New Malta Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP)

Third Country Nationals can benefit from straightforward Residency Programme

The Malta Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP), is open to all third country, non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals, with a stable income and sufficient financial resources.

1. Key Features that set the MPRP apart from other programmes, include:

• There is no language test to obtain permanent residence
• Dependant children, regardless of age, can be included in the application, as long as they are unmarried
• Dependant parents and grandparents may also be included in the application
• Grandchildren may also be included, effectively allowing 4 generations to be included in one application.

A new agency ‘Residency Malta’ was established to manage the applications.

2. Under the new regulations, a small mandatory donation to a Maltese registered non-governmental organisation (NGO), has been introduced. There have also been changes to the investment and wealth requirements.

An individual will need to make an investment consisting of the following:

Physical Address in Malta

• Purchase a property with a minimum value of €350,000 (€ 300,000 South of Malta), or
• Rent a property, with a minimum rental cost of €12,000 (€ 10,000 South of Malta) per annum.

AND

Make one-off contributions, as follows:

• €58,000 – if the applicant rents a property, or
• €28,000 – if the applicant buys a qualifying property and
• An extra €7,500 per additional adult dependant or € 5,000 per child. This applies irrespective whether the applicant is buying or renting a property.

AND

• Donate a minimum amount of €2,000 to an NGO.

3. When have these payments to be made?

Application fee - €10,000

• Due within one month of the application submission
• Letter of approval - €30,000
• Due within two months of the application submission
• Maximum of 8 months to provide all due diligence documents and the remainder of the €30,000 or € 60,000, to be paid.

4. Wealth conditions

The main applicant should have at least €500,000 of net assets to qualify for the programme, and €150,000 of this €500,000 must consist of financial assets. The assets, however, only have to be maintained for the first 5 years.

Finally, health insurance will now only need to cover Malta and not the entire EU. This change should result in an annual reduction in the insurance premium.

5. Remittance Basis of Taxation

Individuals taking advantage of the above programme will be taxed on Malta source income and certain gains arising in Malta.

Individuals will not be taxed on non-Malta source income not remitted to Malta.

In addition, individuals will not be taxed on capital gains, even if this income is remitted to Malta.

There is an annual minimum tax of €5,000 per annum, for individuals that are Malta tax resident.