The Journey
To My Success

Kostas Savva - Demis Ioannou - Christos Theofilou: "Success is continuously evolving, pushing yourself to become better each day"

Nine years ago, we started our company, Taxand Cyprus.

All three of us hold a first degree in chartered accountancy and a postgraduate degree in international taxation. Demis and Christos studied at the University of Oxford, while Kostas studied at the University of Vienna. From the very beginning, we set high goals: to provide specialized services as tax consultants and to do it better than anyone else!

Soon, we realized that obtaining a second degree in Law would complement the knowledge, qualifications, and specialization our clients were seeking. Undoubtedly, chartered accountants can handle a significant part of tax-related matters. However, someone who wants to be referred to as a tax consultant needs to have both the accounting and legal knowledge. Cyprus has now become a modern Economic Center. Therefore, not offering expertise in the field was a significant setback for our clients. That's why we made the decision to embark on this journey, return to the University, and study Law.

Searching for a University to study Law, we unanimously decided on Frederick University. Our choice proved to be the right one

Today, Taxand Cyprus stands as the largest legal firm specializing in tax law in Cyprus. It is part of Taxand Global, which operates in approximately 50 countries worldwide. In Cyprus, there was a significant gap in this field, as there were no legal firms specialized in taxation. Hence, we decided to fill this void, and now we can confidently say that the services we offer are on par with the major international firms. Perhaps, in many cases, our services may even surpass theirs..

Searching for a University to study Law, we unanimously decided on Frederick University. Our choice proved to be the right one. Having obtained degrees and experiences from Universities abroad, we realized that Frederick University offered exactly what we were looking for. The Faculty of the Department of Law can be described as the "dream team" of legal experts in our country, including Professor Christos Clerides, Mr Andreas Paschalides, Dr Iliana Nicolaou, and other esteemed personalities in the field of legal science in Cyprus. They provided us with high-quality practical legal knowledge which was exactly what we needed.

At Frederick University, we learned from professionals who had practiced law in Cyprus, brilliant scholars in the field, who truly provided us with what we needed

At the age of 30-35, you don't have time to waste. We already had a career and an academic path behind us, which is why we wanted a degree that would provide us with tools to add value to our work. It is worth noting that we also had the option of pursuing a distance learning degree from a well-known University in the UK, one of the top-ranked institutions. However, we believed that what we needed the most was practical knowledge and not another round of theoretical courses.

At Frederick University, we learned from professionals who practiced or ar still practicing law in Cyprus, brilliant scholars in the field, who truly provided us with what we needed. They equipped us with practical knowledge that was valuable for our careers.

Furthermore, we are truly honored to have contributed to the book "Cypriot Law of Equity" written by Professor Christos Clerides, Head of the University's Department of Law. Prof. Clerides generously allowed us to contribute a chapter on the taxation of trusts in Cyprus. It was a remarkable opportunity for us, and we sincerely thank Prof. Clerides and Frederick University for granting us this privilege. Collaborating with someone as knowledgeable and esteemed as him has been an invaluable experience for us as young lawyers. In fact, we are currently excitedly working on contributing to his upcoming book, which delves into various taxation issues in Cyprus.

We want to pass on all the knowledge and experience we have gained over the years to the next generations

We strongly believe in supporting our country's youth, and that is why we decided to embark on another project: providing education in tax law. Back in 2010, when we were seeking knowledge in this field ourselves, we couldn't find suitable tax law education in international taxation in Cyprus. Since then, we have developed a partnership with Tolley's - LexisNexis, the largest educational organization in the UK for tax-related matters, and now we offer this opportunity to anyone interested in pursuing this profession, with training sessions held at our offices. We want to pass on all the knowledge and experience we have gained over the years to the next generations.

We combined chartered accountancy with legal expertise precisely to offer the highest level of services possible, and this has been the foundation of our success

Success in our field is evaluated by our clients, as they are the ones receiving our services. What our clients seek is our know-how on tax. We combined chartered accountancy with legal expertise precisely to offer the highest level of services possible, and this has been the foundation of our success. The key was recognizing, based on our experience abroad, that there is a specific need for this in Cyprus. In our profession, there are rankings determined by the International Tax Review (ITR) that assess the tax services of each company. Currently, we hold a Tier 1 ranking, alongside another legal firm in Cyprus. This is immensely important as it demonstrates our company's recognition in the local market.

For us, success is to never rest on our laurels. Success is about evolving and adapting to the changes and demands of our time, identifying the needs in our field, and pushing ourselves to continuously improve and meet those needs.