Guide
GESY contributions in Cyprus 2026: GHS rates for employees and employers
Updated
GESY, the General Healthcare System, is funded by a contribution taken from almost every kind of income. On a payslip it sits next to social insurance and is easy to confuse with it.
The contribution rates
- Employee
- 2.65% of gross earnings, deducted by the employer.
- Employer
- 2.90% of the employee's gross earnings, paid on top of salary.
- State
- 4.70%, paid into the Health Insurance Fund rather than deducted from anyone's pay.
The rates are published by the Social Insurance Services, which collects the contribution alongside social insurance (Social Insurance Services, Contributions).
The €180,000 ceiling
The GHS contribution is deducted on earnings up to €180,000 a year. The ceiling applies across a person's income, not per employer: the Tax Department's 2026 employer withholding form instructs employers to stop withholding once the year's income from employment, benefits, pensions and the relevant special-rate income passes €180,000. At 2.65% that puts the employee's maximum GHS contribution at €4,770 a year.
GHS reduces your income tax
The employee GHS contribution is deducted from income before the tax bands are applied. It sits in the same capped bucket as contributions to pension, provident and social insurance funds and insurance premiums, and the bucket is limited to one fifth of income. On a salary with no provident fund, social insurance and GHS together come to about 11.45% of gross, comfortably inside that limit.
Where else GESY is charged
- Self-employed people pay a different GHS rate on their own income.
- Pensions, rents, interest and dividends also carry a GHS contribution, at rates set for each category.
- Rental income from 2026 is charged to income tax and GHS only, because the special defence contribution on rents was abolished from 1 January 2026.
This site calculates the employee contribution on employment income only. If you have rents, dividends or self-employment alongside a salary, your total GHS position is larger than the figure shown here.