Malta Retirement Programme: the tax commissioner must receive your application by 31 December 2026

Malta's new rules protect today's terms only for an application the tax commissioner receives by 31 December 2026, and only a registered mandatary can file it. A file received in January is expected to fall under the new rules, with a higher minimum tax and a fee more than three times the one shown above, though the rules do not say so outright; whether a home bought before 2027 still counts depends on guidelines the commissioner has not yet published.

The rules require the home to be held when you apply, so a house hunt that runs past 31 December can cost you that protection. The Individual Tax Programme Rules, published in the Government Gazette on 14 July 2026, take effect on 1 January 2027. If your status is granted, or your application received, by 31 December 2026, the current terms keep applying until 31 December 2031, not indefinitely. A file logged by the commissioner in January misses that date, and the new rules do not say how a later application under the old programme is treated: ask for the answer in writing.

What the current rules ask

The main conditions of the retirement rules: Your pension must make up at least 75% of your chargeable income, and all of it must be received in Malta. You need health cover for all risks across the European Union, for you and your dependants. You must own or rent a home worth at least a minimum value and live in it as your main residence. And foreign income you bring into Malta is taxed at 15%, subject to a yearly minimum.

The minimum values are lower in Gozo and the south of Malta.

What 1 January 2027 changes

The new status for retired pensioners keeps the 75% pension test, raises the yearly minimum tax (to twice today's for someone with no dependants), sets one home value for all of Malta and Gozo, and charges a non-refundable fee more than three times today's. A home bought before 1 January 2027 for less may still count, as the commissioner's guidelines will decide. Status lasts five years, and each renewal costs a further fee.

Money to the state, money to the firm

Every filing on this programme goes through a registered mandatary: a professional, such as a lawyer, notary or accountant, registered with the tax commissioner to file for clients.

To the tax commissioner:

• The application fee shown above, paid when the mandatary files.
• The yearly minimum tax, due by 30 April.

To the firm:

• The mandatary's own fee, and separately any estate agent's commission on the home.

Put these to the mandatary:

1. On what date will the commissioner receive the file, and what record will prove it?
2. Must the deed or lease, the pension evidence and the health cover all be ready before filing?
3. If the file arrives after 31 December, what happens to it, and does your fee change?
4. Who files the yearly return with the minimum tax by 30 April, and is that in your fee?

If a mandatary has sent you an engagement letter or a fee quote, say yes at the box's first question and its lines are compared with the published rules; with nothing on paper yet, say no and enter the total you were quoted. The check compares a document or a figure with the published rules, and does not look at your application or advise on it; for advice on your own case, speak to a qualified immigration lawyer.

General information, not legal advice.