Before you leave Germany
Deregistration
If you move out and do not take a new home in Germany, you must deregister (Abmeldung) with the registration office within two weeks of moving out, and at the earliest one week before. Keep the confirmation: banks, the tax office and Cyprus authorities may ask for it.
Exit tax
Under § 6 AStG, giving up German residence counts as selling your shares of 1% or more in a company at market value, if you were fully taxable in Germany for at least seven of the last twelve years. On application the tax can be paid in seven equal yearly instalments, usually against security. If you return and become fully taxable again within seven years, the tax can fall away, subject to conditions.
Extended tax liability
§ 2 AStG can extend German tax on German-source income for ten years after the year you leave. It applies to German citizens who were fully taxable for at least five of the last ten years, move to a country that counts as low-tax under the law's test and keep substantial economic interests in Germany, and only in years when that income is above €16,500. Check your own facts with an adviser before you move.
Double tax treaty
Germany and Cyprus signed a new double tax agreement on 18 February 2011, in force since 16 December 2011 and amended by a protocol signed in 2021. It decides which country may tax salaries, pensions, dividends and gains, and how double taxation is relieved.
Pensions
Under EU coordination, the German pension authority still counts the contributions you paid in Germany, and each country that owes you a pension pays it into a bank account in the country where you live. You claim through the pension authority where you live or last worked.
Health cover
If you work in Cyprus, you register there and are covered through GESY. If you receive a German pension and have no income in Cyprus, ask your German health insurer for an S1 form and register it in Cyprus. Private cover can fill the gaps.