Mobility brief
Malta is the English-language EU option for someone whose income is earned elsewhere: a remittance basis for foreign income, 10% on authorised remote work, and 15% on qualifying skilled employment. It is expensive, and since April 2025 it no longer sells a passport, whatever the older official pages still say.
Sources verified 2026-07-21
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The Nomad Residence Permit taxes income from authorised remote work at 10%, the lowest headline rate on any EU nomad route OmniFlag covers, in a country where English is an official language. The limit is time: the permit runs a year at a time to a four-year maximum and leads nowhere permanent.
The remote-work route: authorised work for employers and clients outside Malta.
| Tax on authorised work | 10% |
| Minimum gross income | EUR 42,000 per year |
| Maximum stay | Four years, then it ends |
The 10% rate is statutory; the income threshold, the one-year renewals and the four-year ceiling are published by the administering agency rather than by the rules themselves.
The residence route on property plus fixed government payments.
| Property | Buy from EUR 375,000, or rent from EUR 14,000 a year |
| Government contribution | EUR 37,000, owned or rented |
| Administration fee and donation | EUR 60,000 fee, plus EUR 2,000 to an NGO |
The full-time-employment bar in the regulations attaches to a dependent parent or grandparent, not to your spouse. A dual-income couple is not caught by it.
These are decided by different authorities, under different rules, on different clocks. The one people get wrong is the second.
Granted by the immigration authority. Says nothing about tax.
The nomad permit and the residence programme let you live in Malta. Tax residency is a separate question, and Malta answers it by whether you actually reside here rather than by counting days, so there is no safe number of days that keeps you outside it. Once you are resident but not domiciled, Malta taxes your foreign income on what you bring in, which is the clock worth understanding before you settle in.
A person not ordinarily resident in Malta, or not domiciled in Malta, is taxed on foreign income only on the amount received in Malta, and no tax is payable on capital gains arising outside Malta.
The Nomad Residence Permit rules charge income tax at ten percent on chargeable income from authorised work, meaning services provided remotely for an employer or clients not resident in Malta.
From 1 January 2026, a 15% rate applies to qualifying employment income up to EUR 7,000,000 on exercising the statutory option, with a minimum qualifying income of EUR 65,000.
Naturalisation by residence requires twelve months in Malta immediately before applying, plus four years in aggregate during the preceding six.
A generic read against Malta's cited thresholds. Your plan weighs all six of your inputs against every destination.
A person not ordinarily resident in Malta, or not domiciled in Malta, is taxed on foreign income only on the amount received in Malta, and pays no tax on capital gains arising outside Malta. Both provisions are disapplied for long-term residents, for holders of a permanent residence certificate or card, and for anyone whose spouse is ordinarily resident and domiciled in Malta.
A minimum tax of EUR 5,000 a year applies to an individual ordinarily resident but not domiciled in Malta, not already on a scheme fixing a minimum tax, whose foreign income reaches EUR 35,000 and is not fully received in Malta. Where spouses are jointly assessed the foreign income is combined.
The Nomad Residence Permit rules charge ten percent on chargeable income from authorised work: services provided remotely through telecommunications technology for an employer, or clients, not resident in Malta and not carrying on business here through a fixed place of business. Relief for double taxation applies.
The permit requires a minimum gross annual income of EUR 42,000 for applications filed on or after 1 April 2024, runs one year at a time with renewals to a four-year maximum, and requires health insurance covering Malta and the EU.
From 1 January 2026, on exercising the statutory option, a 15% rate applies to qualifying employment income from an eligible office up to EUR 7,000,000, with any excess taxed normally. The minimum qualifying income is EUR 65,000, rising by EUR 10,000 every five years. The earlier Highly Qualified Persons Rules are closed rather than repealed: no new determinations after 31 December 2025 and no benefit after year of assessment 2030.
The Malta Permanent Residence Programme requires a qualifying property bought for at least EUR 375,000 or rented at EUR 14,000 a year, a EUR 37,000 government contribution, a EUR 2,000 donation to a registered NGO, and a EUR 60,000 administration fee plus EUR 7,500 per dependant. The full-time-employment restriction applies to a dependent parent or grandparent, not to a spouse.
Naturalisation by residence requires residence in Malta throughout the twelve months immediately preceding the application and, in the six years before that, an aggregate of at least four years. Malta has permitted dual citizenship since 10 February 2000.
Moving to Malta is four different jobs for four different people, and the order matters more than the choice of any one of them. Here is the sequence, what each person settles, and what to hold them to in writing.
Before you sell anything, move your family, or claim to have left
This is the one whose answer can make the rest of the plan pointless, so it is worth knowing before you spend anything on the rest. A residence permit somewhere else is not the same thing as having stopped being tax-resident where you are.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. A written residence and departure-date memo, with the tax on leaving set out asset by asset, and a list of the evidence your position depends on.
Six to twelve months before you intend to move
Routes look interchangeable from outside and are not. Which one you qualify for depends on evidence you may not have gathered yet, and gathering it is often the long pole.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. A route recommendation with the eligibility tested against your documents, plus a dated checklist of what is still missing.
Only after the lawyer has frozen the list
Ordering apostilles and translations before the list is settled is the most common way to pay twice. Certified documents also expire, so starting early can be worse than starting late.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. Authenticated originals and accepted translations, tracked so you know where every document physically is.
Once your status is approved
Approval is not the same as a working life. Banking, health cover, and a tenancy each have their own requirements, and several of them want the paperwork from the earlier stages.
What only they can settle
Ask for it in writing. A working household: identity documents, an address, cover, banking, and a calendar of what renews when.
A good introduction is not the same as a good engagement. These are worth asking on the first call, whoever made the introduction.
OmniFlag is not a law firm or a tax adviser. Experts are retained independently and their engagement letter defines what they advise on, what they file, and what they deliver.
A note for US citizens and green-card holders. US federal tax follows you wherever you live. A move to Malta does not reduce your US federal tax, and this page makes no such claim.
Citizenship by investment is closed, and the official pages have not all caught up. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against the scheme in April 2025 and Malta repealed it in July 2025. Maltese government pages still display the old contribution and property figures under a live-looking heading, so a figure you find on an official site may describe a scheme that no longer exists.
The remittance basis has carve-outs that catch ordinary movers. The provisions that tax foreign income only on what you remit, and exempt foreign capital gains, do not apply to long-term residents, to holders of a permanent residence certificate or card, or to anyone whose spouse is ordinarily resident and domiciled in Malta. Settling in for the long run can end the treatment you moved for.
There is a minimum tax of EUR 5,000 a year for an individual ordinarily resident but not domiciled whose foreign income reaches EUR 35,000 and is not fully brought into Malta. The remittance basis is not a zero-tax outcome.
The nomad permit ends. It runs a year at a time to a four-year maximum and confers no path to permanence, so it suits a stint rather than a settlement.
Only what you bring in, if you are not domiciled here. Foreign income is taxed on the amount received in Malta and foreign capital gains are not taxed at all. Two catches: a EUR 5,000 minimum tax applies once foreign income reaches EUR 35,000 and is not fully remitted, and the treatment is switched off for long-term residents, permanent-residence holders, and anyone whose spouse is ordinarily resident and domiciled in Malta.
Yes, and it is the cheapest headline rate in the set. The Nomad Residence Permit taxes authorised remote work at 10%, needs a gross income of at least EUR 42,000 a year, and is renewed annually to a four-year maximum. It does not lead to permanent residence, so plan it as a stint.
No. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against Malta's investor-citizenship scheme in April 2025 and Malta repealed it in July 2025. Maltese government pages still display the old contribution and property figures, so treat any price you find for it as describing a scheme that has closed. The ordinary route is five years of residence, and dual citizenship is allowed.
Southern Europe
Passive-income and remote-work residence, a defined path to a passport, and dual citizenship kept.
Southern Europe
Residence for income earned abroad, a flat-rate tax window for new arrivals, and a defined route to a passport.
Southern Europe
A flat 7% on all foreign income for ten years, for a pension moved to a qualifying southern town.
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OmniFlag helps you research and plan. It is not a law firm or tax advisor and does not give legal or tax advice. Licensed experts validate the plan before anything is filed: a cross-border tax adviser where you are leaving, then an immigration lawyer in Malta.