Malta VAT & Tax Guide (2026)

If you run a business or freelance in Malta, value added tax (VAT) touches almost every invoice you issue. This guide explains how Malta's VAT system works in 2026 - the rates, who has to register, what a compliant tax invoice must show, and the deadlines you need to hit - in plain English. It is written for freelancers, sole traders and small companies, not tax specialists. (It is general information, not tax advice: always confirm your own position with a warranted accountant or the Malta Tax and Customs Authority.)

VAT in Malta at a glance

Malta charges VAT under the Value Added Tax Act (Cap. 406). The standard rate is 18% - one of the lowest standard rates in the EU - and applies to most goods and services unless a reduced rate, a zero rate, or an exemption specifically applies. Alongside it sit four lower rates: 12%, 7%, 5% and 0%.

Malta VAT rates in 2026

Rate	Applies to (examples)
18% - standard	Most goods and services: consulting, design, software, retail, trades and general services.
12%	Certain services introduced in 2024: hiring of pleasure boats (short charters), custody and management of securities, management of credit and credit guarantees by a person other than the one who granted them, and certain healthcare services not otherwise exempt.
7%	Licensed tourist accommodation and the use of sporting facilities.
5%	Electricity, medical accessories, printed matter (including books), confectionery, certain works of art and antiques, minor repairs (bicycles, footwear, clothing), domestic care, and admission to museums, exhibitions and concerts.
0% - zero-rated	Exports and intra-Community supplies of goods, international and inter-island passenger transport, and food and pharmaceuticals for human consumption. You charge 0% but can still reclaim input VAT.

Zero-rated is not the same as exempt. With zero-rated supplies you charge no VAT but keep the right to deduct the VAT on your costs. With an exempt-without-credit supply (such as insurance, most financial services, health, education and the letting of immovable property) you charge no VAT and cannot reclaim input VAT.

Picking the right rate for every line is exactly the kind of thing that is easy to get wrong by hand. invoices.mt lets you set the correct Malta rate per line item - 18/12/7/5/0% - and works out the VAT and totals automatically, so even a mixed-rate invoice stays correct.

Who has to register for VAT? Article 10, 11 and 12

Malta has three main registration types, and which one you use depends on your turnover and activity.

Article 10 - standard registration

This is the full VAT registration. You charge VAT on your sales, reclaim VAT on your purchases, and file VAT returns (normally quarterly). Businesses established in Malta must register under Article 10 once annual taxable turnover exceeds the EUR 35,000 threshold, measured per calendar year (the test looks at your turnover in the preceding calendar year and the current one). You can also register voluntarily below the threshold - useful if your customers are VAT-registered businesses and you want to reclaim input VAT.

Article 11 - small undertaking (exempt)

If your turnover is below the EUR 35,000 threshold you can register as a small undertaking under Article 11. You do not charge VAT and cannot reclaim input VAT, but your compliance is much lighter - typically an annual declaration instead of quarterly returns. Since 1 January 2025 this is a single EUR 35,000 figure that applies uniformly to all activity types - before that, Malta used separate thresholds of EUR 35,000 for goods, EUR 30,000 for most services and EUR 24,000 for low value-added services. The same EU small-enterprise reform added Articles 11A/11B, which let a small business trade VAT-exempt across the EU while its EU-wide turnover stays under EUR 100,000.

Article 12 - acquisitions and reverse charge

Article 12 covers narrower situations, such as making intra-Community acquisitions of goods or receiving certain services from abroad, where VAT must be accounted for even though you do not make domestic taxable sales. Non-resident businesses get no threshold at all: any taxable activity in Malta can trigger an immediate registration obligation.

The 2025-2026 cross-border SME scheme

Since 1 January 2025 the EU small business scheme lets a qualifying small enterprise apply the exemption not only at home but in other member states too, as long as total EU-wide turnover stays under EUR 100,000 (and the local threshold in each country is respected). For Maltese micro-businesses selling small volumes across the EU, this removes a lot of foreign-VAT friction - but the thresholds must be watched carefully.

What a compliant Malta tax invoice must show

Under Cap. 406, a proper tax invoice from an Article 10 business generally has to include:

• A sequential invoice number from one or more series - numbers cannot have gaps or be reused;
• The date of issue and the date of supply (tax point) where they differ;
• Your name, address and VAT identification number;
• The customer's name and address (and their VAT number for cross-border B2B);
• A description, quantity and unit price for each item;
• The VAT rate and VAT amount per rate, the taxable amount, and the total;
• Where 0% or an exemption applies, a note of the reason or legal reference.

This is where invoicing software earns its keep. invoices.mt assigns gap-free sequential numbers, stores your VAT number and Malta business details, captures both the issue and supply dates, and shows the VAT breakdown per rate - so every document is structured the way Cap. 406 expects, and there is a clean record of what was issued.

VAT returns and deadlines

Article 10 businesses normally file quarterly VAT returns, due and payable by the 15th of the second month after the period ends (with an extra 7 days when you file and pay online). Article 11 small undertakings file a simpler annual declaration. If you make intra-EU supplies you also submit recapitulative statements. Filing is done online through the Malta Tax and Customs Authority portal, and good record-keeping during the quarter makes the return almost a non-event - exporting a clean VAT summary from your invoicing tool beats trawling through spreadsheets.

A quick word on income and corporate tax in 2026

VAT is only one part of the picture. Individuals are taxed on a progressive scale up to 35%, with separate single, married and parent computations - and Budget 2026 widened the married and parent bands for families with children and increased pension exemptions. Companies face a 35% nominal corporate tax, but Malta's full-imputation and refund system can bring the effective rate down substantially for many shareholders. These taxes are separate from VAT and have their own deadlines, so do not treat a healthy VAT position as the whole story.

Staying compliant without the headache

Most Malta VAT mistakes are mundane: the wrong rate on a line, a missing VAT number, a broken invoice sequence, or a tax point on the wrong date. invoices.mt is built specifically for Maltese businesses to remove those traps - correct VAT rates per line, automatic sequential numbering, issue and supply dates, VAT-ready PDFs and reports, and online card payments - so you can focus on the work, not the paperwork. Create your free account and send your first compliant invoice in minutes.

This article is general information about Malta VAT and tax as it stands in 2026 and is not a substitute for professional advice. Rates and thresholds change - confirm your position with a warranted accountant or the Malta Tax and Customs Authority.