Corporate Nominee Services in Cyprus

What are corporate nominee services?

Corporate nominee services let a regulated Cyprus professional appear on the public company record in your place, as nominee director, nominee shareholder or company secretary, together with a registered office address in Cyprus. The nominee holds the position purely as a legal formality and acts only on the instructions of the real owner, whose identity is protected by a declaration of trust and a written service agreement.

Used correctly, nominee arrangements deliver two things international owners genuinely need: privacy on the public register, and a credible local footprint that supports Cyprus tax residency and everyday administration. Used carelessly, or sold as a way to hide from regulators, they create risk. This page explains exactly what each service does, when you need it, what happens if you go without it, and how we keep the structure lawful and firmly under your control.

The services we provide

Nominee director

A Cyprus-resident director is appointed to the board so that only the nominee's name appears at the Registrar of Companies. Beyond privacy, a locally resident director helps place the company's management and control in Cyprus, which is the primary test for Cyprus corporate tax residency and access to the 15% corporate tax rate and Cyprus's double tax treaty network. We explain the limits of this below: a nominee name alone is not enough, so we build genuine local governance around it. See our guide to the management and control test.

Nominee shareholder

A nominee holds the shares on the public register while a declaration of trust confirms that you remain the sole beneficial owner. You keep every economic right, dividends, voting instructions and the power to have the shares transferred back or to a buyer at any time. This is the standard, court-recognised way to keep ownership off the public shareholder register without giving anything up.

Company secretary

Every Cyprus company must appoint a company secretary, who is responsible for filing the annual return (form HE32), recording changes of officers and shareholders, and maintaining the statutory registers. We act as your professional secretary so these obligations are met on time, every year.

Registered office

Cyprus law (the Companies Law, Cap. 113) requires every company to maintain a registered office address in Cyprus from the day it is incorporated. It is the official address for correspondence from the Registrar and the Tax Department and for the service of legal documents, and it is where the statutory records are kept. We provide the address and handle and forward all official mail.

Why would you need a nominee arrangement?

• Privacy on the public register: company officer and shareholder details in Cyprus are publicly searchable. A nominee keeps your name out of that public record, which matters for high-profile individuals, competitive-sensitive ownership and personal security.
• Cyprus tax residency and substance: to be treated as Cyprus tax resident a company must be managed and controlled in Cyprus, which in practice means a majority of Cyprus-resident directors making real decisions locally. A resident nominee director is a building block of that structure.
• Meeting the legal minimum: a Cyprus company cannot exist without a registered office and a secretary. If you have no presence on the island, nominee and registered office services are the practical way to satisfy these requirements from day one.
• Convenience for non-residents: an owner living abroad avoids having to be personally named, travel for signatures or manage local statutory paperwork.

When you need it, and when you may not

You typically need nominee and registered office services when you are a non-resident owner incorporating in Cyprus, when you want the company to be Cyprus tax resident but have no local directors, or when public disclosure of your name would create a genuine privacy or security concern. You may not need a nominee director if you already live in Cyprus or have local directors who genuinely run the company, although you will still need a registered office and secretary. We will tell you honestly which elements you actually require rather than sell you the full package by default.

What happens if you go without them: the consequences

• No registered office: you cannot incorporate at all, and an existing company without a valid registered office misses official notices and risks penalties and eventual strike-off by the Registrar.
• No local directors: a company run entirely from abroad is likely to fail the management and control test, so it is not Cyprus tax resident. It can lose the 15% rate and treaty access and be taxed where its decisions are actually taken, and it is exposed to permanent establishment and place of effective management challenges. Our economic substance guide covers this in depth.
• No company secretary or missed filings: late or missing annual returns trigger penalties and, if left unresolved, strike-off, after which the company's assets can vest in the Republic.
• Your name on the public register: with no nominee, your directorship and shareholding are publicly searchable by anyone, including competitors, counterparties and the press.

Is it legal, and how we keep you protected

Nominee services are entirely lawful in Cyprus and are used routinely in international structuring. They are also regulated: a provider of nominee and administration services is an obliged entity under the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Laws and must be a licensed administrative service provider, a lawyer regulated by the Cyprus Bar Association, or an accountant regulated by ICPAC. As a regulated Cyprus law firm we can act, and we complete full KYC and AML due diligence before any appointment.

Your control and your assets are protected by a documented package: a declaration of trust confirming your beneficial ownership, a nominee service agreement setting out that the nominee acts only on your instructions, a power of attorney in your favour, and pre-signed, undated instruments of transfer and letters of resignation that let you remove the nominee at any moment. The nominee has no authority over your bank account: the banking mandate and signatory rights remain with you.

The honest position on privacy and tax residency

Two points separate a properly run structure from the marketing you will see elsewhere. First, a nominee gives you privacy from the public, not secrecy from the state. Cyprus operates a beneficial ownership (UBO) register, so your identity as ultimate beneficial owner is disclosed confidentially to the authorities regardless of any nominee. Anyone promising to hide you from regulators is offering something unlawful. Read our UBO register guide for the current rules.

Second, appointing a nominee director does not by itself make your company Cyprus tax resident. Management and control is a question of fact: the tax authorities look at where board decisions are really made, not just at who is named. We therefore build real substance around the appointment, such as board meetings held in Cyprus, local decision-making and appropriate records, so the tax residency position stands up to scrutiny. Anything less is a paper arrangement that can be challenged.

How our nominee service works

1. Onboarding: we complete KYC and AML due diligence and agree the scope you actually need.
2. Documentation: we prepare the declaration of trust, service agreement, power of attorney and pre-signed transfer and resignation instruments.
3. Appointment: the nominee director, shareholder or secretary is appointed and filed, and the registered office is put in place.
4. Ongoing compliance: we maintain the statutory records, file the annual return, forward official mail and renew the arrangement each year.

Why choose Philippou Law Firm

We are a regulated Cyprus law firm with more than 40 years of experience in corporate structuring, supervised by the Cyprus Bar Association. You deal with lawyers, not an unregulated agency, your arrangement is fully documented and compliant, and we advise you honestly on what you need and what a nominee can and cannot achieve. Nominee services pair naturally with company incorporation and a corporate bank account.