Malta requires "EXP" before the VAT number on fiscal receipts issued by article 11 exempt SMEs
- Jurisdiction
- 🇲🇹 Malta
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- Invoice rules
- Status
- In force
- Impact
- Action required
- Announced
- 13 July 2026
- Effective
- 13 July 2026
- Authority
- Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA)
- Systems
- POS, Invoicing
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
Maltese small businesses registered as exempt under article 11 of the VAT Act that issue fiscal receipts from a fiscal cash register.
Maltese article 11 exempt SMEs must reconfigure fiscal cash registers to print 'EXP' before the VAT registration number and to mark exempt-without-credit lines with 'E' or 'Exempt'.
POSInvoicing
The Malta Tax and Customs Administration published Guidelines on Issuing a Fiscal Receipt Using a Fiscal Cash Register as an Article 11 Exempt SME, dated 13 July 2026. Supplies exempt without credit under sub-item 16(1) of the Fifth Schedule to the Value Added Tax Act (Cap. 406) must be identified on the fiscal receipt with the letter 'E' or the word 'Exempt', and a fiscal receipt issued by a fiscal cash register must include the designation 'EXP' preceding the VAT registration number where the supplier is registered under article 11 of the Value Added Tax Act. The guidance replaces any previous guidelines on the same matter.
What changed in detail
The Malta Tax and Customs Administration published Guidelines on Issuing a Fiscal Receipt Using a Fiscal Cash Register as an Article 11 Exempt SME, dated 13 July 2026, replacing any earlier guidance on the same subject. A fiscal receipt from a fiscal cash register must carry the designation “EXP” immediately before the VAT registration number where the supplier is registered under article 11 of the VAT Act. Separately, supplies exempt without credit under sub-item 16(1) of the Fifth Schedule must be marked on the receipt with the letter “E” or the word “Exempt”.
What it means
This is a receipt-content rule, not an e-invoicing mandate — Malta has no clearance or continuous-transaction-control system, so the obligation is entirely about what the printed (or fiscal-register-generated) receipt shows, not how it is transmitted. Article 11 SMEs should check their fiscal cash register’s receipt template now: both the “EXP” prefix and the exempt-line marking are configuration changes, not filing changes, and neither has a phase-in period stated in the guidance.
Proof
The CfTC hereby directs that a fiscal receipt issued by means of a fiscal cash register is required to include the designation "EXP" preceding the VAT registration number in the case where the supplier is registered in accordance with article 11 of the VAT Act.
Source snapshot of the official page. Open full size ↗Archived from the official distribution · MTCA Guidelines on Issuing a Fiscal Receipt as an Article 11 Exempt SME, 13 July 2026 · mtca.gov.mt