How to register as an economically self-sufficient resident in Malta

Thanks.

According to a Malta Law firm they today told me that I have to prove that i have lived in Malta for 3 months before applying for Ordinary Resident Self-sufficient. Do we know anything more about this?

Hello TK Running,

I’ve been reading that US and Canadian citizens are able to apply for the Ordinary Resident Self Sufficient when meeting the requirements. As a US citizen i would have to reside there three months ask for an extension which if granted would be for another three months. If i asked to stay longer I would have to apply for Ordinary Resident Self Sufficient Scheme. Did something change since the initial post on this thread since 2018 stating where you said ONLY EU/EEA individuals can apply?? Read this on International Living and with a Malta resident Alice Wilton - Relocation Expert with At Set Up Abroad?

As a person who knows, please allow me to throw in a few comments about Malta. The idea of first living for 3 months or even a full year on Malta as a test serves many useful purposes. For example to test if you are actually comfortable living on a little island with the highest population density in Europe and it’s many issues that can drive incomers off the islands. Endless noise and dust from never ending unregulated construction work being just the tip of the iceberg. It is worth bearing in mind that Malta has some strange tax arrangements like you pay 35% and they give you a ‘refund’ of 30. One has to think about the possible risk of if and how long before the EU bans it with possible retrospective affect. Europe is in financial troubles with most countries introducing laws that allow seizure of funds from Bank accounts like happened in Cypress. Malta banking has always been strong but please be aware that most of the new roads etc in Malta are EU funded as part of the package Nalta received to join the EU and ever since then Malta has been a Nett winner from EU membership I.e. it gets more from Brussels than it sends to Brussels. This situation is long overdue to change. As you probably know, Usually people pushing Malta will be making money out of you going there some how, and it’s only by talking to long term residents who you are not paying as advisors that you will discover whether or not the tax offerings outweigh the living circumstances. What are the down sides? Best if you are not a nature lover for example (for many reasons). This is the island country that voted to allow spring hunting of protected migratory birds. That is just one example of an issue that you might find very sad to live with. Also their locally grown produce has the highest levels of insecticides in Europe. You will always find the glossy photos on promoters websites, and it can be a great country for a quick visit as long as you are not looking for nature other than diving and swimming and yes some people can live there long term and say they like it. No forests mountains or rivers. One small forested area planted by school children many years ago but used as a shooting domain - but shooting happens everywhere. Often incomers bought at highly inflated foreigner prices and cannot easily leave. The ideal approach to living on little overpopulated islands is to get away as much as you can or go island crazy. Make sure your budget allows for that travel and hope the pandemic does not lock you in to staying on the islands in the future. Too many people ( young and old) die of cancer as well, some think due to the dust from unregulated endless building and other environmental factors. The key message is that it is critical not to view any low tax jurisdiction through the rosy tinted glasses of its low tax offerings. In the end most people prefer to live in a country that is not an island and you should test that aspect the hardest and then decide about the tax side. This is from a person who visited many low tax locations to check them out and lived in a few and finally chose a jurisdiction where the living is great and the tax is low but a secondary factor to overall quality of life. Only you know the type of country you can be at peace and thrive in. Make a list of the quality of life things you love most about where you have lived and about where you would like to live and never loose sight of your list. Low tax is on offer in a wide range of places. Every low tax country will have its promoters. It’s always down to you to know you will be getting the surface gloss and good points and that only you can test and decide if it’s for you or not. In the end you must live with the choice you make. The offshore dream is about better living and not every low tax jurisdiction will deliver that - often lower tax is a lure to compensate for other factors when the local population mainly want you to go and spend your money there. Check out if the locals really welcome foreigners or are mainly interested in your money. That is very different from country to country. so test your choice/s very carefully and never over commit too early. Be wise and wait till you have gathered all the pros and cons and sure go live there for a while to test it out. It could be your dream come true… or not.

2 Likes

@ShoariLake3 I’m not interested in your comments. My direct message to TK Running was verification on the directives needed to secure Resident status and e-residence forthwith card in Malta.

Your thoughts about whats supposedly wrong with Malta are a thousand times worse in the US. America is ten times more a violent country with the gun violence to our schools and soft targets and mental illness homeless crowded into our streets.

Malta offers a beautiful idyllic location close to the rest of Europe Its e-residence card advantages offer residents the opportunity to freely travel to all the other Schengen countries and after five years if so desired the individual would not be required to stay in Malta for the required yearly days to maintain the status.

Moderator note: This post has been edited for content. Please keep things civil. Personal attacks are not welcome on Nomad Gate.

This is a public forum and careful readers will notice I did not address my comments specifically to Drew. There is ‘research’ about a country and then there is living there. My family entered Malta on a residency scheme and we lived there for many years. Then we left. The offshore world is full of people who moved here or there chasing lower tax and eventually found they didn’t want to stay in the place they moved to. This can be for many reasons… inadequate planning and research, or the country not living up to the glossy brochure images, or the country is too small or isolated, etc etc. Then, as I said in my earlier post, it becomes a question of has the expat over committed too early in their new country, and can they get out easily? In Malta I know people (friends) who are still trying for years to sell their property so they can get out, but its an over priced bubble and relies entirely on new incoming foreigners to keep the real estate prices up. That’s just one of the various obvious reasons why its not always easy to get the full and true picture of a country even from expat residents - in this example they don’t want to talk down their country, as achieving or maintaining their own good property selling price depends on new (dare I say) starry eyed expats coming in. Even so, I encourage readers who are thinking to relocate and actually live in a country for lower tax reasons to try and gather advice from real long term residents in the country they are thinking to move to who are not selling services to incoming expats. There is a beter chance of geting an unbiassed picture to inform your decisions.

I stand by every comment I made in my earlier post about Malta, and those comments are just the tip of the iceberg about Malta. Every time a new expat arrives the old hands kinda smile and wonder how long it will be before the newcomer learns what its really like. There is always a honeymoon and then the reality hits. Of course some people are very wealthy and just use Malta or some other country as a jigsaw piece in their tax structuring, and how the country actually is and operates at a deeper level is not all that important… and their tax advisors have already got an exit strategy in place for them if the tax scenario in that country shifts. However, not everyone has the money for that wealth or level of tax planning, and my comments are more targeted for new people like we were about 25 years ago when we first left our home country not as very wealthy persons in search of tax minimisation but as people in search of more perceived freedom with lower tax that could support a better lifestyle dream. The dream is great, and yes lower taxes can be achieved to help enable a better quality of life… but not all lower tax countries can or will deliver the kind of quality of life you might really personally want for the longer term.
I noticed someone else on this forum saying how they moved to Portugal (for lower taxes) and later left again, in their case due to their unhappy experiences with the quality of schooling for their children. This is another example to support the view that the wisest approach for new offshorers who are actually thinking to settle permanently in their new lower tax country is to go in lightly, put your toe in the water but do not over commit, and see how you like your new country. There are plenty of people out there who will ‘help’ you move to a new country, but if its going to be your permanent home then it is you (and maybe your spouse or children) who have to live your life there!

Personally, after living in several other lower tax countries for many years, we would not go back to our “high tax, high standard of living” home country.
Also, we would never buy property just to obtain residency in a country we had never lived in before until at least after 2 or 3 years, unless I was an experienced international property dealer / investor who knew the market personally in the country I was buying in.
Finally, we would take special care about countries that offer tax holidays that have an end date. Tax offices everywhere play the long game, and low tax deals for 5 or 10 years will pass soon enough, and then what happens to your lower taxes? Sure, tax scenarios in countries change regularly enough, but in these cases the tax offices are giving you fair notice of how long your deal can be expected to last. After that you are likely in the same boat as the locals, so you better know what their tax levels are and how they feel about them… unless your strategy is always to be transient at some point. This is partly one of the reasons I prefer to anchor my business in a tax free zone. Its much harder for the tax ground to shift under the feet of such zones compared to what can happen for businesses operating outside their special conditions.
Finally, to return to the subject of Malta:
Lots of people come and go from Malta. People who leave tend to move on with their lives and not bother posting on forums about why they left. So if anyone wants to know more about the ups and down sides of Malta from the view point of long term resident expats who actually lived there full time, then feel free to contact.

2 Likes

Hi @drewsworld2000,

While I can’t rule this out, it’s not something that I’m aware of. For example this Government page says that the Ordinary Residence scheme is only open to EU/EEA nationals. You can be registered as self-sufficient also under certain other residency schemes (e.g. the Global Residence Program, the Malta Residence and Visa Program and the Individual Investor Program.

Anyway, as a non-EU citizen, you may also apply for a residence permit (using CEA Form K, even if you’re not part of any of the above mentioned residency schemes/programs. As this checklist says you’ll need to “prove that [you] have significant social or economic links to Malta”.

I also believe that you need to prove significantly higher net worth than is the case for EEA citizens. I’ve seen the figure €50,000 mentioned, although not from any official source.

I’m not sure if this is technically also part of the “Ordinary Residency” scheme or not—I’ve seen so many different sources saying different things. However, the requirements are definitely different than for EU citizens (who have a right to settle in Malta as long as the requirements listed in my article are met).

Beyond this, I am no expert on migration of non-EU citizens to Malta, so I’d recommend talking to a local immigration advisor instead.

1 Like

Sorry. The page you are looking for does not exist: Sorry. The page you are looking for does not exist

I tried IMG Global Medical Gold program with $500 deductible and excluding US, CN, JP and some more countries. Annual cost would be a quite reasonable $499 in 2021. Not too bad.

Hi there,
Is it possible to hold those 14.000 Euro in some e-wallet like skrill instead of bank account? (Of course I will bring some kind of confirmation on that)
Cheers :slight_smile:

VERY INTERESTING range of comments and content…retired and liquidating assets for a move to another area of the world. Looking into the expat thing as many ex-military and seasoned travelers have left or leaving the US…Malta is one possible choice, along with others. The " pandemic " such as it is does complicate the issue.
Malta is an interesting location, for a number of reasons, most Americans are not that aware of all the background issues with European Identity and customs. Switzerland is also a horse of another color from a US citizen point of view…a lot going on under the surface !

Hello @tkrunning

Thank you for the useful informations.

Do you know (or someone knows) if the 5.000€ minimum tax liability is unconditionally applied?

My income comes 100% from dividends, royalties and capital gains on foreign investments.

I heard about these two versions but I’m not sure which one is correct:

  1. you have to pay if your foreign profits are above 35.000€ even if not remitted in Malta
  2. you have to pay if your foreign profits are above 35.000€ only if they are remitted in Malta

Could someone please clarify this for me?

Thank you.

Paolo

My understanding is that dividends, royalties (plus obviously employment income, pensions, etc) count as income, while capital gains do not.

If your worldwide income (no matter if remitted or not) surpasses 35K you’ll pay the 5K minimum tax.

I’m not 100% certain about this, so better ask a local accountant if absolute certainty is important to you.

1 Like

Thank you very much!
So now you are a maltese resident? Are you living in Malta now?

Hello, I liked very much how you shared your own experience.

Could you please disclose here or in private which has been the countries you visited and which one you have chosen at the end of the process?

It would be very helpful for me at this stage!

thank you

Hi Paolo,

As you no doubt already know from your reading online, there are many many factors to take into account. We chose Georgia and we are very happy with our choice. However, like every country, there are issues and benefits that need to be assessed and balanced before making a choice. Don’t rush into any choice, ever. Read and then read more widely. Then read some more. Visit and see. It can take a few years to determine if you really like a country as a place to live or not.

COVID is hampering a lot of free movement and making choices harder in some cases, as governments (like Georgia for example) introduce changes to their entry and residency rules that mean careful attention must be paid to the details. Meanwhile other countries like Croatia are introducing nomad visa’s that seem highly attractive IF you have chosen the nomad lifestyle. More countries will follow with such changes. On the other end of the world Paraguay is a very interesting option if you are interested in second citizenship in 3 years and very friendly people (I am told) with a very attractive tax system.

If you have the financial flexibility from a reliable income stream that is independent of the country you choose to live in (I mean sourced outside that country), then you have many options and with careful planning can really enjoy a relocation experience. Such financial flexibility gives you a better range of options and choice to go to a country that best matches all your list of desirables. A long time ago offshore people would hear the saying “people are like a slave in their own (high tax) country but can be an honoured guest in a different country”. While nobody uses the word slave any more without fear of being judged, the fact is many people in high tax countries feel like they are.

Looking at other countries to live doesn’t mean you don’t or won’t pay tax. Everyone pays tax directly or indirectly. A fair and responsible tax system (according to your views) is just one of the many items on your checklist when you look to find the country to live in that you dream about. Everyones check list will be different. For example, really friendly locals and a healthy natural living environment are more important to me than lowest tax.

2 Likes

I was considering Georgia as well, but I never been there so I can’t jump into this decision from a day to another.

For the moment I think I will settle here for a few years (few months a year), while I will look for sure into other possibilities. thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and best luck for everything! :slight_smile:

Thanks @tkrunning for this post, i have read all pages and have a general question:
As a EU Citizen, do you(or anyone in this forum) think it is necessary to pay a company to support in the whole process of immigrating to Malta or would you say that there are is no big reason that speaks for external support (and couple of thousand € bill on top)?
Thanks in advance

I’d say it depends on how complicated your case is, how close your connections will be to Malta vs another country (e.g. are you claiming to live in Malta for tax reasons, while in reality more time in another country), and how much you earn + value your time.

If you are moving to Malta with the intention of actually living there long term (with a rental contract proving that it’s the case), and don’t mind spending some time queueing at government offices, it’s no problem to do it yourself.

Hi everybody,
I spent months investigating the matter to take the best possibile decision.

I’ve been in Malta, and even if I like the place, I don’t think it worth spending more than 6 months a year and paying the crazy rents over there.

Setting up the company it seems also a bit complicated, costly and so on. Surely the 5% tax rate it’s attractive, but the cost of the holding setup and the need to wait for the reimboursments is not. Also if you need to build substance to move elsewhere, probably there are better solution.

I found that Romania it could be a good option to both start your company and get a tax residence permit.

They do have the 183 rules, but since it’s mainland and they don’t have any interest to investigate the matter, i’ve been told that it’s pretty remote the chance they will withdraw your residence permit if you don’t stay phisically for 183 days (if you are traveling for example).

With only 3% of corporate tax (which can be reduced to 1% if you hire someone) up to 1M € and only 5% tax on dividends, and one of the lowests salaries in the whole UE, it seems the ideal place to reduce your tax burdens and create the substance you need to relocate elsewhere tax free later if you want to.

In this case you have pretty many options to go for and you are free to choose where to go between many countries, without the need to change your company structure:

  • Portugal (tax free)
  • Malta (tax free)
  • Dubai (tax free)
  • Gibraltar (tax free)
  • Greece (low tax)
  • Cyprus (low tax)

What do you think about this?

I mean i find this solution cheaper and at the same time more flexible and solid, despite going all in with Cyprus, Malta or other options.

Looking forward to hear your opinion @tkrunning !

Thanks

Paolo

Hi Paolo, you certainly make some interesting comments. As a person who spent many years in Malta I am not surprised it only ranks 50 in the best locations list… and its sensible you are considering other options anyway :). Have you considered Armenia? Easy residencies, passport in 3 years if thats of any interest, tax free options using reasonably costed free zones such as ECOS. There are certainly many options out there.