I just started working in Cyprus. What do I need to do?

You have signed a contract and you start on Monday. Nobody has told you what you are supposed to register for, and the answers online are written for accountants.

Here is the short version: four things need to happen, your employer does two of them, and you do two. Get them wrong and you pay too much tax for a year and lose access to healthcare in the meantime.

What your employer does for you

Registers you with Social Insurance. This is the employer's legal duty, not yours, and it happens immediately — employers are required to register a new employee with Social Insurance Services essentially on day one, before you start. You do not apply for this yourself.

Deducts and pays your contributions. Social insurance, GESY and income tax come out of your salary automatically each month. You do not file anything monthly.

What you should do is check it actually happened. An employer can deduct contributions from your payslip and fail to pay them across, and it is the employee who loses out — on pension, unemployment and maternity entitlement. After two or three months, ask Social Insurance Services for a statement of your contributions and confirm the deductions on your payslips have arrived. Almost nobody does this, and people discover the gap years later when they claim something.

What you have to do yourself

1. Get your Tax Identification Number (TIN)

Everything runs on this number. Since 2024 registration is done online through the Tax For All (TFA) portal, not at a district office.

You will need:

• A certified copy of your passport, or EU national ID card
• Your residence and work permit, if you are a third-country national
• A letter from your employer confirming your position and start date

Create a TFA account, verify your email, then choose to register as a new taxpayer as an individual.

Do this before your first payday. Your employer cannot process a salary payment properly without your TIN, and paying you without one is not legitimate for tax purposes. This is the single item most likely to delay your first pay.

2. Complete the IR59 for your employer

The IR59 tells your employer which allowances you are entitled to, so the right amount of tax comes out each month rather than the maximum. Skip it and you are taxed as though you have no deductions at all — you get the money back eventually, through the annual return, but you are lending it to the government until then.

Your employer will normally hand it to you in your first week, or at the start of each year.

→ Read the full IR59 guide — what each section means, and the mistakes that cost people money.

3. Register with GESY and choose a doctor

You are contributing to GESY, the national health system, from your first payslip — 2.65% of your salary. But contributing is not the same as being registered.

To actually use it you must register as a beneficiary and choose a personal doctor. Until you do, you are paying for healthcare you cannot access, and you find out at the worst possible moment. Registration is done through the GESY portal or directly with a doctor's practice.

4. Check your immigration paperwork matches

If you are an EU citizen staying more than three months, you need a registration certificate. If you are a third-country national, your permit must match the employer named on it — changing jobs is not automatic.

What your first payslip should show

Once everything is in place, expect these deductions:

Deduction	Rate	Applies to
Social insurance	8.8%	Earnings up to €68,904 a year
GESY	2.65%	Earnings up to €180,000 a year
Income tax (PAYE)	0–35%	Depends on your total income

Nothing is deducted on the first €22,000 you earn in a year. The bands then run 20% to €32,000, 25% to €42,000, 30% to €72,000, and 35% above that.

→ Work out your own take-home pay — enter your salary and see every line, including what your employer pays on top.

If you moved to Cyprus for this job

Check whether you qualify for the 50% exemption. If your annual employment income is above €55,000, your first employment in Cyprus began on or after 1 January 2022, and you were not Cyprus tax resident in the ten years before starting, half your salary may be exempt from income tax for up to 17 years.

That is a large amount of money and it is claimed on the IR59. It is also the thing people most often claim wrongly, so confirm your eligibility rather than copying a colleague.

The order to do it in

1. TIN — before your first payday, or your salary is delayed
2. IR59 — in your first week, or you overpay tax all year
3. GESY registration and a personal doctor — before you need one
4. Check Social Insurance after two or three months — that the money is arriving
5. Immigration paperwork — that it names your current employer

Common mistakes

Assuming the employer handles everything. They handle social insurance and the deductions. The TIN, the IR59 and GESY registration are yours.

Leaving the TIN until after starting. It is the most common cause of a delayed first salary.

Not submitting the IR59. Quietly the most expensive one: it costs you money every single month until you do.

Thinking GESY contributions mean GESY access. They do not. Registration is separate.

Never checking the contributions arrived. The consequences appear years later, when a pension or benefit is calculated.