Why Malta? The ideal place to form a business

BALZAN, Malta - July 3, 2014 - PRLog -- Malta has been commended as an ideal choice to invest and live in by a number of sources that describe Malta as one of the best places to live in worldwide. Malta ranked in first place as the best country for expats to live in in a survey carried out by International Living Magazine (2011) and placed 3rd for being the best place for young people according to list 25 (2013). The reasoning behind these claims usually takes into consideration Malta’s pleasant climate, geographical position, low crime rate, a sound banking system and obviously its tax planning incentives and opportunities.

It is interesting to note that:

Currency: Malta is a full member of the European Union (EU) and holds the Euro as its official currency.

Capital City: The capital city of Malta is Valletta, named after Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette. The city has been awarded the title of European Capital of Culture in 2018.

Language: Despite being such a small country, Malta has retained its own language, Maltese. In addition, the majority of Maltese people also speak English and Italian.

Climate: Malta's bathing water is among the EU's best, which is an additional bonus to the Island’s 300 days of sunshine.

Accessibility: There are directs flights to/from all major cities in Europe and North Africa.

History: Malta boasts temples which date back to a time before any other structure in the world, including the pyramids in Egypt

MaltaInfrastructure: Malta offers an excellent Information Technology infrastructure (in fact Malta is referred to as a Smart Island)

Safety: Malta is the 2nd safest country in the world (UN World Risk Report, 2012)

Skills: Malta has consecutively scored the highest percentage of computer graduates among the 27 EU member states.

Labour: When it comes to recruitment and human resources, Malta guarantees value-for-money as wages are highly competitive notwithstanding the remarkable quality of Maltese workers.

The application of double taxation relief and the provision of tax refunds render Malta’s effective tax rate the lowest in Europe (generally between 0% and 6.25%). From a corporate perspective, together with other benefits such as the participation exemption , this tax system makes Malta ideal for establishing holding companies . On the other hand, Malta is also ideal when it comes to the setting of trading, manufacturing, research & development, gaming , intellectual property , aviation and shipping/yachting activities. Furthermore, with the help of Malta Enterprise, Malta is today in a position to offer a wide range of incentives that actively promote and aid investment within various sectors.

From a private client perspective, there are also a substantial number of benefits. Apart from its obvious Mediterranean pleasures; Malta offers highly attractive personal tax schemes. Mainly in the case of foreigners, Malta levies no taxation on worldwide income but only on locally sourced income as well as foreign income received in Malta. Additionally, foreigners may also benefit from various schemes such as the Global Residence Programme, the High Net Worth Individuals Scheme, the Highly Qualified Persons Scheme and the Malta Retirement Programme which involve a flat tax rate of 15% on applicable income. For individuals deriving UK pensions, Malta has now become one of the jurisdictions which meet HMRC regulations for a UK Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) .

Malta refrains from withholding any taxes on outbound payments of dividends, interest and royalties; from withholding net wealth or real estate taxes and; from applying CFC, Thin Capitalisation and transfer pricing regulations.