FFF-Legal

The Maltese Finance Minister announced that new residence schemes will be launched in the coming weeks to replace the Residents Scheme that was suspended in December 2010. The current Residents Scheme is aimed at attracting foreigners to take up residence in Malta subject to certain conditions (mainly, acquiring or renting property in Malta and transferring funds to Malta on an annual basis) - this type of residence entitles the holder to a 15% tax liability on foreign income that is remitted to Malta subject to a minimum deemed remittance. Foreign source income that is not transferred to Malta as well as foreign capital gains are not taxable.  The Residents Scheme will be replaced by new different residence programmes that will broadly distinguish between EU/EEA/Swiss applicants and non-EU. Broadly, the schemes will cover the following categories of applicants -

• A High Net Worth Individual Scheme (HNWI Scheme) aimed at EU, Swiss and EEA citizens. This scheme is expected to be similar to the current Residents Scheme.
• A second scheme (Global Mobile Permanent Scheme) will target applicants from non-EU countries - the non-EU citizens scheme is expected to be more onerous than the EU/Swiss/EAA HNWI scheme
• Additional schemes will also be introduced - these include a scheme intended for certain HNWI and professionals that do not participate in other residence schemes.

No information was announced as to the whether the current 15% tax rate on foreign income will be retained. However, it is expected that the property acquisition/rental thresholds will be increased. It was also announced that the new rules will be published throughout July of this year and we will be posting updates as soon as we have fresh information in hand. For further information or clarifications, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .