Relocating to Malta from CA, USA

Hey there,

I have a storm of short questions about Malta.

I may be very wrong on this but you're allowed to point fingers.

I don't work right now, I'm not registered as a business (company / trader) anywhere. I'm in California on travel visa and I can't make money (here) because my clients from what I do independently and remotely are in the US and this will be violation of my visa status (and I would like to really, come back again).

I would like to move to Malta. I'm an EU national so I can enter the country and I have the right to live and/or work without needing to ask for a permission (I know about the residency card). I plan to book a hotel and look for rentals. I can strike a 12 month lease in order to get a contract and also I plan to move in around January (off the season) as I would need an address in order to register with all the government agencies for self-employment (I know the list).

What I don't know is how to do the taxes later on. I gathered that Maltese Revenue will not account for tax payable on income that is not remitted to Malta - this means when I start doing "business" as a self-employed person in Malta but only a proportion of my income will be sent to Malta (I want local HSBC) that those are the earnings that I pay income tax on. If this holds even remotely true, than I don't understand how to fill the tax forms properly. Do I declare my full income (revenue, earnings) and only pay the tax on what I remitted to Malta? (Which is I guess my good word, I don't get how can I show this in a tax form).

Do I perform some soft of tax sorcery and only declare the money remitted to Malta? Perhaps I can forge the books (a joke) so it looks good on the paper. No, but really I don't mind paying the tax at whatever rate on even all the income. Malta is probably the nicest place in the EU (I'been around) and the overall yearly weather is kinda close to California so I'm in one way or another. I plan to stay for 2 years.

It's also worth noting that I have 3 different lines of work and collectively they represent around 30 clients all over the US so the easier it is to keep the records in check the better for me as I can spend more time on pastizzi and sunshine.

Fellow expats - thanks for any help and I will very likely contact a local tax wizards for more clearance but this is the first shot (also if you can point at tax firms that will talk to me about this please do)

Have a nice day do.

Michael.