What a €200k profit costs you, country by country
Everything counted as tax: company and personal tax, social security, accountants, plus the rent and living costs a country forces on you · first-year setup included
€200k
On the chart
🇬🇪Georgia8.5%
🇵🇾Paraguay16.7%
🇦🇪Dubai20.5%
🇧🇬Bulgaria24.2%
🇨🇾Cyprus 60d28.3%
🇪🇸Spain46.0%
All countries
🇪🇸Spain
🇫🇷France
🇩🇪Germany
🇬🇧United Kingdom
🇮🇹Italy
🇳🇱Netherlands
🇧🇪Belgium
🇵🇹Portugal
🇺🇸USA Miami
🇺🇸USA Texas
🇦🇷Argentina
🇦🇩Andorra
🇨🇾Cyprus 60d
🇨🇾Cyprus 183d
🇲🇹Malta
🇧🇬Bulgaria
🇦🇪Dubai
🇬🇪Georgia
🇵🇾Paraguay
🇵🇦Panama
🇩🇴Dominican Rep.
🇭🇰Hong Kong
🇸🇬Singapore
🇹🇼Taiwan
🇹🇭Thailand
🇻🇳Vietnam
🇪🇪Estonia
🇷🇴Romania
🇮🇪Ireland
🇨🇭Switzerland
🇲🇨Monaco
🇲🇪Montenegro
🇬🇮Gibraltar
🇮🇲Isle of Man
🇧🇸Bahamas
🇰🇾Cayman
🇻🇬BVI
🇧🇭Bahrain
🇨🇷Costa Rica
🇺🇾Uruguay
🇲🇺Mauritius
🇲🇾Malaysia
🇵🇭Philippines
Company · clients pay a company you own; profit can sit in it, untaxed personally, until you pay yourself
US LLC · a US LLC protects you in court, but for tax the money is yours the moment it arrives
Personal · clients pay you directly; all of it is taxed the year it arrives, and business debts are personally yours
Moving country
What it takes to move your tax home
→
Extra kept per year vs staying, at € 200 000 profit
+€ 35 436
Beats Spain from €42.5k profit upward (first-year setup costs included)
Where the € 56 540 goes
Tax€ 34 50517.3%
Accountants & filings€ 4 6002.3%
Living there€ 13 4006.7%
One-time setup€ 4 0352.0%
Biggest single costs: Corporate tax 15% (€ 30 000) · 12-month lease, Larnaca 1BR (€ 11 400) · GESY 2.65% on dividends (€ 4 505). Hover the chart for the full bill.
Two months on the island buys EU tax residency, and 2026 made it easier.
Days you must spend there
60+ days in Cyprus, ≤183 in any other single country, a Cyprus directorship kept until Dec 31 (starting mid-year qualifies), 12-month home
Which country taxes your year when you leave Spain
Every calendar year (January to December) ends up belonging to one country, for tax.Spain takes your year if you spent 183+ days there, if your life and money clearly stayed there, or if no other country claims you on paper.Claiming you on paper means a tax residency certificate: the official document proving which country you belonged to that year. Each country needs a minimum number of days on its soil before it issues one.Racking up those days takes months, so the month you START decides which year you can win.
time in Spaintime in the new countrybelongs to nobody, so Spain claims it
The process, day by day
Spain claims a year if ANY of these hold: 183+ days here, your money/business is based here, or your spouse + minor kids live here.
Time spent as a tax resident of nowhere gets counted as Spanish time. You only break free once another country claims you as its tax resident on paper.
Hacienda (Spain's tax office) can question each year for the following 4. Keep leases, tickets and bills that long.
Leave August 15, after 220 days in Spain
220 Spain daysabroad
JFMAMJJASOND
The year counts as Spanish no matter what. Start the new life in January instead
5 months in Spain, 7 months wandering, resident nowhere
Spaintax resident nowhere
JFMAMJJASOND
Few Spain days, but no residency papers from anywhere else, so Spain claims the year by default
Leave around New Year, land + qualify somewhere in Q1
new country, official resident
JFMAMJJASOND
Clean cut: you are the new country's tax resident for the whole year
A provider handles name approval (2–4 days, the slow step), HE1 filing, the owners (UBO) register and registered office for ~€2,000 all-in, on a power of attorney. No travel needed.
Cyprus Registrar of CompaniesFrom registration the Ltd legally exists: assign your IP to it, sign client contracts, incur costs. Everything it spends (including the formation bill) counts against future corporate tax. Owning and spending start at the same moment.
An online e-money account with a working IBAN in 1–5 days. A local bank adds 4–8 weeks of identity checks and nothing you need; only bother if a specific client or supplier demands one.
Wise BusinessCompany + IBAN is all revenue needs. Your personal residency runs on a separate, slower track: the company earns while you sort the lease and yellow slip.
The lease must run year-round even though you stay 60 days; an Airbnb does not pass. MEU1 registration within 4 months of arrival (€85, same-day when you get the appointment; Larnaca is faster than Limassol). GESY registration is free after it.
MEU1 guideKeep the directorship through 31 December, and keep boarding passes: they prove where you physically were if the day count is audited. The old "not tax resident elsewhere" condition was deleted in 2026.
PwC: Cyprus residency rulesThe Ltd is its own taxpayer. Its profits pay Cyprus corporate tax wherever YOU are, and as long as you take no dividend there is no personal tax event anywhere. So you can incorporate remotely today, grow the business while nomadic, and only move when it's worth it.
It works even if the company earns a LOT before you move: profits sit inside at 15%, untouched for as long as you like (no rule forces them out). You pay them out in a year when you are Cyprus tax resident, at 0% plus the capped GESY.
No profits the first year? Even cleaner: losses carry forward 5 years against future Cyprus profits.
The one hard condition: never run the company from inside Spain. A company managed from Spain becomes Spain's taxpayer, owing the full corporate rate plus penalties. Board decisions, key work, signatures: do them anywhere but Spain.
Until some country certifies you as its tax resident, keep your Spain days low and provable; boarding passes show where you physically were if questions come. Every day you spend in Spain strengthens Spain's claim on you.
This only works with real companies (Cyprus, Malta, Bulgaria Ltd). Pass-through setups such as a US LLC or Georgia IE make the profits YOUR personal income the moment they're earned.
Starting mid-year? You keep both doors open: incorporate right away, then decide by ~October. Either sprint the 60 days before December to become Cyprus tax resident for THIS year, or stay nomadic and move in January.
Year 1: incorporate mid-year, grow it nomadic, take nothing out
a few Spain monthstravelingtraveling (Ltd runs in Cyprus, profits stay inside)
JFMAMJJASOND
No dividends means no personal tax event; the company pays 15% in Cyprus. Keep your Spain days low
Year 2: move in January, do the 60 days, then pay yourself
resident + non-dom · dividends flow
JFMAMJJASOND
Resident from day 1: the banked year-1 profits come out at 0% plus GESY capped at €4,770
The 60 days, the lease and the director role must all happen inside the same January–December.
Also: stay under 183 days in any other single country, and keep the director role until Dec 31.
The tax residency certificate (TD126, the official paper proving Cyprus was your country that year) only arrives after the year closes. Keep boarding passes until then; they prove where you physically were.
Set up in July, do 60 days before December
travelinglease + 60 days
JFMAMJJASOND
Cyprus will issue a tax residency certificate covering the whole year
Land in November
tax resident nowhere~50d
JFMAMJJASOND
60 days don't fit, so Cyprus won't issue you a tax residency certificate for this year, and Spain holds the strongest claim on it
Spent Jan–Aug in Spain (200+ days), then moved
200+ Spain daysCyprus
JFMAMJJASOND
183+ days in Spain make the year Spain's; nothing done abroad can fix that
Year closed, exit filed back home, tax residency certificate issued: dividends now flow at 0% dividend tax (SDC) with GESY capped at €4,770. This is the first paycheck of the plan.
Key facts
Cashing out
Any day, 0% + GESYA director resolution is all it takes: dividends (paying yourself from company profits) any day, any frequency, out of realized profits. As a non-dom resident you pay 0% tax and 2.65% GESY capped at €4,770/yr. The 2026 reform abolished the old forced-distribution rule, so profits can wait inside for years and come out in a year when you are Cyprus tax resident.
Leaving later
Profits exit at 0%Both taxes on dividends (the SDC and the 2.65% GESY) only apply to Cyprus residents. So when you move on, wait until the calendar year you are no longer Cyprus tax resident, then dividend out everything the company saved up: 0% tax, no withholding. Close with a voluntary strike-off (€1,000–3,000, 6–12 months) once the company is empty. Two warnings: never keep running the Ltd from your next country (a company managed from there becomes ITS taxpayer, and Cyprus can charge an exit tax on the way out), and your 17-year non-dom window keeps counting down even while you are away.
Bureaucracy
Moderate-highIncorporation remote in 5–10 working days. Tax department slow, and appointment backlogs for the MEU1 yellow slip (Larnaca faster than Limassol). Budget patience.
Banking
Wise/Revolut day 1Skip Cyprus banks entirely: Wise/Revolut Business give a working IBAN in 1–5 days and cover everything a solo SaaS company needs. Local banks mean 4–8 weeks of identity checks for no gain, and in 2013 they confiscated part of large deposits.
Corruption
Scores 55/100Scores 55/100 on Transparency International's corruption index, rank 49 worldwide, below EU average. It shows up as slow administration and insider favoritism rather than outright shakedowns.
Legal risk
LowEU law, English-based common law, contracts in English. Courts are slow, so put arbitration clauses in your contracts. Good for software IP.
Violence
Very safeAmong the safest EU countries.
Healthcare
GESY universalYour 2.65% on dividends is the contribution, and it buys full public healthcare access.
Crypto & treasury
8% flat on disposalsThe 2026 reform added a flat 8% on crypto disposals (sale, swap, even paying with it) for companies and individuals. Catch: crypto losses only offset crypto gains in the same year. An idle treasury is never taxed, since the old rule taxing undistributed profits was abolished. Getting paid in crypto is fine; keep documents when converting to cash, and Wise/Revolut can handle it.
Verdict: Legal and cheaper than ever to qualify, but fragile against Spain's tax office for the first 1–3 years: if you spend more days in Spain than anywhere else, the treaty tie-breaker (the rulebook two countries use when both claim you as a taxpayer) hands you back. Keep boarding passes to prove where you physically were, and spread your year across third countries.