Malta tax for individuals in 2026: income tax rates, remittance basis, property and special programmes

Malta is searched as a tax haven and, for most people who live and work there, taxed like an ordinary EU country: the top rate is 35% and it starts at €60,001. What earns the reputation is narrower. A resident whose domicile is elsewhere pays tax on foreign income only when it reaches Malta, and pays nothing on foreign capital gains; and the sale of Maltese property is taxed on the price at a flat rate rather than on the gain.

The rates below are read from the Malta Tax and Customs Administration's 2026 rates page and its note on the 2026 Budget amendments on 26 October 2026, and from its pages on tax residence, non-resident rates and the property tax system. The programmes are read in their own rules, as recorded in our Malta verification file.

Malta income tax rates 2026 for single, married and parent taxpayers

Tax is worked out as chargeable income times the rate, minus a fixed amount. The three long-standing rate sets for 2026:

On the single rates, €30,000 of chargeable income pays €4,100, €50,000 pays €9,100, €80,000 pays €18,600 and €120,000 pays €32,600. For comparison, the same €50,000 pays €6,900 on the Cyprus scale from 2026, which is in Cyprus tax for individuals.

New Malta family tax rates from 2026: married and parent rates with children

The 2026 Budget added four rate sets for families with children, in force from 1 January 2026:

A married couple with two children and €50,000 of joint chargeable income pays €5,925, against €7,950 on the ordinary married rates. The new rates are for Malta residents, and the tax administration's note limits them to spouses or parents who are EU or EEA nationals, or long-term residents whose child was born and lives in Malta. A third-country family that has just arrived should not count on them.

Malta tax rates for non-residents

A non-resident taxed in Malta on Maltese income uses a separate, steeper table, unchanged since 2008:

€30,000 of Maltese income taxed at non-resident rates pays €9,660, more than twice the €4,100 a resident single person pays.

Who is a Malta tax resident: 183 days, or arriving to live there

The tax administration treats residence as "a question of fact", not of nationality. Two routes make a person resident for a year:

• being present in Malta for more than 183 days in that year, for whatever reason;
• coming to Malta to establish residence, which makes a person resident from the date of arrival, even in a short first year.

A person who lives in Malta on a permanent or indefinite basis is also ordinarily resident, and repeated long stays over several years can make a temporary visitor ordinarily resident too. A residence permit does not make anyone tax resident by itself; the two tests are separate, and how they interact on the permanent residence route is in the Malta residency guide.

Malta remittance basis: how non-doms are taxed

What Malta taxes you on depends on two statuses at once. In the tax administration's words, those "ordinary resident and domiciled in Malta are subject to tax on a worldwide basis, whilst those who are either not domiciled or not ordinarily resident in Malta are only taxable on a remittance basis."

For a resident on the remittance basis:

• foreign income is taxed only to the extent it is remitted to Malta;
• foreign capital gains are not taxed even when remitted;
• income arising in Malta is taxed in the ordinary way, on the scale above;
• a minimum tax of €5,000 a year applies where unremitted foreign income is €35,000 or more.

Domicile is a legal status separate from residence, and moving to Malta does not by itself change it. What narrows the advantage is usually the home country: the UK, for example, limits its treaty relief to what Malta actually taxes, which is in living in Malta from the UK. How Malta compares with Cyprus, Greece and Portugal is in non-dom regimes in Europe.

Malta property tax when selling: 8% of the price, not the gain

Malta has no annual property tax. When property in Malta is sold, the seller pays a final withholding tax on the value transferred — the price, not the profit. The tax administration's property tax FAQ, last updated 29 August 2025, gives:

A home the seller has owned and lived in as his own residence for at least three consecutive years is exempt if it is sold within twelve months of moving out. On the buying side, stamp duty is paid by the buyer, generally at 5% of the higher of the price and the market value; the detail on a residence purchase is in the Malta residency guide.

Because the rate falls on the price, a sale at a loss is still taxed, and a large gain is taxed lightly. On a flat bought for €300,000 and sold seven years later for €400,000, the 8% comes to €32,000 — 32% of the €100,000 gain. Had it sold for €600,000, it would be €48,000, or 16% of a €300,000 gain.

Malta special tax programmes: 15% and 10% flat rates

Three programmes take a person off the scale for particular income:

• Global Residence Programme, S.L. 123.148, for non-EU nationals: 15% on foreign income remitted to Malta, with a minimum tax of €15,000 a year, and a home bought for at least €275,000 or rented for €9,600 a year, less in Gozo and the south.
• Malta Retirement Programme, S.L. 123.134, for EU, EEA and Swiss nationals: 15% on remitted foreign income, a minimum of €7,500 plus €500 per dependant, and a pension making up at least 75% of chargeable income. The detail and the 2027 changes are in retiring in Malta.
• Nomad Residence Permit, S.L. 123.210: 10% on income from the authorised remote work, with nothing charged in the first twelve months. The detail is in the Malta digital nomad visa.

From 1 January 2027 the Individual Tax Programme Rules, L.N. 195 of 2026, replace the first two with one set of rules: a home for €700,000 or rent of €14,000 a year, a minimum tax of €35,000 for global status and €15,000 for retired pensioners. Applications received by 31 December 2026 keep the old terms until 31 December 2031.

Is Malta a tax haven?

For a resident who works in Malta, no: Maltese salaries are taxed on the scale above and reach 35%. For a resident whose domicile is elsewhere and whose income is mostly foreign, Malta taxes only what is brought in and never the foreign gains, and that is the arrangement the reputation rests on. The other half of the reputation comes from the company tax refund system, which concerns companies rather than individuals and is not covered on this page.

Frequently asked questions

Where this sits in the rest of the site

The residence routes are in the Malta residency guide, retirement in retiring in Malta, remote work in the Malta digital nomad visa, and the UK treaty in living in Malta from the UK. Every figure here is traced on the sources page.

If tax is part of why you are considering Malta

We do not give tax advice. What we do is put a person who knows what they are asking in front of a licensed adviser in Malta. The questions that decide this are rarely the rate. They are whether you will be resident at all, whether your domicile stays outside Malta, how your foreign income will be kept apart from what you remit, and what your home country does with the part you leave abroad. Send them through the enquiry form. We take no part in the fee.

Sources: where each figure comes from

• The 2026 single, married and parent rates, the four new family rate sets and their conditions: Malta Tax and Customs Administration, tax rates for individuals 2026 and "New Tax Rates, 2026 — Budget Amendments", read 26 October 2026.
• Non-resident rates: MTCA, tax rates for non-residents, the table applicable from 2008, read 26 October 2026.
• Residence, ordinary residence and the remittance basis: MTCA, tax residence page; the €5,000 minimum and foreign capital gains: MTCA guidelines on the remittance basis, as recorded in our Malta verification file.
• Final withholding tax rates and the own-residence exemption: MTCA, new property tax system FAQ, last updated 29 August 2025, read 26 October 2026; stamp duty at 5%: MTCA, buying property.
• The programmes: S.L. 123.148, S.L. 123.134, S.L. 123.210 and L.N. 195 of 2026, as recorded in our Malta verification file.
• Not published here: social security contributions; deductions and allowances; the part-time and overtime rates; stamp duty reliefs for first-time buyers; and the company tax refund system.