Cyprus lawyers are being forced to pay stamp duties for court document registration despite Parliament abolishing the law last month with government approval, the Cyprus Bar Association said.
Parliament scrapped the stamp duty law on 22 December as part of a tax reform package that took effect on 1 January 2026.
Two bills—the Stamp Duties (Abolition) Law and amendments to the International Trusts Law—were approved unanimously and published in the Official Gazette on 31 December.
But when lawyers returned to work after the Christmas and New Year holidays and courts reopened, they discovered they still had to affix stamps and pay fees to register documents.
The situation has created a shortage of available stamps because the law abolishing them is already in force, according to complaints from affected lawyers.
The Cyprus Bar Association has written to the Supreme Court arguing that continuing to collect stamp duty fees contradicts the abolition law.
The Supreme Court replied that the issue would be discussed at its next meeting, adding that the judiciary had received no notification about the law’s abolition.
Bar Association president Michalis Vorkas told Phileleftheros the law was abolished, but courts continue demanding stamps for documents relating to cases both before and after implementation of the e-justice electronic registration system.
Despite the abolition during Parliament’s recent tax reform approval, parties must affix stamps to documents and pay the special stamp duty fee through the electronic platform to access justice, Vorkas said.
“This creates serious problems because there aren’t enough stamps available,” he said. “It also raises the question of whether the tens of thousands of euros citizens have paid in fees will be refunded.”
Appeals cannot be registered in court without payment of the stamp fees, Phileleftheros was told.
A government source said the abolition approved by Parliament does not cover court stamps. For the same measure to apply to courts, the relevant regulations and legislation governing courts must be amended, the source said. The same problem exists in other services operating under different legislation, the source added.
The government had originally submitted a bill as part of the tax reform to delete provisions making document stamping mandatory, with exceptions for financial services contracts, insurance policies, property transfers and property leases valued above €50,000.
That bill was withdrawn, and the legal framework was instead abolished through two parliamentary bills.
According to figures submitted to Parliament, the state collected €38 million from stamp duties in 2024. The original bill would have cost the state €10 million. One of the main reasons for abolishing the law was that it represented an anachronistic fee.