Finance Minister announces company tax regime overhaul by 2025 / Malta News Briefing – Friday 29 April 2022

Updated 1245 – Mid-Day Briefing

Finance Minister announces company tax regime overhaul by 2025: Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has revealed that Government is currently working towards a major overhaul of Malta’s current tax systems, responding to developments at OECD and EU level which have called for countries to move away from systems which effectively meant foreign companies paid as little as 5% tax in the Maltese jurisdiction. Caruana said that a first draft has been drawn up with the support of the financial services industry, with the latter having come to terms with the need for change. “The work has been carried out by the practitioners themselves, while the government is facilitating the process”, Caruana added. The Minister refuse to indicate the levels of tax rates that were being considered. The target is for the new corporate tax regime to be functional for the basis year 2025 to allow time for training of practitioners and public entities.

Enemalta secures pricing agreement on gas with Enel: Enemalta has secured a locked-in price to purchase a significant volume of natural gas, according to reports. The agreement has been signed with Enel, through which the supply of liquified natural gas to Malta is pegged against that of Brent crude oil. Enel would have to make up for any fluctuations in price, while Enemalta will be able to keep utility bills stable while absorbing any potential price hikes. Energy prices have increased substantially following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and are likely to increase further if the EU proceeds with its threats to move away from Russian gas. The government said that for commercial reasons it would not disclose the price and volume of the gas purchased.

Covid-19 Update: Active cases dropped to 3,752 with 178 new infections while 403 recovered on Friday. No new deaths were reported.

Morning Briefing

Wage supplement to end in May

Government will conclude the wage supplement scheme at the end of May, having spent €720 million on the COVID-19 support scheme.
Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia announced that the scheme will be coming to a close next month. “The amount that government put into this scheme […] was substantial.” 7,000 applications in the first weeks after the scheme was announced. Since then, 120,000 employees benefitted from the wage supplement scheme. (Maltatoday)

Ridley Scott starts shooting Napoleon in Malta
Shooting of Ridley Scott’s historical drama film on Napoleon Bonaparte started on Thursday, with the Étoile du Roy (King’s Star) frigate sailing into Golden Bay. Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix and British actress Vanessa Kirby arrived in Malta for the filming which will run until mid-May. Golden Bay is one of the locations chosen for the Apple Studios production. (Times of Malta)

Unemployment stable in March: The unemployment rate for March 2022 stood at 3%, declining by 0.1% when compared with the previous month and by 0.8% from March 2021. During March 2022, the number of unemployed persons was 8,660, with the unemployed males and the 25 to 74 age group being the major contributors to the overall level of unemployment. The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed youths amounted to 2,743, whereas those aged between 25 and 74 years stood at 5,918.

Covid-19 Update: Active cases dropped to below 4,000 on Thursday with 206 new infections being reported. Two persons passed away taking the death total to 698.