Thinking of moving to Malta for my Company

Hi,

welcome to the forum.

Due to i-gaming and other internet companies the internet services in Malta are very good . Check out Melita ,for example.

Accountant and secretary will be easy to find. Salaries will be 'Maltese'.

For programmers you will be competing with the existing companies . Salaries paid are a lot higher but still probably lower than elsewhere so you should find what you are looking for.There are specialized agencies that will help you recruit personel.

It will be very easy to find a company 'home'. Depending what you want you can expect to pay between 500 and several thousand Euro's. Pembroke is probably not bad as it is still quite central , with good bus connections and decent parking and cheaper than Sliema or St. Julians. In the end you can use any of the property agencies as they all offer the same choice and the same prices. The properties listed on their websites are usually out-of-date so you will have to sit down with them and discuss what you need and what they can offer at that moment.

Malta is certainly a good choice for your kind of business.

Cheers
Ricky

Hello cystomatic,
my name is Hardy and I also think about to build my company on Malta. What are your experiences? Is it easy? Who long need the Malta Limited until it is founded?
It would be great when you have time to answer
Regards
Hardy

Hardiko wrote:

Hello cystomatic,
my name is Hardy and I also think about to build my company on Malta. What are your experiences? Is it easy? Who long need the Malta Limited until it is founded?
It would be great when you have time to answer
Regards
Hardy

Hello Hardy,

first of all, answer these questions below:

1) What is your company about? (are you manufacturing products or are you an internet based company)

2) Where are you from?

The company formation in Malta is the same as in every other European country in my opinion. Depends on the lawyer or consultant you choose it can take 2 - 14 days. Getting the company registered within 2 days costs extra (at least with my lawyer).
Malta has 35% corporate tax, although 30% of those are refundable, so you pay an effective tax of 5%. The 30% will be refunded to the companies shareholders, so most of the time you will have 2 companies, one is the operating company and the other is the holding company, which is used to receive the refunded money.

Hello cystomatic,
I am from germany and  I will a  company for internet marketing!
How much more I have to pay when the company rigister faster.
Regards
Hardy

Hardiko wrote:

Hello cystomatic,
I am from germany and  I will a  company for internet marketing!
How much more I have to pay when the company rigister faster.
Regards
Hardy

You'll pay $400 - $800 more (depends entirely on who you choose to register the company with).

I speak german as well by the way

Anyways, why exactly did you pick Malta? There are several other destinations that would be a perfect fit for you, like Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, etc.

Ich denke es ist der beste Platz für igaming. Hierfür möchte ich Werbung mit meiner Company machen
Gruß
Hardy

Hardiko wrote:

Ich denke es ist der beste Platz für igaming. Hierfür möchte ich Werbung mit meiner Company machen
Gruß
Hardy

Macht Sinn

Wann registrierst du die Firma in Malta?

Vielleicht schon im Januar, sonst im Februar

1) locally the infra is good with decent docsis and fibre connections, check out melita. internationally the bandwidth isnt the best. I believe there are two undersea fibre links which the two owners share via bgp. However,  its enough for remote working and skype etc. just dont host your servers there. My business is video on the the internet so we're heavier than ususal users and I am not aware of any issues just yet.

2) You might struggle with the devs, depending on which language you need. As a general rule, m$ are easy to find and PHP/open source more difficult. The uni of malta is a m$ shop. There are however lots of europeans willing to make to the move. PM me for info on salaries.

3) Yes. Make sure that when you rent your office it is registered as an official office ( ask the estate agent about this) as you cant use a residential apartment as the business address for a ltd company. Lots of accountants sell you this facility should you want it. Check out belair, frank salt, dhalia, remax ... there are plenty of estate agents. You split the cost of them with the landlord. We pay e650/month for a converted 3 bedrooom flat in a shabby but reasonable block in Ta' Xbiex for the office. Parking is an issue.

4) Why pembroke? It depends what you want.

You will need a whole bunch of notorised docs to set up the company and bank accounts etc. I would definitely use the services of a accountant/tax advisor to help you with the paperwork. Ask about 6/7 rebate rules for non-domiciled residents. This will bring your total corporate ( and personal since they are linked) tax rate to 5%. A further layer of offshoring can bring total effective tax rate to 0% !!

cystomatic wrote:

What I want to know:
1) What is the infrastructure in Malta like? What about Internet Access/speed?
2) Is it easy to find people to work for and fit my business (mainly looking for an accountant, secretary and 1 - 3 programmers).
3) Is it easy to find a corporate home (apartment/villa/house/penthouse). If so, how expensive are those? (would love if you can link me to a website that has a few properties for sale/rent)
4) I'm thinking of moving to Pembroke. What do you think about that decision? Or would you suggest me another location?

@Hardiko & cystomatic -> In english please on this Anglophone forum so that everybody can understand and participate!

Thank you,
Aurélie

cystomatic wrote:

I am a 16 year old (Yes 16!) entrepreneur and Internet Marketer from Italy.

Congratulations!

6/7 rule is true for taxation of the company profit.
You can make a parent company, which can get back the 30% of tax if you want to keep it as company funds.
In the end u want to spend is for personal things (buy yourself a house, car, etc) in this case u must tax after it as person if u get it as dividend.
So if u became resident of malta (u remain more than 183 days in Malta) according to duble taxations law, u must pay tax after your income in Malta.


Which means - depending on your income - the highest personal tax rate is 35%
http://www.ird.gov.mt/services/taxrates.aspx
Beside this u must pay Social Security Contribution as well, but it has a maximum.
http://www.ird.gov.mt/services/ssc/class1rates2013.aspx

If you remain resident of italy, then u must pay tax to italy...

I wish you more success in your business!

Andras

Entity wrote:

So if u became resident of malta (u remain more than 183 days in Malta) according to duble taxations law, u must pay tax after your income in Malta.


Which means - depending on your income - the highest personal tax rate is 35%
http://www.ird.gov.mt/services/taxrates.aspx
Beside this u must pay Social Security Contribution as well, but it has a maximum.
http://www.ird.gov.mt/services/ssc/class1rates2013.aspx

You kinda imply that if he were a resident of Malta he'd be paying 35% tax, which of course, isnt true. It'd be 5%. Since there is no taxation on dividends paid to company shareholders/directors when the tax has already been paid (and rebated).

Thanks for the correction.

I'm bit confused because this way u can avoid paying taxes, which is unfair to others  ( employees ). Correct me if I'm wrong' but even in the uk u have to count dividends into ur income and tax after it ( although u will get 10% tax credit what u can substract from the effective payable income tax. So if u are in the 10% lvl, u don't have to pay any tax  )

Sorry for the missleading post, i have no personal experience ( yet ), i just posted the info that i found online.

Regards,

Andras

Entity wrote:

Thanks for the correction.

I'm bit confused because this way u can avoid paying taxes, which is unfair to others  ( employees ). Correct me if I'm wrong' but even in the uk u have to count dividends into ur income and tax after it ( although u will get 10% tax credit what u can substract from the effective payable income tax. So if u are in the 10% lvl, u don't have to pay any tax  )

Sorry for the missleading post, i have no personal experience ( yet ), i just posted the info that i found online.

Regards,

Andras

Yep, you're right about the UK, but as I understand it personal dividends aren't taxable here, if they come from a company that has already been taxed in Malta.

Caveat emptor - I am not actually doing this at the moment, its just what the accountant says..

Check this, i think it contains everything you need to know

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_MT/mt/s … /index.htm

[Moderated: no free ads on the forum pls]

I am also moving to Malta soon and relocating my ebusiness company there. I do not think you can pay 0% tax as brayster99 suggest. As far as I know the 7/7 refund is only for holding companies, but you need a trading company which is going to be taxed at 35% and refunded 6/7 so final tax is 5%.

brayster99 I think you are also wrong with his personal incomes. There is no special tax for dividends but if he remains being a Italian tax resident he will have to pay his personal taxes in Italy. If he becomes a Maltese tax resident then he will still have to pay those income that he receives from Malta (including the mentioned dividends) and they will be taxed from 0%, to 15%, 25% and 35% as maximum. The 5% already paid by the company will be refunded from his personal taxes. Also he can maybe has its own salary as the CEO of the company and he could be just taxed for that salary at 15% (I am not sure if this 15% rule is only valid for igaming and finances companies).

There is a better tax efficient solution which implies a holding company in a different country but that is usually an expensive structure that only make sense when you have much more profits.

[Moderated]

Good to hear that dr.robertpiscopo. That means I am correctly advised and also did my own research properly

cystomatic with regards to your other questions:


1) What is the infrastructure in Malta like? What about Internet Access/speed?

Internet access speed is good but as far as I know you might have problems with electricity. It might be useful for you to have some electricity "backup". Some business centers and building have its own electricity generators.


2) Is it easy to find people to work for and fit my business (mainly looking for an accountant, secretary and 1 - 3 programmers).

I do not like very much how the recruitment process works here (basically by a few agencies rather than by the Internet). Staff related to IT businesses such as programmers earn quite more than Maltese average but less than programmers in Italy. Also security social costs are much lower. In comparison with my country I expect to save 40% on salaries just because of social security costs are limited to something around 1700€/year per worker. You also have a lot of chances to hire other European workers with lower costs than if you hire them in their countries (for example some people in Northern Europe might love to live and work in a sunny country).


3) Is it easy to find a corporate home (apartment/villa/house/penthouse). If so, how expensive are those? (would love if you can link me to a website that has a few properties for sale/rent)

That shouldn't be much different than renting an office in Italy in an area where 400k people lives. I found Remax-Malta to be the one with more offers but you might also want to check some other agencies and websites.


4) I'm thinking of moving to Pembroke. What do you think about that decision? Or would you suggest me another location?

I have not decided that yet for my company but my current idea is to start in a Business center and then, once I know much better the country, move to our own office. One idea I had was to rent an office in the Sliema surroundings area (Sliema, St Julians, etc.) if I will be hiring foreigners. If I prefer to hire mainly Maltese people I would maybe look for another area such as Birkirkara. As brayster99 says you will have to make sure that the office is registered as an official office valid for your business.

Lusco wrote:

1) What is the infrastructure in Malta like? What about Internet Access/speed?

Internet access speed is good but as far as I know you might have problems with electricity. It might be useful for you to have some electricity "backup". Some business centers and building have its own electricity generators.

There is a dual fibre connection to Sicily and as I read in Malta times they going to build an connection for electricity this year.
Overall connection is not bad, but it isn't recommended to run your production servers in Malta.

Lusco wrote:

2) Is it easy to find people to work for and fit my business (mainly looking for an accountant, secretary and 1 - 3 programmers).

I do not like very much how the recruitment process works here (basically by a few agencies rather than by the Internet). Staff related to IT businesses such as programmers earn quite more than Maltese average but less than programmers in Italy. Also security social costs are much lower. In comparison with my country I expect to save 40% on salaries just because of social security costs are limited to something around 1700€/year per worker. You also have a lot of chances to hire other European workers with lower costs than if you hire them in their countries (for example some people in Northern Europe might love to live and work in a sunny country).

I was recruited from Hungary to pentasia. So agencies can help you. For a good programmer expect 30k+ EUR yearly gross salary, as IT is a growing sector in Malta. You can easily recruit good programmers from easter / northern EU, I have some good programmers, who willing to move from Hungary, if you looking for some.

Lusco wrote:

3) Is it easy to find a corporate home (apartment/villa/house/penthouse). If so, how expensive are those? (would love if you can link me to a website that has a few properties for sale/rent)

That shouldn't be much different than renting an office in Italy in an area where 400k people lives. I found Remax-Malta to be the one with more offers but you might also want to check some other agencies and websites.

Be aware, that agencies keeps every rented / expired flats/offices on their site. So they are not accurate Better to call / email them. Generally renting is fairly cheap in Malta.

Lusco wrote:

4) I'm thinking of moving to Pembroke. What do you think about that decision? Or would you suggest me another location?

I have not decided that yet for my company but my current idea is to start in a Business center and then, once I know much better the country, move to our own office. One idea I had was to rent an office in the Sliema surroundings area (Sliema, St Julians, etc.) if I will be hiring foreigners. If I prefer to hire mainly Maltese people I would maybe look for another area such as Birkirkara. As brayster99 says you will have to make sure that the office is registered as an official office valid for your business.

Sliema is good for business, St Julians and Paceville is a tourist center, so very busy in the season. Maybe not too good for working Pembroke is my current target for living, quiet an still close to the central.

Hey How are you,

Was wondering had you made any decisions yet regarding Malta, if you need any assistance let me know I am a journalist here.

Regards

Welcome to Expat.com jasonire!

Do not hesitate to help and participate on the forum.

Harmonie.