In 2014 the Maltese Government has launched DIGITAL MALTA which is a vision for the county in 2020 when “Malta will prosper as a digitally-enabled nation in all sectors of society. It’s about making citizens’ lives better, improving community services and helping enterprises to flourish and become more competitive through ICT.”
As part of this vision local firms will be encouraged and supported to embrace ICT to transform themselves into digital enterprises. This will strengthen their competitiveness and make them more export-orientated. Digital Malta will promote more start-ups, attract foreign investment, enable strategic alliances, encourage angel investment and crowd funding as well as nurture niche service providers.
Why Malta?
- the industry is being given priority by the government which is considering it as an important pillar of the Maltese economy;
- government will support enterprises by administering ICT training programmes for their employees. The programmes will focus on unskilled and semi-skilled workers with the objective of improving their productivity, employability and mobility. They will also promote understanding of new business models enabled through technology. In parallel, ICT up-skilling and re-skilling programmes will be re-introduced;
- measures are being taken to attract foreign ICT companies with the objective of transforming Malta into a regional hub for technological cooperation and trade;
- the legislative framework is in line with the main EU directives which makes it sufficiently flexible and easy to relate to different legal systems especially those within the EU;
- multi-fibre links are located in Malta, connected to various international carriers at Gigabit capacities such as Cable and Wireless, Telecom Italia and Interoute;
- Malta is ranked 25 th th in technological readiness from 144 countries around the world according to the latest Global Information Technology Report index 2015.
Malta tax for the ICT and Media sector
Malta Corporate Tax
Malta operates a full imputation tax system which completely eliminates the economic double taxation of company profits. While the corporate tax rate stands at 35%, upon a distribution of dividends, the shareholders are entitled to a refund of the Malta tax charged (generally 6/7ths).
Double Taxation Treaties
Malta has over 60 double taxation agreements, of which Maltese companies can avail themselves of.
Tax Incentives
The ITC industry in Malta enjoys a variety of fiscal incentives that address the needs of the Industry.
Tax on Intellectual Property
Expenditure on patents or patent rights may be amortised over the life of the patent or patent right. Any expenditure on intellectual property rights of a capital nature may be amortised over a period of three years, commencing on the period during which the expenditure was incurred. Furthermore Malta does not levy any withholding tax on outbound royalty payments, provided that certain conditions are met.
How we can assist you
We provide various services in this sector
- corporate structure planning and the development or expansion of any company in the ICT sector;
- application for and attainment of fiscal benefits available to the Malta ICT industry;
- We also assist and advise applicants in putting in place the commercial arrangements with third party service providers that may be required for their operations in Malta
- transfer of technology (know-how, patents, trademarks and copyright) and the applicable agreements
- we provide advice in both direct and indirect tax
- we also assist our clients in dealing with issues relating to the employment of expatriate personnel, including direct tax and work permit applications
- registration of trademarks both at national level and at the European Union level;
- we provide all necessary company compliance work to Maltese companies ranging from accounting, VAT returns preparation and submission to the audit of financial statements, submission of income tax returns as well as applications for tax refund
