In short
- Overdue annual returns and accounts are due by 31 December 2026. After that strike-off resumes.
- Each overdue return costs €20 to file, €20 for lateness and a late charge of up to €150.
- After strike-off the company's assets belong to the Republic and its directors remain liable.
- Restoration: €20 at the Registrar within 24 months, then by court order for up to 20 years.
In this guide
The 31 December 2026 deadline: what the Registrar announced
On 9 February 2026 the Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property sent reminder letters to companies with overdue annual returns and the financial statements that go with them. On 4 September 2026 it gave those companies until 31 December 2026 to file. The same announcement says that after that date the strike-off procedure of section 327 of the Companies Law, Cap. 113, continues for every company that has not complied.
A second announcement followed on 30 September 2026. In December the Registrar starts to strike off companies that left the annual levy unpaid for any year from 2012 to 2023. Their names are published in the Official Gazette for three months, and then they are removed unless the levy and its late charge are paid in the meantime.
The extension moves the date and nothing else. The missing returns and financial statements are still owed, with the Registrar's fees and late charges. We prepare overdue accounts and file the returns as part of accounting services in Cyprus.
Which Cyprus companies are at risk of strike-off
Every company on the register files an annual return each year, with financial statements attached, whether it traded or not. A company with no income, no bank account and no staff has the same duty as a trading group. The first return is made up 18 months after incorporation, and one follows each year after that.
How to check where your company stands
The Registrar's online search is free. Enter the name of the company or its registration number: the result shows its status, its directors and secretary, the documents filed and the date of the last annual return. For €10 the detailed search opens the whole file from the day of registration. A last return that is more than a year old means there are filings to catch up.
What the annual return contains and how its date is set is explained in the guide to Cyprus accounting requirements.
What each status of the Registrar's search means is in the Cyprus company register.
How strike-off works in Cyprus: four routes under section 327
Section 327 sets out four routes that matter to an ordinary company: three by which the Registrar removes it and one by which its directors ask for removal. Each has its own timetable.
| Route | When it applies | Timetable |
|---|---|---|
| Company that seems inactive | The Registrar has reason to believe the company carries on no business | A letter with one month to answer. Within 14 days after that month a registered letter with one more month. Then a notice in the Official Gazette, and strike-off three months later |
| Documents not filed | An annual return or another document the law requires is missing | A letter that asks for the document. Strike-off no sooner than six months from the date of that letter |
| Annual levy unpaid | The €350 levy stayed unpaid for a year after it fell due | A notice in the Official Gazette and a letter to the company. Strike-off three months later |
| Directors' own application | The company has stopped trading or never traded and has met its obligations | Form HE60 with a €20 fee. A notice in the Official Gazette, and strike-off three months later |
The letters of 9 February 2026 belong to the second route. Six months from their date passed on 9 August 2026, so the law already lets the Registrar remove those companies. The extension to 31 December is the Registrar's decision to wait.
While a three-month notice runs, the company, any member or any creditor can object. The objection is a letter to the Registrar, delivered by hand or by post, with the reasons and the details of the person who objects. On the levy route, paying the levy and its charges within the three months stops the strike-off.
Strike-off takes effect on the day the Registrar publishes it in the Official Gazette. On that day the company is dissolved.
What strike-off does to the company, its assets and its directors
A struck-off company no longer exists in law. It cannot sign a contract, sue a debtor, hold a licence or pay from its account. Section 328 of the Companies Law decides what happens to everything it owned.
- Assets. Everything the company owned and every right it held passes to the Republic of Cyprus as ownerless property (bona vacantia). Only what the company held on trust for someone else is left out.
- Bank accounts. The balance is one of those assets, and the bank has no customer left to take instructions from, so it blocks or closes the account.
- Shares, real estate and intellectual property. A holding company's shares in its subsidiaries pass to the Republic with everything else.
- Contracts and licences. The other side can stop performing, because its counterparty has ceased to exist.
- Liability. The liability of every director, officer and member continues and can be enforced as if the company had not been dissolved. The court can still wind the company up.
Strike-off clears no debt. A creditor, or anyone harmed by what the company did before it was removed, can ask the court to restore it for up to 20 years and then claim against it.
We do this for you Accounting in Cyprus from €290 a month
How to bring the filings up to date before 31 December 2026
- List the missing years. Compare the date of the last annual return in the Registrar's search with today: one return is due for each year since.
- Appoint an auditor now. Each missing return carries the financial statements of the year before it, audited or, for a small company, reviewed. Several years of accounts cannot be prepared and audited in the last week of December.
- Bring the register into line. A change of director, secretary, registered office or shareholder that was never notified goes to the Registrar on its own form first, so that each return matches the register.
- File each return. A private company files form HE32 through the Registrar's e-filing system, certified by a director and the secretary.
- Pay any annual levy still owed for 2012 to 2023: €350 for each year and the Registrar's late charge. Years 2018 to 2023 are paid through JCCSMART, earlier years through the Registrar's e-service.
- Keep the Registrar's confirmations. They show that the company filed before the deadline.
What the Registrar charges for an overdue return
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Filing fee for each annual return | €20 |
| Additional fee when the return is overdue | €20 |
| Late charge, for returns dated 2021 or later | €50 on the first day, then €1 a day, up to €150 |
| One overdue return, at most | €190 |
| Three overdue returns, at most | €570 |
A company with three missing returns pays the Registrar €570 at most. The larger cost is the accounts and the audit of each missing year: the auditors we work with usually quote €700 to €1,500 a year. Once the company is up to date, the Cyprus tax calendar lists the dates it has to keep.
How to restore a struck-off company in Cyprus: two routes
A company that has already been removed can come back in two ways. The first runs through the Registrar and is open for 24 months. The second runs through the court.
| Question | Restoration by the Registrar | Restoration by court order |
|---|---|---|
| Who applies | A director or a member of the company | The company, a member, a creditor, or a person harmed by its acts before strike-off |
| Time limit | 24 months from the strike-off | 20 years from the publication of the strike-off |
| Which strike-offs | Those made by the Registrar for inactivity, an unpaid levy or missing documents | Any strike-off |
| Main condition | The company was trading or operating when it was struck off | The same, or the court finds it just to restore the company |
| What is filed | Form HE64 with every missing return and financial statement, and payment of all fees and charges due before strike-off | An official copy of the court order, with the documents and fees the court orders |
| Registrar's fee | €20, and €20 more for the accelerated procedure | €160, and €20 more for the accelerated procedure |
| Effect | The company is treated as if it had never been struck off | The same |
The Registrar also has to be satisfied that the strike-off put the applicant at a disadvantage. Where the Republic has already dealt with property of the company, the application carries the written consent of the Republic's competent representative. After restoration by the Registrar the applicant has 12 months to ask the court for directions that put the company and other persons back in the position they held before.
Debts and contracts made in the company's name between strike-off and restoration are not affected. The court route adds lawyers' fees and months of waiting, so a company that is still inside the 24 months uses the Registrar's route.
Closing a company you no longer need: voluntary strike-off or liquidation
Waiting for the Registrar to remove an unwanted company leaves its directors liable and its assets with the Republic. The orderly way is the directors' own application, open to a company that has stopped trading or never traded. Before it applies, the company settles four things:
- its obligations to the Tax Department
- its obligations to the Social Insurance Services
- its debts to creditors, with no court injunction outstanding
- its filings with the Registrar, annual returns included
The directors then file form HE60 with a €20 fee. The Registrar publishes a notice in the Official Gazette, and the company is struck off three months later unless someone objects. Form HE61 withdraws the application before the three months end. We prepare the last tax returns of such a company as part of tax services in Cyprus.
A company that still has assets to hand out or creditors to pay is wound up through liquidation, by its members or by its creditors. The two ends differ in one more way: a company dissolved after liquidation can be revived by the court within two years, a struck-off company for 20.
Overdue returns: what we need from you to start
Send us the name of the company and its registration number. We check its position with the Registrar, list the missing returns and levies, and give you the cost of the catch-up in writing before any work starts. One accountant then prepares the accounts of each year, works with the auditor and files the returns.
From there the company stays on the yearly cycle: books, audit, annual return, tax return and the confirmation of its beneficial owners in the UBO register each autumn. That cycle and its price are on our page about accounting in Cyprus.
