Company registration in Malta

Malta is described almost everywhere as a five per cent country. That figure is real, and it is also the end of a sequence rather than a rate anybody is charged. The company is taxed at thirty-five per cent, the profit is distributed, and the shareholder then claims back six sevenths of the Malta tax paid on it. Between the payment and the refund the money is outside the business.

Our other work on the island is listed on the Malta page. Looking at Malta beside another country for the same company is easier from company registration.

How the thirty-five becomes five

• The company is charged income tax at a flat 35% on its chargeable income.
• The profit is distributed as a dividend, which is where the imputation system attaches.
• The shareholder claims a refund of six sevenths of the Malta tax paid on the distributed trading profit.
• What remains in the group is close to 5% of the original profit.
• Nothing in the sequence starts until a distribution is made, so retained profit stays taxed at thirty-five.

Two routes for the same profit

Full imputation with the refund

The classical route. Thirty-five per cent is paid, the dividend carries an imputation credit, and the shareholder recovers six sevenths. It gives the low effective figure and costs the most working capital.

The final tax at fifteen per cent

An optional regime brought in by the Final Income Tax Without Imputation Regulations, published on 2 September 2025. Tax of fifteen per cent is final: no refund at shareholder level, no imputation credit on the dividend.

Choosing between them

The election runs for five consecutive years, and leaving means five more years back on imputation before it can be made again. It is aimed at groups inside the global minimum tax, because below that a refunded five beats an unrefundable fifteen.

What the registry needs and charges

The Registrar of Companies at the Malta Business Registry registers the memorandum and articles and issues the certificate of registration. For a private company, no less than twenty per cent of the nominal value of each share taken up is paid up on the signing of the memorandum, and the paid-up capital is evidenced by a bank deposit advice with the filing.

The scale carries on upward in bands above five thousand euros. It rises with the authorised capital rather than with the paid-up part, so the figure written into the memorandum is a cost decision as well as a corporate one. Value added tax is charged separately at a standard eighteen per cent.

Sources: registration fees by authorised share capital and the twenty per cent paid up on signing — the Malta Business Registry; the final fifteen per cent option — the Final Income Tax Without Imputation Regulations, 2025; the thirty-five per cent charge and the shareholder refund — the Income Tax Act and the Income Tax Management Act.