Malta income tax calculator

Malta does not have a tax scale. It has seven.

Article 56 of the Income Tax Act sets out separate computations rather than one scale with adjustments. Three are the ones the tax authority publishes as headline tables — single, married and parent — and four more are variants for taxpayers with one or two children.

All seven use the same four rates: 0%, 15%, 25% and 35%. What differs is where the bands start, and the differences are large.

The exempt amount runs from €12,000 on the single computation to €22,500 on the married-with-two-children one — €10,500 of difference before a cent of tax is charged.

On €30,000 of chargeable income that works out at €4,100 single, €2,950 married, and €1,125 for a married couple with two children.

Every one of the seven puts the 35% band at €60,000. That is the one thing they all share, and it is why Malta's top rate is reached far earlier relative to salaries than in most of Europe.

A tariff written as "rate times income, minus an amount"

Malta publishes its rates the same way Japan and Luxembourg do: not as bands to be summed, but as a rate applied to the whole chargeable income with a fixed amount subtracted afterwards.

For a single taxpayer between €16,000 and €60,000 the law says: multiply the chargeable income by 25% and then subtract €3,400. That is algebraically identical to marginal bands, and it is a single line of arithmetic instead of three.

The subtracted amounts are what make the steps join up, and they are therefore a verification anchor. At €16,000 the 15% formula gives €600 and the 25% formula gives €600 as well; at €60,000 both the 25% and 35% formulas give €11,600.

This site's tests check that continuity at every boundary of every one of the seven computations. Six of the seven are continuous to the cent.

The seventh is not, and that is the next section.

A five-euro step that is in the statute

The computation for a parent maintaining one child under article 56(1)(b)(iv) has bands at €14,500, €21,000 and €60,000, with subtractions of €2,175, €4,275 and €10,270.

The first two join up exactly. The third does not. Just below €60,000 the 25% formula gives €10,725; just above it, the 35% formula gives €10,730. For continuity the subtraction would have to be €10,275, not €10,270.

So a taxpayer on that computation who crosses €60,000 of chargeable income pays €5 more than the continuous path would give — a genuine, if tiny, discontinuity in the rate schedule.

It is in the consolidated text of the Act, not in our reading of it: every other subtraction in every other computation is exactly what continuity requires, which is what makes this one stand out rather than look like a rounding convention.

This engine implements the statute as written, including the €5, and has a test that asserts the deviation exists and is exactly €5. Modelling the law and modelling what the law probably meant are different things, and this site does the first.

Year of assessment 2027 means income earned in 2026

Malta assesses the previous calendar year. The year of assessment 2027 charges income earned in 2026, which is why the rates on this page carry that label.

The consolidated text marks these bands as applicable from the year of assessment 2027, substituted by Act III of 2026. The set that applied to the year of assessment 2026 — income earned in 2025 — was different and lower at the exempt end.

That naming convention is the single most common source of error in Maltese tax figures, and it works in the opposite direction from South Africa's or Pakistan's: there, the year of assessment is named for the year it ends in and mostly covers the year before. In Malta it names the year *after* the income was earned.

Malta has widened these bands substantially across recent budgets, so the year attached to a Maltese rate table matters more than in a country whose scale sits still for a decade.

Anyone comparing this page against a published table should first check which year of assessment it refers to, and then check which of the seven computations it is showing.

The same income, four computations

€35,000 of chargeable income, run through four of the seven computations.

Single: nothing on the first €12,000, then the formula — €5,350 of tax, an effective rate of 15.3%.

Parent with a child: nothing on the first €13,000, then the formula — €5,050 of tax, an effective rate of 14.4%.

Married, jointly assessed: nothing on the first €15,000, then the formula — €4,200 of tax, an effective rate of 12%.

Married with two children: nothing on the first €22,500, then the formula — €2,175 of tax, an effective rate of 6.2%.

The spread between the first and last lines is €3,175 on identical income. Which computation applies is decided by circumstance and by a set of statutory conditions, not by preference.

The conditions attached to the better computations

The enhanced computations are not simply "have a child". Each carries conditions that a calculator cannot test and that the Act sets out at length.

The child must be under 18, or under 23 if in full-time education. For the parent computations the child must be maintained under the taxpayer's custody, or maintenance must be paid for them under article 12(1)(t).

Several variants require that the taxpayer or their spouse is a national of an EU or EEA member state, or holds long-term resident status. Where neither is, the child must have been born in Malta and be resident in Malta.

The single-parent variant under article 56(1)(b)(iii) adds more: sole custody, sole beneficiary of children's allowance, no financial assistance from the other parent, and not living in the same house as them. A taxpayer meeting all of those is taxed on the *married* table.

The calculator applies whichever computation you select and does not test any of those conditions. For anything consequential, article 56 is short enough to read and specific enough to answer the question.

How Malta compares with the rest of this site

Against Luxembourg, the closest structural relative on this site: both publish multiple tax classes as separate tariffs rather than one scale with adjustments, and both express them as rate-times-income-minus-an-amount.

Against Ireland, the other small English-speaking EU economy, the contrast is at the top. Ireland reaches 40% at €44,000 and adds a USC on top; Malta reaches 35% at €60,000 with nothing above it.

Against Portugal, the neighbour in the same demand bracket, Malta has four rates against nine and a much simpler structure — but seven versions of it.

Against the United Kingdom, the household treatment is the difference. The UK taxes individuals with a transferable allowance; Malta assesses couples jointly by default with an election out.

What Malta has that nothing else here does is a five-euro drafting artefact in a live rate schedule. It changes almost nothing and it is a good illustration of why a tax engine should be built from the statute rather than from a summary of it.

Four ways a Maltese estimate goes wrong

Using one Maltese rate table. There are seven, and the exempt amount alone ranges from €12,000 to €22,500.

Confusing the year of assessment with the income year. Year of assessment 2027 charges income earned in 2026, and the bands changed between them.

Assuming the married computation is always better. It is better than single on the same income, and a jointly assessed couple is taxed on their combined income — so two similar earners can do better with a separate return under article 49A.

Forgetting social security. It comes off pay before any of this and is not in the figure here.

Full imputation, and why Malta's headline rate misleads

Malta is the last country in the European Union with a full imputation system for company profits, and it changes what the personal rates mean.

A Maltese company pays corporate tax at 35%. When it distributes a dividend, the shareholder is credited with the whole of that tax rather than a part of it, so the dividend is never taxed twice — and where the shareholder's own rate is below 35%, the excess is refunded.

On top of that sit the refund mechanisms that made Malta's corporate regime well known: a shareholder receiving a dividend out of certain profits can claim a refund of a large share of the tax the company paid.

None of that touches employment income, which is what this page computes. It matters here because it is the reason Maltese effective rates and Maltese headline rates diverge so widely depending on how income arrives.

For someone on a salary, 35% above €60,000 is simply the top rate and there is nothing else to know.

The flat rates that sit beside the seven computations

Several kinds of income are taken out of article 56 entirely and charged at a flat rate instead.

Qualifying overtime is taxed at 15% up to a capped number of hours for employees below a salary threshold who do not hold a managerial post. Part-time income is likewise 15% up to a cap, at the taxpayer's election.

Pension income has had a growing exemption phased in across recent budgets, so a pensioner's effective position is not what the seven computations alone would give.

Royalties from qualifying literary works are charged at 15%, and rental income from residential property may be charged at 15% of gross on election, with no deductions.

Each of those is an election or a category rather than a rate band, none is modelled here, and each can move a Maltese taxpayer's effective rate a long way from the figure on this page.

Reading a Maltese figure correctly

Which computation. Seven, not one, and the exempt amount ranges from €12,000 to €22,500. It is decided by circumstance and statutory conditions, not by choice.

Which year of assessment. 2027 charges income earned in 2026, and Malta names the year *after* the income was earned — the opposite of the South African and Pakistani convention.

Which base. Chargeable income, after deductions and after social security contributions have come off pay.

Which kind of income. Overtime, part-time work, pensions, royalties and residential rent all have flat alternatives outside the seven computations.

Get those four right and a Maltese figure is straightforward: four rates, a subtraction, and one line of arithmetic. Get the computation wrong and it can be out by several thousand euros.

Social security, and the two classes of contributor

Maltese national insurance is charged as a percentage of basic weekly wage between a floor and a ceiling, with the employer matching the employee and the state adding a share of its own.

Employees are Class One contributors and the deduction is made by the employer. Self-employed and self-occupied people are Class Two, pay on a different base, and settle through provisional tax payments three times a year.

The ceiling is set by reference to a maximum pensionable income that differs for people born before and after 1962, which produces the unusual result that two employees on identical pay can contribute different amounts depending on their date of birth.

Contributions are not deductible from chargeable income for the purpose of article 56, so they reduce take-home pay without reducing the tax — the opposite of the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian treatment.

None of it is in the figure on this page, which is income tax alone.

Joint by default, separate by election

A married couple in Malta is assessed jointly on their combined income unless one of them elects otherwise, which is the reverse of the Spanish and Portuguese defaults.

Two elections exist. Article 49A allows a separate return, so each spouse files and is taxed on their own income. Article 50 allows the responsible spouse to opt for a separate computation while still filing jointly.

Either route takes each spouse onto the single or parent computation rather than the married one. The married table has a higher exempt amount, so the question is whether one wider band beats two narrower ones — and with two similar incomes it usually does not.

The arithmetic is worth doing rather than assuming: a couple with one earner is almost always better jointly assessed, and a couple with two similar earners is almost always better apart.

The calculator models each computation separately, which is what makes that comparison possible: run the joint income on the married table, then each income on the single table, and compare the totals.

Bands that have moved a long way, and quickly

Malta widened its bands sharply across the budgets for 2025 and 2026, and the effect on the exempt amounts is the clearest measure of it.

The single computation's exempt amount reached €12,000, the parent one €13,000 and the married one €15,000. Alongside them, four child-linked variants were added or reshaped, taking the most generous exempt amount to €22,500.

The €60,000 start of the 35% band did not move in any of the seven. So the widening happened entirely at the bottom, and the 25% band absorbed it by getting narrower on every computation.

That is a deliberate shape: relief concentrated on lower and middle incomes with the top of the scale left where it was, which in real terms tightens it year by year.

It also means a Maltese table more than a year old is not slightly out of date but substantially so, and it is why the year of assessment label on this page carries the weight it does.

Questions

How much income tax do I pay on €30,000 in Malta?

€4,100 on the single computation — an effective rate of 13.7%. The same income taxed on the married-with-two-children computation is €1,125. Malta has seven separate computations, so the answer depends on which one applies to you.

What are the Maltese tax rates?

Four rates in every computation — 0%, 15%, 25% and 35% — with the thresholds differing by computation. A single taxpayer pays nothing to €12,000, 15% to €16,000, 25% to €60,000 and 35% above. The married computation starts at €15,000 and the parent one at €13,000.

What are the single, married and parent rates?

Three of Malta's seven computations. Single: exempt to €12,000. Parent: exempt to €13,000. Married, jointly assessed: exempt to €15,000. Four further variants raise those thresholds for taxpayers with one or two children, up to €22,500 for a married couple with two.

Which year of assessment is this?

2027, which charges income earned in 2026. Malta names its year of assessment for the year *after* the income was earned, which is the opposite of the South African and Pakistani convention and the commonest source of error in Maltese figures.

Is there really a five-euro error in the Maltese rate schedule?

There is a five-euro discontinuity, and it is in the Act as consolidated. The parent-with-one-child computation under article 56(1)(b)(iv) subtracts €10,270 in the 35% band where continuity would require €10,275, so crossing €60,000 of chargeable income costs €5 more than the smooth path. Every other subtraction in every other computation is exactly right, which is what makes this one visible.

How is a married couple taxed in Malta?

Jointly by default, on their combined income, using the married computation. Either spouse can elect a separate return under article 49A, and the responsible spouse can opt for a separate computation under article 50 — in which case each is taxed on the single or parent table. For two similar incomes the separate route is often better.

What do non-residents pay?

A different schedule with almost no exempt amount: nothing on the first €700, 20% on the next €2,400, 30% on the next €4,700 and 35% on the rest. An EU or EEA national with at least 90% of worldwide income from Malta can claim the resident rates instead.