How to Make the Perfect Frappe ! 

How to Make the Perfect Frappe

By Andreas Kitsios

Frappe coffee is arguably the most popular drink on the island of Cyprus. Not only is it a must if you are hanging out at the beach, it is the default order at any local cafe, especially in the summer. Here is a quick guide to preparing a delicious frappe from the comfort of your own home.

The secret to a great frappe is the right combination of the following:

• An adequate foam "head"

• Enough water and/or milk on the bottom

• The right taste, according to your preference

The foam is probably the most critical part, as it is the essence of the frappe and it is important for it to be large enough to settle slowly and small enough to allow you to pour adequate water and/or milk in order to be able to actually enjoy the drink.

If you follow the easy steps below, you should quickly become a master frappe maker!
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Cyprus Griffon Vultures Nest found in Paphos Region

A Griffon Vulture nest belonging to the once close to extinction Birds of Prey has been found in Paphos.

A nest belong to endangered griffon vultures has been found in the Ai Yiannis area of Paphos for the first time in decades.

The griffon vulture is the largest bird of prey in Cyprus and also the most threatened. The population is at a worryingly low level and breeding pairs scarce.

Cyprus offers tax exemption on worldwide income

June 01 2017

Private Client & Offshore Services Cyprus

 Concept of domicile
 Determining tax residency and domicile status


Providing high-net-worth individuals with further incentives to relocate to Cyprus is one of the objectives of the non-domicile rules, the so-called 'non-dom' rules, which came into force on July 17 2015 on their publication in the Official Gazette.

Concept of domicile

Previously, a distinction was made between non-tax residents and tax residents:

• Non-tax residents were entitled to most of the tax advantages offered by the Cyprus tax regime.
• Tax residents had to pay the following taxes in Cyprus on all of their worldwide income, including special defence contribution tax:
  • 17% on dividends;
  • 30% on interest earned; and
  • 3% on 75% of rental income.

In order to provide high-net-worth individuals with additional incentives to relocate to Cyprus or continue conducting their business operations or investments in Cyprus, the government introduced the concept of 'domicile' for the purposes of the Special Defence Contribution Tax Law. As a result, an individual may be resident, but not domiciled, in Cyprus. Tax residents who are not domiciled in Cyprus are exempted from the special defence contribution tax.

The concept of 'domicile' already existed under Cypriot legislation by way of the Wills and Succession Law, in which it was used to determine which jurisdiction should govern the succession of a deceased person.

The concept of domicile is distinct from the concepts of residence, nationality or citizenship; a person can have only one domicile at any given time.

The law distinguishes between:

• 'domicile of origin', which is acquired at birth; and
• 'domicile of choice', which is retained by individuals who intend to live permanently or indefinitely in one particular place.

According to the non-dom rules, a person is deemed to be domiciled in Cyprus:

• by virtue of being tax resident in Cyprus for 17 of the 20 years preceding the relevant tax year, regardless of his or her domicile of origin; and
• by virtue of the fact that his or her domicile of origin is in Cyprus, unless:
  • the person has acquired domicile of choice in another country, provided that he or she has not been tax resident in Cyprus for a period of 20 consecutive years before the relevant tax year; or
  • the person has not been tax resident in Cyprus for a period of 20 consecutive years before the introduction of the law, which came into force on July 17 2015.

Determining tax residency and domicile status

Tax residency and domicile status can be determined using the following criteria.

Tax residency
An applicant who has spent 183 days during a particular calendar year in Cyprus is considered to be tax resident. The day of arrival is counted in the residency period and the day of departure counts towards the non-residency period.

Domicile
As regards domicile, applicants must answer the following questions:

• What is your domicile of origin (acquired at birth)?
• Have you acquired domicile of choice in Cyprus?
• Have you been tax resident in Cyprus for 17 of the last 20 tax years before the relevant tax year?

If an applicant answers no to all questions, he or she is not domiciled in Cyprus.

Applicants can also use the following flowchart to determine their tax residency and domicile status for a particular tax year.

For further information on this topic please mention Simila Cyprus referral and contact ;

Valentinos Constantinides | Operations Director

BA (Hons), MBA, CPA

Cyprus: +357 26 100510 

Email: Valentinos.C@CorporationCyprus.com | website: www.CorporationCyprus.com

Sunken wine bottles to be retrieved from seabed

280 Bottles of Local Cyprus Wine was sunk to the bottom of the sea near paphos in 2015. These bottles will be lifted from the seabed on Sunday 7th May 2017 as part of the #Pafos2017 City of Culture celebrations.

The bottles were placed in a box and sunk in November 2015.
“The bottles will be opened by a Sommelier to see if they are drinkable and if they are, the public will get a chance to try them,” a spokesman for Pafos2017 told the Cyprus Mail.

She pointed out that even if the wine is spoiled, there will be other local wine available to try at the event which will be held at Paphos harbour from 11am on Sunday.
“This is a spectacular and special event and the hoisting of the wines will be followed by tasting 280 similar bottles that have been stored in optimum winery conditions.”

Members of the public will also be given the opportunity to board the Jolly Roger II and participate in the trip to Geroskipou to retrieve the wines and witness the entire wine lifting process first hand. The boat will then sail back to Paphos harbour, she said.

“There is space for around one hundred people on the boat, so people should arrive at the harbour early if they wish to be on board.”

The project is part of the culture capitals gastronomy programme the “Art of wine – The garden of tastes”,
Twenty five Cyprus wineries are involved in the project and provided wine for the project, including:
KEO, Vassilikon, Zambartas, Tsaggarides, Kolios, Ezousa, Kamantarena and Shoufas.

The cultural capital project is a collaboration of the Sommeliers Association, the Dive Centre Association and Cypriot Wine Producers.

Wine event- Paphos harbour, Kato Paphos, Sunday May 7th, 11am – 12 noon.

© Cyprus Mail Ltd. 2017

Saving Cyprus Turtles from Fishermen’s Nets

A pilot project is underway to protect turtles from being caught in fishermen’s nets, programme coordinator of the project for Cyprus Yianna Samuel said on Tuesday.

As part of a European initiative, ‘Life Euroturtles’, this summer a number of lights will be attached to net fisheries in the Latchi and Pyrgos area.

In 2016 a team of scientists at the University of Exeter discovered that attaching green Led lights to nets used by small-scale fishermen can reduce the number of green turtle deaths by 64 per cent as they avoid them.

The result, if it works as planned, will be a win-win situation.

“The turtles which are a bycatch will be saved, and the fisherman will have less damage to their nets, and the turtles will not eat the fish in the nets,” Samuel explained. “Turtles need to come up for air, so when they get entangled they usually die. And the fishermen won’t have to spend time trying to disentangle them and repair the nets.”

The cost of the project is not very high, as each lamp costs just €10 to €15 and for now, not a lot of them are needed. The lights used are small enough not to scare off sea life from whole areas, they can only see them close up.

The project is funded by the European Commission together with the fishery department of the government and the University of Cyprus’ oceanography centre as co-funding partners.

It includes six EU countries, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Slovenia.

The focus is on areas that are pivotal for the conservation of the two sea turtle species occurring in the EU and listed as priority species the Habitats Directive, the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). In the EU, the loggerhead turtle has major nesting sites in Greece and Cyprus, and limited nesting in Italy. Most turtles from these sites remain in the eastern Mediterranean. In the EU, the green turtle only breeds in Cyprus, and its foraging grounds in EU waters are in Cyprus and Greece.

The activities of the Life Euroturtles project prioritise areas where conservation measures are considered important and urgent, and could make a difference for the sea turtle status at EU, national and local levels.

March 2017 tourist arrival records 2.8% increase in Cyprus

2016 was a Record year for Tourists arriving in Cyprus and already 2017 looks like it will beat last years record as well ! 

Tourist arrivals to Cyprus on an annual basis recorded an increase of 2.8% in March 2017 compared with the same month last year, the Cyprus Statistical service reported on Tuesday.

An increase of 13.5% was also noted in the first quarter of the year the statistical service said. 

At the same time, more Cypriot residents travelled abroad, with returning residents recording an annual increase in March 2017 of 19.2%.

This factor is due to the large increase of Budget Flight Airlines that have added many more flights to and from Cyprus , plus the fact of continued troubles in the once popular holiday destinations of Egypt and Turkey. 

On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, tourist arrivals were 140,873 in March 2017 compared to 137,013 in March 2016, recording an increase of 2.8%.

This March has seen the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during this month.

For the period January-March 2017 arrivals of tourists totalled 285,693 compared to 251,608 in the same period of 2016, recording an increase of 13.5%

According to the Statistical Service’s press release tourist arrivals from Russia increased by 55.1% in March 2017 compared to March 2016 while an increase of 10.7% was recorded for tourists from Greece.

Important tourist markets

More tourists also chose Cyprus as a destination this March from other important tourist markets, such as Israel (94.9%) and France (15.9%).

The United Kingdom and Russia constitute the main sources of tourism for Cyprus for March 2017, holding a share of 38.7% and 14.1% respectively, while arrivals from Greece comprise 9.6% and from Israel 7.1% of total arrivals.

On the basis of the results of the Passengers Survey, 102,758 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in March 2017 compared to 86,229 in the corresponding month last year, recording an increase of 19.2%.

In March 2017 there was an increase of 22.4% in the trips of residents to Greece up from 31,570 in March 2016 to 38,638 in March 2017 and 22.3% increase from the United Kingdom up from 16,940 to 20,726 this year.

Source: CNA

EASTER CUSTOMS OF CYPRUS

Pascha, the Majestic Feast in the Heart of Spring “and so shall bloom the spring of faith” in our hearts

Pascha, the most luminous feast of Christianity and the greatest feast of Hellenism and the people of Cyprus, who call it, “Lambri”, “the Bright One” since it shines with the light of 
Resurrection that bathes life and all its facets: morals, customs and tradition. As the Services of Holy Week coincide with Spring, the divine Passions seem to relate to the passions and resurrection of Nature and man. It is, after all, the time to bid farewell to the long and absolute silence of Nature, to the agonising period of gestation in anticipation of welcoming the fruits, the flowers: of orange, pomegranate, rose, yarrow, lilly and the colours. 
Everything predisposes the great triumph of life, renewed life, the redemption of the living, the Resurrection of the dead as descriped in the triumphant Paschal hymn: