The tax base for direct taxation in December 2015 included 823,689 active taxpayer files, while the indirect taxpayer base had 85,509 active taxpayers.

This has resulted in a 2.4% increase (1.87% for direct taxation and 2.85% for indirect taxation) compared to 2014.

Last year, 252,941 tax income forms were claimed by physical persons, while 55,243 were claimed by legal persons. The government claimed€506.3 million from physical persons and €600.8 million from legal persons.

The taxation collected was mostly from previous tax years. In addition 294,417 VAT forms were received and filed for the year 2015.

Last year, the Tax Department continued its campaign to clean up the tax base, aiming to increase the number of legal persons in compliance.

This is a joint effort in close cooperation with the Department of Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver (TEEEP), due to the immediate connection of the two registers.

During 2015 the Tax Department, using specific criteria, submitted objections for a total of 22,106 companies (10,572 for the direct taxation base, 16,891 for the VAT base, of which 5,357 are common) of the 96,330 that were published.

The last date to object to and/or comply with the TEEEP was December 31, 2015. As a result of the mass deletion of companies from the TEEEP registrar it is expected that there will be a large decrease in the number of legal persons (companies) in the direct taxation registrar and the VAT registrar in 2016.

Total revenue for the Tax Department for the year 2015 reached €3,498 million (€3.5bn), an increase of €41 million (1.2%) compared to 2014 with €3.5 million in revenue. The largest loss in total revenue for the year comes from the Special Contribution for Defence, which led to a total drop of €87.1 million in revenue and is mostly due to the decrease in depositor interest rates.

Meanwhile, the largest annual change in absolute numbers was recorded in Income Tax, with a decrease of €44.9 million (3.9%) with the total revenue for the year amounting to €1,205 million (€1.2 billion). The increase is due to the increase in temporary taxation for Legal Persons in the year 2015.

The goal of claiming €100 million from immovable property was achieved and surpassed in 2015, showing a small decrease compared with 2014 mostly due to the increase of discounts for electronic payments.

Source: InCyprus