More substance, for companies already here

Malta's Income Tax Act speaks of control and management. A company incorporated outside Malta is resident here for tax if the control and management of its business are exercised in Malta; one incorporated in Malta is resident here in any case. Where and how your board takes its decisions is a question for your tax adviser.

Not for VAT: under EU rules, a postal address alone cannot be a business's place of establishment, and a fixed establishment needs permanence and suitable people and equipment. Banks must also understand where your business is carried on. Providing a registered office or an address on its own is a company service that needs MFSA authorisation; we lease space.

Under the EU VAT rules that apply in Malta, it is a place other than the business's main establishment with enough permanence, and enough people and equipment, to receive and use services or to supply them. A VAT number alone does not make one. Whether your Malta set-up is a fixed establishment is a question for your VAT adviser.

Banks, auditors, external accountants and tax advisers are subject persons under Malta's anti-money-laundering rules. They must understand the purpose of the relationship and your business and risk profile. For a bank account used to trade, the FIAU says the bank needs to understand the activity, including where it takes place. Tell them plainly what you do in Malta, and where.

They can be part of it. For VAT, EU rules count the place where management meets among the signs of where a business is established, and when the signs disagree, the place where essential decisions are taken prevails. Under Maltese company law the directors manage the business. Our boardrooms seat eight to thirty, by the hour.

It never became law, and it has been withdrawn. The Commission proposed rules on shell entities in December 2021, listed the proposal for withdrawal in its work programme of 21 October 2025 and approved the withdrawal on 22 July 2026; the withdrawal was published in the Official Journal on 29 October 2026. The rules on this page apply regardless: tax residence, where a business is established for VAT, and your bank's due diligence.

No rule we found names a type of office. The tests look at what happens in Malta: where decisions are taken, whether there are people and equipment, and where the business is carried on. A desk or an office for people who work here, and a boardroom for board meetings, can be part of that; your advisers judge the whole.