Malta opens its small-enterprise VAT exemption to businesses established elsewhere in the EU

What changed in detail

Act No. XXXVIII of 2024, the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2024, received Presidential assent on 17 December 2024 and came into force on 1 January 2025 (s.1(2)). It rebuilds the small-enterprise provisions of the VAT Act (Cap. 406) around three articles:

• Art. 11 (substituted): a taxable person established in Malta who qualifies as a small enterprise under Part One of the Sixth Schedule may register under art. 11 for supplies made within Malta. An art. 11 number carries no “MT” prefix and is not a VAT identification number.
• Art. 11A (new): a Malta-established small enterprise that supplies in another Member State and wants that State’s SME exemption applies to the Commissioner under Part Two of the Sixth Schedule. It receives its art. 10 or 11 number with the suffix “EX”. It must apply to cancel within 15 working days once its Union annual turnover exceeds the Union threshold.
• Art. 11B (new): a person established in another Member State is deemed to have applied once that State notifies Malta under Chapter Xa of Regulation (EU) 904/2010. Registration takes effect only when the Commissioner approves under Part Three of the Sixth Schedule. Malta must answer within 15 working days.

The Act also renames the Sixth Schedule “Small Enterprises” and lets such persons skip article 10 registration for those supplies (art. 10(4) proviso).

What it means

Before 2025, Malta’s small-enterprise exemption was domestic only. Since 1 January 2025 it works in both directions under the EU scheme. Malta-based small firms can use other Member States’ exemptions through an EX number. EU small firms reach Malta through their home tax authority and do not register with the Commissioner directly.

The scheme is in force as of November 2026. The MTCA’s July 2026 guidance on fiscal receipts for art. 11 exempt SMEs (mt-fiscal-receipt-art11-sme-2026) builds on it.