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A US software company that serves users in the European Union without any office there usually meets three separate questions about representation, because the GDPR, the Digital Services Act and the AI Act each contain their own rule and each has its own trigger. An EU representative under the GDPR is a contact point for supervisory authorities and individuals, a legal representative under the Digital Services Act plays a similar addressability role for regulators, and an authorised representative under the AI Act stands in for certain providers of high-risk systems and general-purpose models. Appointing one is a different step from

A US technology company that serves users across the European Union can face questions from data protection authorities in many Member States at once, and the GDPR’s one-stop-shop mechanism exists to reduce that exposure. Where a company has a main establishment in the Union, one supervisory authority, known as the lead supervisory authority, takes the lead on its cross-border processing, and the company deals with that authority rather than with each national regulator separately. Ireland became the default choice for many large platforms, and Cyprus can play a similar role for a company that builds its European decision-making there, but

Americans meet more friction than most applicants when they open an account in Cyprus, and the cause is FATCA, the US law under which foreign financial institutions identify and report accounts held by US persons. Cyprus signed a Model 1 intergovernmental agreement with the United States in December 2014, which means Cypriot banks and other financial institutions report information on US accounts to the Cyprus Tax Department, which exchanges it with the US authorities. This guide explains what that means for onboarding at banks and Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), which documents providers typically ask for, how the two types of

Americans who want to retire in Cyprus will not find a visa with that name, because Cyprus has no retirement visa. What exists instead is a set of residence routes built around income, investment or remote work, and each one attaches different conditions to where the money comes from and what the holder may do on the island. This guide compares the routes open to a US citizen, explains when a person becomes Cyprus tax resident under the 183-day and 60-day tests, and sets out how Cyprus taxes pensions and other income once someone has arrived. Two points run through

A pattern that Highworth sees regularly in enquiries runs like this: a founder who is neither a US citizen nor a green card holder already owns a Delaware or Wyoming limited liability company, or invoices American customers directly, and wants to understand what a Cyprus company or Cyprus tax residence would change. This guide answers that question on Cyprus factors alone. It covers the management and control risk when a US LLC is run from Cyprus, three ways of structuring the arrangement as judged by Cyprus rules, Cyprus VAT on sales to US customers, and how dollar payments can be

A US-incorporated business that wants a foothold in the European single market has several possible bases, and Cyprus works as one of them for reasons that are practical as well as fiscal. Cyprus is a Member State of the European Union and the eurozone, it has a corporate income tax rate of 15% for Cyprus tax-resident companies from 1 January 2026, English is widely used in business, and its legal system is rooted in English common law, which makes company structures and contracts familiar to American directors and counsel. This guide explains how a Cyprus subsidiary is formed, what substance

Founders usually frame this as a search for the lowest rate. Fair enough, though it tends to produce the wrong answer, because the three jurisdictions people shortlist are not really competing on the same thing. One rewards reinvestment. One is cheap and fast to enter with a genuinely low rate at the smaller end. One is built for holding structures, intellectual property and eventual exits. Picking on headline percentages alone means picking almost at random. Something else worth saying at the outset. Where you register a company and where it is taxed are related but not identical questions, and the

Owners usually arrive at this decision with a phrase already in mind. Someone has told them the business can be “moved”, and they picture the legal person itself packing up and reappearing on another register with its history intact. Sometimes that happens. More often it does not, and the gap between what people expect and what the law actually allows is where projects get expensive. There are three practical routes out of a Ukrainian operating business, and one theoretical fourth that gets marketed heavily but rarely applies. Below, each is set out with its real cost, its timing, and the

Almost every enquiry we receive on this topic starts the same way. Someone has decided to register abroad, the paperwork is nearly ready, and then a question arrives: how do I actually get the share capital across? The honest answer surprises people. In most cases, you cannot simply transfer it. Not because the amount is large, and not because anything is wrong with the plan, but because sending money abroad for the purpose of acquiring shares in a company outside the country is one of the categories the National Bank has kept closed since February 2022. That does not end