As of the official Publication of the Cypriot Gazette back in July 2013 , the Cyprus House of Ministers proceeded to vote on amendments to the Medical Legislation thus allowing doctors in providing medical services through the establishment and operation of companies. 

The main provisions of this legislation included but not limited, to the following:

What Type the company should have
Medical companies can have the form of a private limited liability company, general partnership or limited partnership.

What name the Company should have

The company name of a medical company should consist solely of the name or names of one or more doctors who exercise or have exercised their profession. Additionally, in case of a limited company, the name is registered with the acronym “I.E.P.E.” (Medical Limited Liability Company), and if the name is written in Latin characters will be followed with the acronym «DLC» (Doctors ‘Limited Company).

How a Registration of a medical company can be done

Notwithstanding the provisions of the Companies Law, to allow for the registration of a medical company with the Registrar of Companies the prior approval by the Cyprus Medical Council is needed. Subsequently, and after the registration of the medical company with the Registrar of Companies, a special record will also be kept by the Medical Council which will include all companies belonging to doctors and called the “Register of Companies of Doctors.”

Who will be the Shareholders of a medical company

Shareholders of a private company of an I.E.P.E. type should be wholly registered doctors. The same applies to members of the board of directors. The shareholder of a private company I.E.P.E. maybe also a general or limited partnership whose partners are registered doctors (condition for registration of such partnerships).

What are the Doctors’ medical responsibility

In no way the personal liability of doctors for medical negligence or for any offense committed in the exercise of their medical duties is offset due to the provision of their services through medical companies.

Additionally, the medical company will be considered partly responsible for the acts and / or omissions of its doctors shareholders, partners or employees. Doctors are also not exempted of any individual disciplinary responsibilities, while the medical company may have its share in the disciplinary liability.

Some of the advantages of the forming of Medical Companies that doctors can have are:

• Low corporate tax rate of 12.5% on profit, instead of the taxation on personal income which ranges from 20% – 35%
• Dividend participation exemption
• Exemption on disposal of securities (e.g. shares, bonds, debentures)
• No withholding taxes on dividend, interest and royalty payments abroad
• No capital gains tax (except for disposal of real estate in Cyprus or shares of company holding real estate in Cyprus to the extent gains is attributable to the real estate holding)
• No succession taxes
• Attractive IP regime
• Tonnage tax for shipping companies
• Notional interest deduction for investments into Cyprus companies
• Personal tax exemptions for new residents and non-domiciled individual
• More than 60 double tax treaties