Malta: Residency, Non-Dom Tax and What Is Left After the Passport Ban

EU citizens: registration, not a visa

EU citizens can stay in Malta for three months without formalities. Anyone staying longer registers with Identità, the government agency that runs the Expatriates Unit, and receives a residence document under EU Directive 2004/38. You need an ID document, a Maltese address (usually a registered lease) and proof of the purpose of your stay: employment, self-employment, studies, or sufficient resources plus health insurance if you do not work.

The same directive covers non-EU family members. A non-EU spouse of an EU citizen living in Malta gets a residence card as a family member, with no investment involved. For an EU household, the MPRP only matters when a non-EU relative needs independent status that does not depend on the EU partner, for example parents who would not qualify as dependants.

The MPRP for non-EU nationals

The Malta Permanent Residence Programme has existed since 2016. According to the official page of Residency Malta, it is reserved for third-country nationals who are not EEA or Swiss and not from sanctioned countries. It grants the right to reside permanently in Malta and visa-free travel in the Schengen Area for 90 days in any 180-day period. It does not grant the right to live or work in other EU countries.

Current requirements and costs:

• Administrative fee: 60,000 euros, non-refundable.
• Government contribution: 37,000 euros, the same whether you rent or buy.
• Adult dependants: 7,500 euros each, the spouse excluded.
• Donation: 2,000 euros to a Maltese NGO registered with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations.
• Property: rent at least 14,000 euros a year, or buy for at least 375,000 euros, in Malta or Gozo. The qualifying property must be held for at least five years, after which you must still maintain a residential property in Malta.
• Residence card: 500 euros per person, valid five years.
• Capital: at least 500,000 euros in assets, of which 150,000 euros in financial assets, or at least 650,000 euros, of which 75,000 euros in financial assets.
• Other: stable and regular income, health insurance covering Malta and Europe, a clean criminal record, and multi-tier due diligence that extends to donors and business associates.

Applications go through a licensed agent only, and agent and legal fees come on top. A family can include up to four generations in one application, and applicants can apply for temporary residence while the file is processed.

What the rental route really costs: 60,000 euros fee, 37,000 euros contribution, 2,000 euros donation and five years of rent at 14,000 euros comes to about 169,000 euros before agents, insurance and cards. None of that comes back. On the purchase route you keep the property, but the fee and contribution are sunk either way.

There is no minimum stay to keep the permit. That flexibility has a flip side: the MPRP is an immigration status, not a tax status. A holder who spends little time in Malta is usually not tax resident there, and someone who moves to Malta is taxed under the ordinary rules described below. Permanent residence also does not by itself lead to a Maltese passport.

The end of citizenship by investment

Until 2025, Malta granted citizenship in exchange for payments and investments, most recently under the "exceptional services by direct investment" scheme. On 29 April 2025, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in case C-181/23, Commission v Malta, that this breached EU law: granting nationality in return for predetermined payments turns EU citizenship into a commodity and lacks the genuine link that membership of a member state requires.

Malta repealed the scheme with Act XXI of 2025, in force since 24 July 2025. What remains is naturalisation on merit: a discretionary, case-by-case decision for people who render exceptional services or make an exceptional contribution, in fields such as science, philanthropy or economic development. There is no published price, no agent model, and it is not presented as a successor programme. Offers of a Maltese passport for a six-figure sum are outdated or worse. Where citizenship by investment still exists, outside the EU, is covered in the guide to second passports.

Tax residence and the remittance basis

Malta distinguishes between residence and domicile, like Cyprus and the pre-2025 UK system. You are generally resident if you spend more than 183 days a year in Malta or settle there with the intention to stay. Domicile is the English-law concept of your permanent home country. Most people who move to Malta become resident but not domiciled.

Resident non-doms are taxed on the remittance basis at the ordinary progressive rates of 0 to 35 percent, on:

• income arising in Malta, such as a Maltese salary or Maltese rental income,
• foreign income remitted to or received in Malta,
• certain capital gains arising in Malta.

Foreign income kept abroad is not taxed. Foreign capital gains are not taxable in Malta even if remitted. There is a floor: an individual with more than 35,000 euros of foreign income that is not remitted pays a minimum tax of 5,000 euros a year.

This is not a zero-tax model for everyone. If you work in Malta, that income is taxed normally. If you fund your life in Malta from abroad, every transfer has to be traceable as capital rather than income, which means separating accounts before you move, not after.

A note for US citizens: the United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of residence. Malta's remittance basis changes what Malta taxes, not what the IRS taxes, so the benefit for Americans is mostly about avoiding a second layer of tax, not about reducing the total.

The Global Residence Programme and its EU twin

For a flat rate instead of progressive rates, Malta runs two near-identical special tax programmes until the end of 2026: the Global Residence Programme (GRP) for non-EU nationals and The Residence Programme (TRP) for EU, EEA and Swiss nationals. Note that the GRP is a tax status with a residence permit attached; it is cheaper to enter than the MPRP but does not give permanent residence.

Terms for new applications until 31 December 2026:

• Rate: 15 percent on foreign income remitted to Malta. Malta-source income is still taxed at up to 35 percent.
• Minimum tax: 15,000 euros a year for the household, regardless of how much is remitted.
• Property: buy for at least 275,000 euros, or 220,000 euros in the south of Malta and on Gozo, or rent from 9,600 euros a year, 8,750 euros in the south and on Gozo. It must be your main residence worldwide and cannot be sublet.
• Fee: 6,000 euros, or 5,500 euros for property in the south or on Gozo under the GRP.
• Time elsewhere: no more than 183 days a year in any single other country.

Pensioners have the Malta Retirement Programme: 15 percent on foreign pension income remitted to Malta, minimum tax 7,500 euros plus 500 euros per dependant.

Two newer routes matter for non-EU professionals. The Nomad Residence Permit lets third-country nationals live in Malta while working remotely for employers or clients abroad, with a one-year tax exemption and a flat 10 percent rate from the second year, renewable up to a total of four years. The Highly Skilled Individual Rules, in force since 1 January 2026, give a 15 percent flat rate on qualifying employment income of at least 65,000 euros a year in sectors such as financial services, gaming, aviation and family offices.

The 2027 reform

The Individual Tax Programme Rules, 2026 (Legal Notice 195 of 2026) merge the GRP, TRP, retirement and UN pension programmes into one framework. They are published but take effect only on 1 January 2027. The 15 percent rate stays, almost everything else rises:

• Minimum tax: 35,000 euros a year for the new global resident status and the EU/EEA/Swiss status, 15,000 euros for retired pensioners, 20,000 euros for UN pensioners.
• Property: buy for at least 700,000 euros or rent for at least 14,000 euros a year, anywhere in Malta or Gozo. The south and Gozo discount disappears.
• Fee: 8,500 euros on application. Status runs for five years and is renewable for five-year periods for 2,500 euros.

Transition: status granted, or an application submitted, by 31 December 2026 continues under the old terms until 31 December 2031. That window is real, but applying only to beat the deadline is risky: the minimum tax is due every year, even if the move turns out to be a mistake.

The home-country side

Malta is easy to enter. Leaving home is usually harder. Three points apply in some form to most readers:

• Are you really gone? Your home country may still treat you as resident if you keep a home, a family or your main business there. Tax treaties resolve dual residence through a fixed order: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality. For Germans, the details are in the German-language version of this guide.
• Exit taxes. Several countries tax unrealised gains on shareholdings when you leave. Germany does so from 1 percent of a company.
• Anti-avoidance rules. Remittance-basis or flat-rate regimes can count as preferential taxation in your home country's rules, which can extend tax on home-country income for years after leaving.

How residence and tax interact across other countries is covered in the overview of Plan B residencies and in the guide to Cyprus and its non-dom status. The outcome always depends on the individual case, so get advice in both countries before moving.