The Department of Taxes has announced that hundreds of Cypriot residents have failed to pay stamp duty.
As a result, the department intends to carry out a campaign to identify all those who are in breach.
The Department urged those who violated the provisions of the legislation to immediately reimburse the stamp duty to avoid additional expenses in the form of fines.
Stamp Duty is a special type of state duty in Cyprus, which is paid by stamps. The stamps are pasted on the document (each stamp has an amount) and then "extinguished" in the appropriate state body or court.
This is an alternative to the usual payment through a savings bank. Large amounts of stamp duty are difficult to pay with stamps (too many stamps would have to be glued in this case), so payment in such cases is allowed to be made through a cashier's office in the tax office or through the bank (used very rarely and only for large amounts, as the payment goes to the account of the tax office in the Central Bank).
It should be noted that since 2020, Cyprus has changed the process of stamping documents in which a specific amount is indicated. For example, in real estate rental documents, employment contracts, home purchase agreements, and loan agreements. Specifically:
- A special "calculator" has been introduced to calculate stamp duty, which can be downloaded from the Tax Department's website.
- Having calculated the stamp duty, depending on the amount of the stamp duty (up to 100 euros or more), it is necessary to proceed to the next steps (attention, not later than 30 days from the date of signing the document):
- If the stamp duty does not exceed €100, you can simply purchase stamps from any Cyprus post office, court premises or tax department office and then stick them on the contract at the place where the signatures have been affixed.
- If the stamp duty exceeds 100 euros, it is necessary to print out the stamp duty calculated by a special calculator, payment of which is made at the cash desk of the Tax Department (payment code 0800, link here) or in the personal account on the Tax Portal (passwords and login correspond to the Taxisnet login).
Next, you must hand over the payment receipt together with the documents to the competent official, who will seal the documents.
The €2 stamp is glued on the copy of the contract, the stamp is canceled by crossing it out twice, and the inscription "true copy" is placed on top. An additional copy of the main contract is "stamped" in this way.