nobody collected
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€4.64 bn owed to the Tax Department at the end of 2025, including interest and charges. The department collected €8.07 bn in the whole year. Source: Foroi, “The tax nobody collected”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-tax-nobody-collected
The carbon bill
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5.8 c in every kilowatt-hour on a household bill in 2025 paid for emission allowances, before VAT. That was about a fifth of the price. Source: Foroi, “The carbon bill”, https://foroi.info/stories/the-carbon-bill
Brussels, in and out
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+€420 m more received from the EU than paid in during 2025, counting the recovery fund. That is about €420 for every resident. Source: Foroi, “Brussels, in and out”, https://foroi.info/stories/brussels-in-and-out
Contact
Questions, corrections and requests: v@bougay.com. How the figures are made is on the Method page, including the list of corrections.