Working from Malta as a Netherlands resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Malta

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Malta, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueTax residency

   Crossing the residence guideline exposes worldwide income to Malta tax

   Once your presence crosses the roughly 183-day calendar-year guideline, or your intention and permanent home already point to a settled life in Malta, you become a resident for Malta tax purposes. If you are also domiciled in Malta, standard progressive rates apply to worldwide income for the 2026 basis year: 0 percent up to 12,000 euro, 15 percent up to 16,000 euro, 25 percent up to 60,000 euro, and 35 percent above that, with higher bands for married couples and parents. If you are resident but not domiciled, the non-dom remittance basis applies instead, see the related income tax finding.

2. Significant issuePermanent residency and citizenship

   Citizenship by direct investment has been ruled unlawful

   Malta's citizenship by naturalisation for exceptional services by direct investment programme, the golden passport route, offered a direct investment or contribution of 600,000 to 750,000 euro, a property purchase of 700,000 euro or lease of 16,000 euro a year, a 10,000 euro philanthropic donation, and a 36-month residence period, or 12 months at the higher contribution. On 29 April 2025 the Court of Justice of the EU, Case C-181/23, ruled this scheme breaches EU treaty law, calling it the commercialisation of the status of national of a member state without a genuine link, and ordered Malta to end it. Malta must bring the scheme into compliance or terminate the direct-investment route entirely. The wind-down mechanics for pending or already-granted applicants are not confirmed.

3. Significant issueMoving your company

   Running your foreign company's management from Malta risks its tax home

   A non-Maltese company managed and controlled from Malta becomes Malta tax-resident, taxed on Malta-source income plus any income remitted to Malta, and can also create a Maltese permanent establishment. A relocating founder who keeps running their foreign company day-to-day from a Malta base risks dragging that company into Malta's tax net without ever intending to.

4. Needs checkingImmigration and visa

   Your nationality needs a Schengen C visa before travel

   Your nationality is not on the Schengen visa-exempt list, so nationals such as Indonesians, Indians or Chinese need a uniform Schengen short-stay Type C visa arranged before travel, capped at 90 days within any rolling 180-day period once granted. There is no Malta-specific e-visa distinct from the Schengen system, and Malta participates in the EU's ETIAS travel authorisation rollout for visa-exempt nationals, though exact go-live timing is unconfirmed. Overstaying a Schengen status triggers fines, removal and a possible Schengen-wide entry ban recorded in SIS, enforced by Identita and border checks. No Malta-specific overstay fine figure was confirmed from a primary source in this research.

5. Needs checkingSocial security

   No coordination mechanism, your home rules decide everything

   Malta holds bilateral social security agreements with Australia and Canada, and a reciprocal post-Brexit arrangement with the UK, but has no totalization agreement with the United States, Brazil, Singapore, the UAE or Indonesia. Outside those covered countries there is no certificate-of-coverage mechanism, so whether your home coverage keeps running while you are away depends purely on your home country's own domestic rules. A Nomad Permit holder working for a foreign employer and covered by a home-country system is generally not enrolled in Maltese social security, since there is no Maltese employer to create the enrollment hook, though this is not expressly codified.

6. Needs checkingPersonal income tax

   The non-dom remittance basis is Malta's headline mover regime

   An individual who becomes resident but not domiciled in Malta is taxed on income arising in Malta, and on foreign income only to the extent it is remitted to Malta. Crucially, foreign-source capital gains are never taxed even if remitted to Malta. The remittance basis applies automatically by operation of law, with no election form, you simply file on that basis and manage what you remit. Non-doms with foreign income of 35,000 euro or more, not otherwise fully taxed in Malta, owe an annual minimum tax of 5,000 euro before double-tax relief. Below that foreign-income level, no minimum applies.

What tends to surprise people here

• No rigid day-count test, residency is a facts-and-intention question
• The Nomad Permit's own income tax rules are not fully confirmed
• No social security agreement with the US, Brazil, Singapore, the UAE or Indonesia

Tax treaty between Netherlands and Malta